Decorating a Home to Suit the Home - My Approach to Decorating

I don’t think that I have a particular style or taste when it comes to home interiors. I love a bit of everything. My house is an eclectic mix of old and new, vintage and modern, with a few antiques and industrial elements thrown in...

I’m sure that whenever we decide to move house, my new house will be approached in the same way. I may not always decide to decorate our house to have the exact same feel all the way through all the time.

I just find that buying things that I like, even if they don’t match, will somehow work together in my home.

I think that the most important thing when decorating a home is to understand the character of your home, as well as your own character and style.

"Even new builds can have unique characteristics..."

For instance, Victorian elements can look misplaced in a modern home or new build. That’s not to say that all new builds have no character or anything unique about them. Even new builds can have unique characteristics, despite the fact that they are all built to the same specifications in a particular block. There will always be something that is different and it’s about decorating your home to suit the style of the home.

"... it’s about decorating your home to suit the style of the home."

My home is in the middle of the English countryside in the Surrey Hills. I have always wanted to try and bring elements of the outside in. That’s why there are so many greens and browns and neutrals throughout my whole home. But also a few pops of colour in the pinks and the blues for a bit of added interest. Then I throw in a few accent colours like metallics, goals, industrial black. That’s just because I like these colours as accents.

My goal is to work with what I’ve got to enhance it, not to completely change a house.

Ultimately, my perfect house is not my current house but my current house is perfect for us right now. So there’s no need for me to completely change it. A few well chosen paint colours, feature walls, and furniture that I like should serve us well.

"my perfect house is not my current house but my current house is perfect for us right now. So there’s no need for me to completely change it."

I think that the best way to explain this is my kitchen. I went viral many times over my kitchen on all of the social media platforms. People loved finding out that you could paint tiles and that it’s easy to take kitchen cabinets off to paint them and just put them back. Whilst others relished in telling me how I had ruined my home because they preferred the way it looked before. Now I never said that I didn’t like the way it looked before, it just didn’t flow well in the house. It didn’t suit the overall character of a rural English countryside home. It was very retro, which I think would look great in a New York flat for instance. So I decided to make the kitchen more neutral and look more like a rural English countryside kitchen. So painting the cabinets white and the tiles grey works for this purpose. Apart from anything else I wanted the kitchen to look good enough until one day we decided to replace it. So this was always only a temporary measure.

I hope that helps to explain and to give a bit more of an idea of how to approach decorating your home. It’s not about a complete overhaul, but rather enhancing the phone that you have already in a way that suits your personal style.