American society values individualism, and we have a strong sense of self that permeates everything. We share these traits with countries like Australia, Germany, and South Africa. There are certainly downsides to this, but there are also lots of advantages to living in a culture that promotes independence, and this extends to your style.
You can better express your sense of style in everything from the clothes you wear to the mug you drink your coffee from. Style is also important when you’re picking out home decor for a new living space, so read on to find out how to create your home decor style.
Think About What Makes You Unique
We hear the word “unique” so often that it can start to lose all meaning if we’re not careful. It’s an easy word to ignore and not think about. But if you can step back, it’s worth thinking about what interests you have that are uncommon. Do you like frogs? If so, then you can place photos of tree frogs all over the house. If you’re an experienced knitter, you can hand-knit something for every room in your new apartment.
Or maybe you’re in a creative field like photography. In that case, you have even more options. Even non-professional photographers probably have a few photos on their smartphones that they love. It could be the moment your boyfriend proposed or maybe the day you and your friends set a new record at the local escape room. If it matters to you, then you should do more with the photo than store it on your phone. Order canvas prints of your happiest or funniest memories and hang them around your house.
Waking up in the morning and going to work is hard. But it’s easier if you wake up and see a photo of you and your friends on the wall as soon as you open your eyes. Meaningful images can boost your mental health and make it easier to get through the day.
Avoid Common Mistakes
We’ve all seen sitcoms where a character is painting their house and paints themselves in a corner. It’s easy to laugh at a fictional character caught in that situation and think, “I’d never do that.” Maybe not, but you can still make plenty of home decor mistakes that don’t involve calling for help because of poor paint planning.
In 2014, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an article about common decorating mistakes, and one significant error involved paint. Too many people tend to fixate on a particular shade of paint before they do things like buy furniture. That may not sound so bad, but it’s much easier to find paint that matches your furniture than vice versa. Going to the paint store and customizing a color isn’t as hard as finding a couch that matches that particular shade of pink in your living room.
Jarring tonal shifts can also cause a problem. If your kitchen is decorated in soft pastels and your living room is painted black, that’s going to be weird. You may like it, but you probably won’t like explaining it to guests every time someone new comes over to your house. You don’t have to decorate your home with all the thematic precision of Martha Stewart, but it shouldn’t look haphazard, either. Aim for something more stylish and put-together than your college dorm room.