Make yourself at home: a quick primer

Elyse Glickman January 23, 2021

If decluttering, rethinking and reorganizing one’s space were 2020’s biggest “home” trends, a focus on further personalizing that improved space will logically follow suit this year. However, we’re not talking about highly mannered “boho chic” eclecticism. Instead, the emphasis will be on comfort and carefully curated items that reflect who you are from the inside out.
A good place to start is with the knowledge that you will probably spend a good chunk of this year sheltering in place. The next step will be to make your home transcend from a roof over your head to a spot that’s truly your home. As everybody has a different idea of what that should look like, most design rules from the past few years will go out the proverbial window. Flowing in, like a breath of fresh air, is the opportunity to think of your home as a blank canvas to create your own window into your soul. Here are some suggestions to get your creative juices flowing.

Pride of place
With the sudden onset of quarantine, 2020 was about running for shelter. However, now that the dust is settling, designers are projecting personal design will reflect the place where the home is located, or be more “place-based than ever”. Even if you include some hand-picked items reflecting your favourite places to travel, you can also use décor as an expression to reflect why you enjoy living where you do. At Bed, Bath and Beyond, you can achieve this either with carefully curated accent pieces and wall art or with a foundation of one eye-catching accent such as a throw rug or curtains.

Don’t make a fuss
As home entertaining on a large scale (think themed dinner parties) are on hiatus for now, don’t concern yourself with overly thought-out seating areas and dining rooms, even if Instagram- and Pintrest-ready set-ups are popping up in your feed. Smaller gatherings and Zoom calls present an opportunity to create spaces that are unapologetically you. Upscale Chicago-based retailer Jayson Home provides inspirational examples of how one can pull together an all-purpose space that puts living back into the living room with well chosen investment pieces.

C’mon, get cozy
By the same token, if you have a large, lofty space, use pretty screens, art and furnishings to break it down into smaller, more expressive areas. Screen dividers made from natural materials, like this Scarlett screen from Anthropologie, achieve that feel of coziness while bringing the outdoors inside.

Inside job
Exposed, open storage is out even if you are fully decluttered. Instead, invest in a few stand-out storage pieces to tastefully stow away things that are useful but don’t add to a room’s look. A fine example of this are these Lombock bathroom storage cabinets, available at Anthropologie that are, frankly, too pretty to be hidden away in a bathroom.

Shades of you
Black-and-white should be thought of as a starting-point rather than a finished product. Use colour to heighten your mood and draw people in once it’s safe to invite them in again. While royal gold and blue pillows by Pillow Pops can enlighten any room in the house, you can add pops of colour through conversation pieces like those offered on Amara.com which stock eye-catching pieces from noted designers like Jonathan Adler, Orla Kiely and Ted Baker.