What are the little things you do in order to decorate and make your living space more pleasant? Paintings or stickers on the walls, lots of plants in every corner, stencils or graffiti - list it, I'm curious. Right now I'm growing some plants in Diy pots and I painted some of my walls with floral motifs. It's rather nice but I'm looking for more ideas.
The main thing I do to beautify my space is to clean it. (Okay, that's a joke.) Right now, I am into pillows and blankets. They are simple and easy decor. Also, they add a lot of texture to a room. Target and Walgreens usually have great deals on these types of items.
I am really into paintings and vases right now. I do a lot of canvas painting and I actually did a couple good ones that I am proud of. Same with the vases. I painted a few wine bottles and turned them into vases and have a vase in nearly every room with flowers. Plus I turned some bourbon glasses into candle holders and painted them with silk flowers underneath with tea candles on top for my coffee table center piece. Sadly, I'll have to put it all away since I'm moving in a few weeks. But it just means I get to decorate again! Yay!
I'm actually paring down a lot these days because I am finding that less is more when it comes to a pleasing environment. This is a contrast for me because when I was younger I loved a full space with lots of competing decorative items all around. Now, I am going for more of a pulled together and functional space with calmer colors than I have used in the past. I want my rooms to work for me and so I am rethinking my whole space plan in the living areas especially. I inherited some amazing pale green lace curtains that I'm trying to play off in my living room and dining area. They would not have worked for me in the past, as they are a bit old fashioned, but now I find them exactly right for my current mood. I guess I would describe my home projects these days as "calming down" my space!
To give my space the feeling of home I have added pillows and plants, plan to add some rugs to the floors to warm it up a little and will be painting the walls soon. I do not like a lot of furniture in my rooms so it is a little empty right now, I just moved in. I do hope to have everything done by Thanksgiving., I am in no hurry.
I'm a huge advocate for a more minimalist approach to living. So many of us in western cultures have really become obsessed with this consumerist mentality that we tend to purchase all sorts of things that we don't really need. In other cases, we also hang on to things much longer than we should when it could really be of benefit to someone else. So for me, I'm all about recycling, donating, and selling a majority of the clutter in my place. In the future, when you're at the store eyeballing something you're considering buying, you have to wonder if a couple months or years down the road you'll be giving it away to someone else because you no longer need it. That aside though, love hardwood floors, thick bushy rugs, plants to spruce things up. All of them pop out so well especially in a minimalist setting.
My place is rented so I need to keep it simple and whatever decor needs to be non permanent. What I did was choose pretty curtains, table cloth, entry, kitchen and bathroom mats, shower curtain, bed comforter and all those things. Basically only decorate and personalize what I can take, not the walls, and I only decorate with things that serve some sort of function. Also I like having colorful scented candles, they look pretty and also make the rooms smell nicer.
I clean my space to beautify it and that's not a joke. Just keeping a place clean and organized goes a long way towards making it look nice and doesn't cost anything. I also buy potted plants because they make a place look tropical and colorful in about 5 minutes and they clean the air too. It helps that the previous tenant left the walls painted in colors and I asked my landlord to leave them painted in colors and not paint them white.
I have recently had a two-bedroom extension and redecorated the whole house. I did the children's bedrooms to suit their ages and styles. My teen daughter has textured zebra print wallpaper, my oldest son has rock guitars and my younger sons have painted green walls with dinosaur stickers. The rest of the house is in neutral colors, with splashes of brighter colors in the soft furnishings.
