How to make your home look like Pinterest goals!

You’ve spent hours and hours ‘pinning’ everything to create your desired moodboard, and now your browser is filled with ads for ‘gold bookends’ thanks to the cookie crumbs you left around. It’s time to realize the home of your dreams! Your home is an oasis you hope to seek solace in, and decorating it may seem like a daunting task. We’ve gathered these tips to make it just a tad bit easier for you!

Image: Visual by HGTV.com
Link to: https://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/design-101/painting-dos-and-donts

1. Swatch your paint on the walls itself

Try before you buy! Ask for some samples of your desired colors and create some swatches on the walls itself to cop a feel of how your walls will look like in different lighting. Experts recommend directly painting on the walls as painting on another surface – say paper – would render a different effect, given that the texture and material reflected on will be different and will not saturate the same way.

2. Wallpaper isn’t just for the walls!

The sky’s the limit! Don’t restrain your wallpaper to just the walls – it’s all in the details. Upcycle and add character to other furniture pieces like shelves and cupboards, or even on the ceiling for an expensive touch of luxury. It is also a sustainable way to use up the remaining bits and pieces instead of throwing them into the trash (global warming – need I say more?)

3. Choose neutral sofa upholstery

Being the focal point of the room, it’s imperative that the sofa doesn’t overpower the other bits and pieces in the room, and will survive the waves of style fads that come and go. (2013 ombre tapestries and Tumblr ‘Live. Love. Laugh.’ posters, anyone?) Choose a foolproof color in any neutral hue and play up the look of your room using your cushions or other accessories. You can always switch them up depending on the styles and seasons at a relatively low cost!

Image: Visual by Liz Marie Blog
Link to: https://www.lizmarieblog.com/

4. Shop at flea markets or vintage shops for unique pieces

Instead of raiding a certain cookie-cutter brand where every Tom, Dick and Harry shop at that also serves up pretty good meatballs (we didn’t say it but you thought it, huh?), try visiting preloved shops, markets or vintage shops for one-of-a-kind pieces. For instance, we picked up some plates made from seashells at a market in Bali that we wouldn’t have been able to find in Malaysia. They make for good conversation starters, and more often than not there’s usually some sort of story behind it – just ask the vendors!

Image: Visual by @mindbodygreen
Link to https://www.instagram.com/p/BT85KXSFQw2/

5. Green with envy

Want to take care of a living thing that doesn’t require nappy changes, pacifying or taking out a mortgage to put them through college? Here’s something a little more doable — we dare say that owning your first plant is a rite of passage of entering into adulthood. And no, we don’t mean those beansprouts in primary school.  Plants add character, dimension, life, (and oxygen!) into a room and also scientifically improves wellbeing. Store them in classy vases, geometric pots, mason jars or macramé plant hangers! Succulents are pretty low-maintenance, and aloe vera also doubles up as a natural skincare product.