4 Tips for Finding a New Vision for Your Home

4 Tips for Finding a New Vision for Your Home

Decorative ‘itchy feet’ is a real thing. However nice the home is, there comes a time for many, many people when it starts to fall a little flat. Whether it starts to look very much ‘of its time’, or just starts to feel a little too lived-in and uninspiring, it’s no bad thing to start to want something a little different. The grass isn’t always greener but, if your décor feels like it’s attached to another part of life, it can certainly seem that way.

The good news? Experience has taught us that realising a new vision for the home doesn’t necessarily demand any major overhauls. You don’t need to move away, bring in the contractors, or restructure the entire place just to achieve that sense of starting anew. Often, it’s a case of investing wisely – of getting yourself out of the cycle of following short-lived trends and investing in pieces that aren’t designed to withstand the test of time.

So, with that in mind, here are five of our time-tested tips for realising a new vision in your home.

1. Start with what you love

Redecorating or renovating the house does not mean throwing everything away and starting again. Just because certain pieces of furniture or décor feel like they’re lacking that ‘draw’ right now, doesn’t mean that, with fresh styling, they can’t look beautiful again. Making changes to your lighting, wallpaper and even your curtains can be enough to transform a room – and everything in it – so identifying what you love now is a lot better than regretting it later.

2. Reupholster, don’t replace

If you had to ask us which elements have the most significant impact on a room, then textile would be right up there at the top of our list. It’s incredible what a few new, statement prints can do to a space – and quite how many options you have at your disposal for using them.

Furniture – or good, strong, hardwearing furniture, at least – is a costly investment, but reupholstering older pieces that have proved their capacity to withstand the test of time and use. Choosing a durable and beautiful textile like linen or cotton is ideal, since you won’t have to worry about your pieces looking worse for wear after a couple of years.

You can take a look at our guide to choosing upholstery fabric, but you might want to wait until you…

3. Choose a fresh colour palette

We already know what you’re thinking: ‘How can I introduce an entirely new colour palette into my home withoutstarting fresh?’

A colour palette doesn’t have to consume the room. We often say three or four colours is enough to create a really strong, arresting colour scheme but, unless you’re into that very rigid style of interior design, you won’t want everything you own – everything you decorate the walls, floor, and windows with – to be one of those four colours.

You can introduce a new colour palette with the additions, rather than removing everything. Contrasting colours and prints add depth and dimension to a room and, provided the elements that really anchor the décor – say, a pair of curtains around a large, feature window, or the main furniture, or a feature wall – display your colour palette, it will show through and do that work for you.

4. Invest in beauty and quality, rather than styles and trends

Trends are so called because they don’t last. Eventually, they are replaced by new trends, and the cycle continues until, eventually, they get their time in the sun again. This cycle is moving faster and faster these days, and people feel pressurised to invest in a particular aesthetic and then drop it again in a few months (if that) in favour of the next big thing. Unless we ditch that old trend, the Christmas decorations in the attic will see boxes and boxes of ‘Minimalist décor’, ‘Coastal décor’, ‘Bohemian décor’ and ‘Farmhouse décor’ building up alongside them, waiting for their next stint in the sun.

The cycle can go faster because cheap furniture ages quickly, which means homes start to look rough around the edges just in time for the next change.

At Penny Morrison, we are firm believers that investing in beauty, durability, quality and care means not needing to feel down about your home’s atmosphere after a few months, years, or even decades. Pieces made with skill rather than haste are above the trends, and endure for so much longer. Classic styles and beautiful craftsmanship never go out of style.