Decorating Guides

Give Your House a History

Great interior design doesn’t have anything to do with the sum of money you spend. It has to do with how well your home tells your story. Successful design inspires curiosity and makes your family members and guests feel nurtured. It makes them desire to state “Because I’ve been here, I feel I understand you in a completely new way”

One method to accomplish this is to use things in the family history — furniture, textiles, artwork, even everyday objects — on your interior design. Do not only think a hundred years ago (though it’s wonderful if you have such things). Think 10 years ago or maybe yesterday. If you don’t have some family heirlooms, start now and create some “instant” history!

Corynne Pless

These fantastic paintings hark back into the custom of family portraits, but with a new and twist twist. You can not help but smile when you see them.

Kerrie L. Kelly

My husband, Mike, and I have seven grandchildren, who are without a doubt the most beautiful and talented children on the planet. Their favorite thing in our last home (alongside their grandfather’s cooking) was the wall at which we measured their expansion. Whenever they came over they wanted to see how much they’d grown.

The measuring graph in this entrance is a very simple but priceless method to delight the children in your residence, even when they have grown and gone. Give it more of a family by building it yourself.

Design Manifest

Pets are a slam dunk when it comes to your home’s telling your story. This painting of the family dog immediately brings the eye, revealing this pet’s significance to the family whilst balancing the busyness of their bookcase. You are able to turn a photo of your favorite pet into an oil painting, a pen sketch or a watercolor in Milltownart.

Soledad Alzaga Interior Design

An old steamer trunk struts its stuff at the middle of this otherwise modern living room, bringing interest and feel and nodding to family history. It may have been bought yesterday in a yard sale, but now it is part of this family’s story (particularly if there’s an intriguing tale behind its purchase).

Look around for old family objects you could repurpose. How about earning a side table from a heap of well-traveled leather suitcases? Or turning Dad’s old wooden toolbox into a wine caddy?

Beach Vintage

Do not these swimsuits cause you to want to dig out a number of your mother’s old clothes? I particularly love how they go from smaller to bigger — a knowing nod to the unfortunate effects of gravity.

If your mother’s attic is empty, try secondhand shops. They are a terrific resource for instant history, and they’re probably where your mother’s stuff went anyhow. Consider replicating this notion with family sports jerseys, army uniforms or even shoes.

Mustard Seed Interiors

I was astonished to discover a few days ago that my daughter-in-law did not even understand what a typewriter was. Old technology — like typewriters, rotary telephones and cameras using film — provides a compelling connection to our recent past, while offering a great way to share family history.

Kelley & Company Home

Lamps are among the basic necessities of any interior. But they are sometimes much more than that if they’re fashioned from something unexpected or repurposed. Family keepsakes, like the pair of buckets on this table, have instant appeal — particularly when the lampshades are created from old linens.

Soorikian Architecture

Using children’s art in your home is not simply affirming for the child, but it makes a history for them as well as for you. And of course that kids’ art is frequently so exuberant, so vibrant, so much pleasure that it is an instant hit in any area.

Make it even more special by having your kids’ pictures made into wallpaper (figure out how here). No worries: This wallpaper is easily removable, so you will not ever need to leave it behind.

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

What if you don’t have kids? Look at breaking out a canvas and some acrylics (these are easily available at the neighborhood craft store) and creating artwork yourself.

For a budget-sensitive birthday last year, Mike painted this film for me personally. He took the subject from this amazing gospel hymn “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” Every time this catches my attention, I break into song.

Kelley & Company Home

Do not forget that items you pick up in your travels, near or far, can add lovely dimension to your home. We were in Samoa a few years ago with all our grandchildren, who were younger than 5 in the moment. Every morning, before it got too hot to breathe, then the children would toddle along beside me in the water’s edge, collecting shells that had washed up in the reef the night before.

These shells currently serve numerous purposes in my home: They are soap dishes, salt cellars, mantel decor, pots for succulents and towel holders. And each one is a natural, tactile memory — a personal story to share and a firm connection to my family.

That I love how the cubes in this film are displayed en masse. Their feel adds great variety to the tablescape. A candle could even be inserted into each hurricane for extra interest.

Whitten Architects

While we are talking organic … rocks, like cubes are a textural and tactile marvel. I heard of a family who gathered rocks in their holidays and wrote the date and location where they were found in permanent marker on them. They then integrated the rocks into the chimney of their house as it was being built.

Rocks can also be made into stunning lamps — but more about this in another story.

Decked Out Spaces

How cool is that? Simple handprints in simple frames. Quotation the Walls turns whatever you wish to express into vinyl decals.

If you happen to be building, remodeling or pouring a new sidewalk, make a household history by maintaining family handprints from the wet concrete. This is sometimes equally great for paw prints.

More: How to Provide a backyard spirit

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