How to Personalize Your Home

When it comes to personalizing your space, it might be tempting to try and follow the latest trends, but there’s a lot more to this process than simply taking your favorite looks from social media and copy-pasting them into your own home.

Doing so can produce some aesthetically-pleasing results, yet may find that it also feels somewhat uninspiring. The missing ingredient is personal style, which relates not only to your design choices, but also how you use them as a form of self-expression..

What Is a Personalized Home?

Personalization might involve a preference for a certain color scheme, a carefully-curated collection of memorabilia, or even a few homespun items that resonate. (Catstudio offers some great examples of this, including state-themed embroidered cushions).

To paraphrase a popular quote, a house isn’t necessarily a home, but the people who live in it. Personalization is about customizing your space in a way that reflects not only your aesthetic preferences, but you as a person. 

Define Your “Why”

It may sound like an unusual starting point, but defining your personal values is key to creating a home that feels authentically “you”. Do you favor balance, serenity and simplicity? Or perhaps you want to create a warm, welcoming family-oriented feel? 

This also involves looking at functional elements: what you intend to use each room for, and how to create a layout that works in harmony with its intended purpose. Some rooms (kitchens and living rooms in particular) may even have multiple uses.

Get Inspired

A key word that will likely crop up throughout this whole process is intention. In terms of inspiration, this means going back to the drawing board. Rather than randomly pinning ideas you like the look of, be purposeful. 

Take note of design inspiration from multiple sources: interior decor styles, movies, books, music and fashion. Delete anything that you feel ambivalent about and curate a collection of images that spark a sense of creative joy.

Create the Perfect Blend

You may be surprised to discover how well different design choices can work together. Opting to use a singular decor style makes sense in theory, but the overall results can appear somewhat flat. The key is to be intentional and create contrast with some consistency throughout. 

Contrast can include color, texture, or proportion, while consistency might involve the use of a common pattern, shape or motif. Alternatively, neutral transitional pieces can be used as a kind of backdrop to help ground the overall look of the room.

From Clutter to Curation

Contrast and consistency can also be used to create collections of items related to your personal interests such as souvenirs, movie posters, sports memorabilia or even lush foliage signifying a love of nature. 

The aim here is to be intentional and curate, rather than clutter. One way to do this is to use shelf-staging to present objects in a visually appealing way, or you could have a gallery of your favorite artwork displayed in an eclectic selection of frames. 

Take Your Time

Developing your personal style is a process that evolves gradually over time, so try not to rush things. Instead of trying to reach an imaginary destination where your home looks picture-perfect, personalization can help you to feel more at home right where you are.