How To Make Your House A Home

My husband Joe and I’s first home together was a new build on the Elm Park estate, previously the old Reading Football Club ground. It was a blank box, a magnolia adorned, beige carpeted dream that I filled in one swift trip to the shops with pine furniture and decorated, for reasons unknown, in lime green and lilac. I was an interior magazine free zone, wholly influenced by Homebase promotions and with no independent ideas of my own. We were, however, transient souls and over the next nine years, we moved four times, finally settling in a five bedroom Victorian semi in Berkshire. It was the house I’d always wanted. Huge hall, high ceilings, big rooms and, with a mortgage so big that our payments left us with about 35p a month free income and beans on toast for the foreseeable future; in fact, a veritable money pit.

I started buying interior magazines, scouring them for ideas and projects and ways in which I could stamp my own mark on this space that I loved. I discovered eBay, became obsessed with upcycling all the Elm Park pine and obtained real pleasure out of juxtaposing old and new to create a look that was as budget friendly as it was individual. In 2013, Joe was offered a job in York which enabled us to buy our dream Georgian home, the North South divide working in our favour. Social media exploded on to the scene, I started posting my room revamps on Instagram, launched a blog based upon styling your home on a budget and now I work full time as an interiors writer and content creator.

One of the questions that I am asked most on my blog is, how do I style my home when I don’t know where to start? It’s a conundrum that affects many, whether you are a first time homeowner, a renter or have been buying and furnishing houses for years. Finding and growing your personal style sometimes isn’t quite as easy as it would seem. It took me until I was 37 years old to have real confidence in my own ideas and for those ideas to grow into my core home aesthetic. Even now, I’m often veered off track by the influx of the shiny new trends that I see on the High Street and on my social platforms - it’s like being tempted in a sweet shop. It’s taken me a while to learn that when I launch myself at the Pick N Mix, I should stop filling the bag before I actually feel sick. Trends, schmends. Sometimes it’s hard to see the wood from the trees when your style is evolving. Or the fizzy cola bottles from the fudge squares.

We are constantly bombarded with a wealth of ideas and trends and the strong inclination to make our spaces our own. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a trend. Instagram is a nightmare for new ideas which is both its highlight and its lowlight (dwindling bank balances unite). But after several disastrous trend led episodes - the dark grey room that no one would sit in; the pink walled living room that looked like candy floss - I now know that I need to carefully consider any new additions to our family home. So what to do? How can you create a home that works for you without being a slave to fashion whilst still curating your own personal style, not blowing the budget and thinking sustainably? Here are my top five tips.

REFINE YOUR CORE STYLE

So what style is your style? The best way to work this out is to pin. Years ago, I’d collate pages of magazines that I loved to build an idea of how I wanted a room to look. The advent of Pinterest means that it’s even easier to work out which route you want to take when it comes to your decor. Set up a Pinterest board for each room and pin whenever you find something that catches your eye. Pin indiscriminately, wildly, randomly; pin with abandon. You’ll soon find that you are pinning the same pictures and the same styles. It’s a great way to focus your mind on what you truly love rather than adding something to a room because you think that you should. I find myself repinning photographs that I originally pinned five years ago because they STILL appeal to me. For me, that’s a definitive confirmation of my core style. When you think you’ve nailed it, transfer your favourite pins to a mood board (use Powerpoint or Canva) and you’ll have a great starting point for your design. As you start to pull the room together, you can add and take away from these ideas as you see in reality how it comes together.

MAKE IT HAPPY

The first thing to remember when planning your space is this: have nothing in your home that doesn’t make you happy. Seriously, nothing. If it doesn’t make you happy, then ditch it. eBay it, Freecycle it, donate it, give it away to a friend. Once you’ve done this, you’re ready to start. Clear your room and add your treasured items, one by one. Add the piece that makes you the happiest first – this could be a print, a bookcase, a sofa, a favourite vase. Whether you’re passionate about mid century art, have a love of kitsch pottery or are simply an avid collector of magazines, that’s the starting point.

Begin by placing it perfectly and then add other items that you love around it. If you have a blank spot in the corner, don’t rush to fill it. Stick a plant in there until you can find something that you really love and that is the perfect fit - there’s nothing wrong with living with empty space. I’m a shocker for this. I once refused to buy a toaster until I could afford a Dualit and made my kids risk burnt fingers on the grill every day for years. It may sound cheesy, but your room should light up with your smile when you enter - if it’s filled with things you love, it won’t fail to make you happy. Fact.

CONSIDER PURCHASES & MULTI TASK

Changes in the economy and the advent of Brexit mean that we aren’t so keen to splash our cash on going out; staying in and socialising is the new black. We’re cleverer with what we are buying for our homes. Much cleverer. Gone are the days when we’d launch ourselves at a room set and buy every piece (*read pine warehouse). Look at what you already have and utilise it - try the side table in a different room, use it in a different way, take it out of its comfort zone and see how it looks in a new environment. Multi task what you’ve got - use a dining table as a desk; a bench as a coffee table; a chair as a bedside table. Don’t hesitate to move everything about and try all options.

Never mind fast fashion; fast furniture is equally unsustainable and when we buy, we want to buy for good or, indeed, buy something with a recycled past. Scour the charity shops and eBay for solid, good quality furniture that can be repurposed or upcycled. Paint it, change the knobs, recover it in a cool vintage fabric. There’s nothing more satisfying in repurposing something that you think has lost its edge or that someone else has no use for.

AVOID THE TREND TRAP

One of the reasons that Instagram has been such a successful interiors platform is that it’s choc a block full of new ideas. In the four years that I’ve been posting on social media, I’ve seen a fair few trends come and go. Some trends are timeless, some hang around a while and some are here for less time than it takes to boil a kettle. Due to the transience of Instagram, anything that is new, individual and exciting is filling your feed before you can say ‘flamingo’. Unfortunately, once it’s all over your feed, it’s all over. No longer new, no longer individual, no longer exciting. Godammit.

So how can you make sure that you don’t fall into the trend trap? Trends make the interior world go round but take them lightly. Add a touch of a trend - a cushion, a print, an accessory - but keep the bones of your room neutral. This means that you can take advantage of new colours and new ideas when they happen without having to totally redecorate your space. Flooring, tiles, kitchens, bathrooms, hardware - the expensive stuff - should be able to move with the times. Think about and not just what appeals to you at that moment when considering those main purchases.

Finally, don’t be scared to mix things up. There is nothing better from either an aesthetic or sustainable point of view than juxtaposing the old and the new. Put a vintage print from a charity shop above a contemporary bookcase; contrast a mid-century modern sideboard with modern urban art. I have my Grandmothers blanket box in my bedroom alongside a modern upholstered bed with a mixed gallery wall above. The contrast is what makes it interesting. Dig out the old photographs, enlarge them and frame them, create a focal point of memories. Our homes should reflect our personalities and our history. Don’t hide away the inherited or vintage crockery - use it, alongside more modern pieces, to add interest to a table setting. Every piece in your home should be there because it means something, whether it’s old or whether it’s new. And the contrast of these much loved pieces will be what gives your home the warmth and personality that you’re looking to portray.

Your home truly has the power to make you happy and to become a reflection of you and your own personal style - it’s an ever evolving process but that’s what makes it so exciting. It’s totally normal to make mistakes - I can tell you for a fact that I’ve made plenty (it took me fifteen years to warrant selling off the pine furniture, not to mention four full coats of white to get rid of the dark grey walls) - but trial and error will get you to a place where your space feels like your own.

I feel like I’ve come a long way since the lime green and lilac walls of our first new build and now have a home which works well for our family, reflecting our personalities and memories whilst being a damn good place to spend time together and with friends over a meal and a glass of wine. Or two. Or maybe even three. Have confidence in yourself, have fun and most of all, ENJOY making your home your own.