A Charmingly Crowded Home

Some people like empty-looking, minimalistic home décor. And why not? Such homes are certainly easier to clean, organize plus they can look beautifully refreshing.

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On the other hand, homes full of furniture and decorations charmingly filling almost every corner of each room can give their owners a feeling of warmth and safety.

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There are yay’s and nay’s for both types of approaches to home decoration. Whichever style you choose, you’ll be equally at risk of making wrong decisions and ending up with a not such a pleasant place to hang out.

Charmingly crowded homes: Problem No 1

As mentioned earlier, cleaning can be a great problem in a home with many dust-catching objects. Remember the word “cleaning” when you unleash yourself on yard sale objects. All those shelves, lamps, chairs, tables, unidentified objects formerly known as sofas, etc. will not magically stay shiny and clean all by themselves. Think about how many chairs you actually need in a home and don’t overdo it.

Obsession with certain objects can potentially work sometimes, but not often

If you have an idol or a hobby you love, like Spiderman (if you’re five years old) or boats (if you are an ex-captain), you might get away with crowding your room with objects connected to your fascination. There could be some charm to something like this:

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Though filled with boats and drawings of boats, this room emanates devotion and true joy at spending quality time with dear objects and ideas. But try pulling that trick with flowers or hearts (if you’re a fan of romance) and you might end up with a very dull and/or annoying room.

Colours aren’t always our friends:

Another way to go wrong when trying to create a warm, cosy place is to become too enthusiastic about mixing wall paint colours in a way that hurts the eyes. Though colour blocking is very IN these days, even this type of colour-matching adventure has rules that you should follow. So, definitely nay to extremely bold wall paint colours.

Choose every piece of your home lovingly

The key to a safe, happy place that feels like a bear hug is to choose and place objects in your home with care and attention.

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Don’t shy away from “crowding” your home with plants, photos, DIY vintage photo frames, candles, books, oriental rugs, flowers, paintings and even five lamps in one room (if that makes you happy), but do it with style, some common sense and an instinct for the aesthetic. Most importantly, do it with love. Without the love ingredient, you might struggle to create the effect you are hoping for.