Sometimes, especially when you’ve just moved into a place, your home can just feel like a building, a shell of sorts, where people live. Usually the right kinds of furniture and decoration can be enough to make it feel your own, but sometimes you’ll feel like you need more, particularly if you have moved into an already furnished home or flat, which is popular with rentals. There are many ways you can give your home that personal touch, and most a relatively inexpensive.

Pictures

The easiest way to personalise any kind of home is with pictures. They can be of you and your family, or photos you have taken in the past. They don’t even have to be of you and your family, if you find some nice pictures or canvas prints then it can still personalise your home. If you can’t change the walls because you’re living in a rental then this is the right route to take. Hanging pictures can pretty much take attention from a kind of decoration that is not yours. You should try and use different types of framing too. A collection of frames built and hung by local picture hangers will have a far better impact than just the one odd photo here and there.

Use Your Holiday Trinkets

Most people collect things when they are on holiday. Use these to give your home a unique look and feel. Perhaps they are ornaments from Africa, or papyrus pictures from Egypt. You can frame them or find nice areas to stand your ornaments up. You can really make your home unique by dressing it with these products, just don’t overdo it. Less is more. Perhaps you can dedicate them to one single room like a study, or use a pair of frames products or pictures in a bathroom.

Get Arty

If you own the home and have full license to change the decoration then you can mix it up. Don’t go with the crowd. Have separate wallpaper on each side of the room, or half paint half wallpaper. Think outside the box. If you are particularly talented you can paint your own patterns onto the walls, really giving it a look you would not find anywhere else. If you draw you can frame your own works of art instead of store bought ones. You’ll soon have people asking you for drawings of their own. If you don’t have the raw skill then you can use stencils to create patterns of your own designs on banisters and other wooden surfaces.

Get The Children Involved

Lots of people throw away children’s pictures straight away, not liking the ‘mess’ or ‘clutter’ they create. Whilst we can’t keep them all, I try to photograph everything for a record of their progress and pick the best ones to put up. If something particularly catches your eye, you should frame it. You will be super popular and the children will be motivated towards further success,  but it will also personalise your home. You can even supplement their work with your own to make it a significantly unique work of art by two members of the family.  

How do you add that personal touch?