Making your house into a fantastic home

The answer lies in finding your own personal style.

Have you ever walked into someone else’s house and recognized the owner of the house in the rooms immediately? Feeling at home in your own house means that it needs to reflect your personal style, regardless of what décor trends may be at the time.

You too can furnish your house in a way that reflects your own personal style. To do this, all you need is to know what you like and what your personal style is. Keeping your personal likes and dislikes in mind then makes it easy to choose the right furniture and accessories to make your home truly reflect who you are.

The difficulty lies in knowing what your personal style is. To assist you in finding your own personal style, we have a few tips for you.

What do you like about other people’s homes, in home décor shops and magazines? Modern and minimalist or cozy and cluttered? Or both? If your décor tastes seem in conflict with each other, don’t become disheartened; rather cherish this as your unique taste and part of what makes you who you are. Then find a way to incorporate these oppositions into your home décor.

What do you already have? Often what we already have reflects our tastes very well, and it is less expensive to work with what you already own than to completely redo an entire room. Maybe you could breathe new life into a room by moving furniture around, or simply adding a splash of colour with a well-placed throw or a few cushions.

Then, for the fun part: What can you do yourself? Why not make your home the place where you can give your creativity free reign – after all, it is you who has to live in it, not other people. Here are a few ideas to inspire you:

• Buy blocked artist’s canvas from an art shop or hardware store, and experiment with painting. You don’t need to be an artist to do this – just choose the colours you want and play! Who knows, you might just discover a hidden talent!
• Have your favourite photographs printed on canvas and blocked. This is cheaper than buying a painting, and will have sentimental value for YOU.
• Don’t be scared to display found objects that have meaning to you – stones, shells, driftwood, etc. can all be used to create focus points in your home.
• If you have a creative hobby, find ways of displaying your work in your home. Mosaics, needlework, woodwork, etc. all can be put to great use in your home, and having things that you have made yourself surround you, will make your house truly feel like a home.