Your Home is Your Canvas and You Are the Artist 🖌
Your home is your canvas and you are the artist.
Let your home be your masterpiece — it’s your personalised living space where you eat, sleep, make memories, spend most of your time and a place where you can disconnect with the outside world. Be bold and experiment with materials, colours, objects, designs & furniture, and show the world who you really are. You can tell a lot about a person through their home, so it’s important to be yourself. It may not be to everyone’s taste but who cares? Do you think Picasso cared about what people thought about his paintings? No, he simply expressed himself and painted what he believed to be beautiful and this is the ethos you should have when decorating your home.
Don’t be a 🐑, be a 🦄 instead.
Just because something is in fashion right now, doesn’t mean you have to have it in your home. If you love the colour yellow, but coral is the colour of the year, it doesn’t mean you have to re decorate. If you love brown furniture, but teak has come into fashion, it doesn’t mean you have to change the pieces you have. The reason you have them in your home is because these are the things you love and these things show people who you are, not what you are trying to be.
Add those boards to your masterpiece!
How many of you have a Pinterest board which has photos of all the homes you aspire to have? What is stopping you from turning these aspirations into actuality? If it’s lack of confidence, then my best piece of advice would be to just go for it! Try out that deep blue paint, the quirky pendant light or the brightly patterned rug. If an object, pattern, colour or style makes you happy, then why shouldn’t it be proudly displayed in your home? Surely loving the space you live in is more important then being up to date with the latest trend (which let’s face it, will probably change a few weeks later)!
Furniture is the beating heart of your home
Furniture is the focal point of most rooms, so why not have something with a bit of individuality? You could visit 10 houses on the same road, and I guarantee that at least a couple of them will have similar, if not the same, pieces of white laminate furniture (depending which street you visit obviously) . This is why I love vintage, antique and up cycled furniture — the chances of someone else having the same piece is pretty slim! So when you’re looking for your next sofa, or your next dining table, instead of visiting IKEA, why not try finding something a bit different and exciting? I can guarantee you will get more compliments, it will last you a lifetime plus you won’t have to spend all Saturday trying to put the damn thing together and if you buy the right piece, it could be seen as a great investment!
Your home is your treasure chest
Your home is where you store both your personal and valuable belongings, but why hide them away? These are the pieces which tell your story, and your story is what makes you and your home unique. A great way to design a room is to pick out your most prized possessions; it can be anything you want — a piece of furniture, a family photo or even your favourite vase and make these items the focal point of your home — if your family holiday was in Morocco, then why not create a Moroccon inspired interior? Be playful, creative and never be scared to show everyone your story.
Who needs a coffee canister?
Everything is or was built for a reason — a blanket chest was made for tidying away blankets, a decanter was made for wine, a trinket box was created for keeping trinkets and an apothecary jar was initially designed for storing pharmaceuticals but does this mean they still have to be used for this purpose? Absolutely not! Have a bit of fun with your vintage nick knacks, use the apothecary jars for coffee, tea and sugar canisters (obviously make sure its thoroughly washed before hand!), use the vintage crate to store your spools, use the decanter to store your bath salts or use the glass sweet jar to store your bars of soap! As always, be creative and playful, people will love your quirky and inexpensive ideas!
At the end of the day..
Your home is your masterpiece, so get creative! If you love something then display it, if you want to have bright orange walls then get the paintbrush out and certainly don’t be a sheep, embrace your inner unicorn instead!
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My name is James Broad, antique & curio enthusiast turned entrepreneur. I buy, restore & sell beautiful things for homes & commercial interiors. For more information, check out my About Me page; for products, have a look at my Inventory & for anything else, well, just click on the big CONTACT button.