How To Make Your Home Uniquely Yours

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Despite the current decor trends, your home should be a reflection of you! Use these tips to create a home that is styled uniquely and specifically for you and your family.

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Decorating our homes is not only fun, but can be rewarding and satisfying too! What’s even better is when your home is a true reflection of your and your family – not whatever the latest and greatest design trend says that it should be.

TAKE YOUR TIME!

Number 1, at the top of my list, is to take your time! If you want an instantly decorated room or home, then head to your favorite decor stores, where you’ll find whatever the current latest and greatest happens to be.

But if you want to create a home that is uniquely yours and is a reflection of your personality, it takes time. It’s so worth the wait until you’re sure of what you want in a room and then be patient until you find it!

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SWITCH OUT STANDARD LIGHT FIXTURES

Our home was filled with ordinary light fixtures when we purchased it, but I have slowly been changing them to something more “me” as I’ve worked my way through redecorating each and every room.

In some cases, I was able to repurpose a fixture that had already been hanging in the house, such as the chandelier that came out of the dining room and is now hanging in my guest room sporting its totally new look.

vintage chandelier makeover tutorialPin

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In our hallway, I went against the grain of having standard, plain flush mount ceiling lights and used pendants instead. Now everyone who comes to our home comments on how much they love them and how unexpected they are.

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ADD A FEATURE WALL

Using inexpensive lumber from the big box store is an easy way to add instant personality to a room. So far, I’ve added feature walls to five rooms in my house. The foyer was the first, followed by the dining room, the office, the hallway and most recently the guest bedroom.

In the foyer, I used super affordable 1×4’s to create a board and batten wall right on top of the sheetrock. After caulking and painting everything white, it not only adds interest, but brightens the whole space up.

white board and batten wall with bench and accessoriesPin

The dining room is a space that was sorely lacking personality. The room has one large blank wall that I didn’t just want to fill with furniture and a mirror, so I opted to add texture and interest to the space with vertical planking. To make the project as easy and as inexpensive as possible, I used paneling instead of individual boards.

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CHOOSE COLORS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY

I should also add to choose colors that are easy to live with as well as colors that make you happy!

The majority of the walls in our former home were painted a soft goldish color. The color was beautiful, but as my taste evolved, having that very specific color made it difficult to work with.

I resolved to take care of that “problem” when we moved into this house by painting the entire interior with one neutral color (Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige) and it has been life changing for my decorating life. No matter what kind of changes I want to make to the decor, I don’t have to worry about wall color.

Now, not everyone wants the same color throughout their home and that is perfectly fine! Not everyone wants neutral walls either and that is also perfectly fine. YOU DO YOU!

family room decorated with neutral decorPin

CREATE SPACE FOR THE WAY YOU LIVE

Our house originally had a living room right off of the foyer. That’s the logical place for a living room – right? But, we didn’t need a living room because the house also has a large family room. What we did need though, is a home office.

So even though it might be a bit unconventional to have a home office as one of the first rooms that you see when you enter a house, that’s what works for us.

Since it’s the first room you see when you enter our house, I made sure to make it as pretty as I could, yet still function the way that we needed it to. It’s currently undergoing a makeover and doesn’t even look like this anymore!

home office with updated traditional stylePin

What unique touches do you like to add to your home?

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10 Comments

  1. I’m hoping that you keep your beautiful desk in your office update. It’s one of the things I like the best in your decor!

    1. You can rest easy – that’s one thing in the room that I don’t plan to change! 🙂

  2. Thank you for your accessible, practical& thoughtful advice in this post & many others. My family is in the process of transforming a 70s brick ranch into a coastal cottage, and I’ve actually enjoyed the challenge & been able to relax in my decisions based on your continued assurances that it takes time. I definitely want to avoid a cookie cutter look! Thank you— you’re not only a talented designer, but also a talented communicator.

    1. Hi Teresa. Thank you for saying that. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the process and kudos to you for relaxing and feeling confident with your own decisions!

  3. I have followed your blog for a few years. Haven’t connected for a while. Looking forward to see what you have instore for your updated office.
    Are you still enjoying your beach condo?
    I have always enjoyed your practical advice
    regarding decorating our homes and not
    following the latest Trends.

    1. Thank you for checking in! We actually sold our beach condo about 18 months ago. I was sad to see it go in many ways, but it was the right thing for us to do for numerous reasons.

  4. Hi Suzy,
    I love the look of your house. We’ve just had some damage from Hurricane Ida and I’m having to replace my floors. What color is the floor in the room with the desk? I’m thinking of painting the walls Accessible Beige and liked how the floors looked with that paint color. Thanks so much!

    1. Oh goodness – I’m so sorry you had damage from the hurricane. Hope you all are okay though. Our hardwoods throughout the house are Minwax Special Walnut.

  5. Candice Landoll says:

    I love your flooring! Do you know what kind it is and the color? I’m driving myself insane trying to pick one!

    Thank you,
    Candice

    1. Hi Candice. Our flooring is white oak hardwood stained with Minwax Special Walnut.