5 Tips for Making Your Home Uniquely Your Own!

Hi all, I hope this post finds you doing well and staying healthy! We’re finally back home in CT after spending the past ten weeks at our house in NC (we were there for a planned trip in early March and decided to just stay put once all of the school cancellations and coronavirus restrictions came about). I wish it was under better circumstances but it was wonderful having the chance to get so much done on our house, including adding some finishing touches to our living room that I’m sharing with you today!

It’s so rewarding to take dated rooms and turn them into something beautiful, but what’s even better than beautiful is that our spaces grow to reflect both me and my family – our style, what we love, and how we live. I thought it would be fun to share how I decorate to make a home feel like “us” so I’ve partnered with eBay to share my five best tips for making your home uniquely yours! (post includes affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here})

1. Choose Colors & Patterns That Bring You Joy! 

I love decorating with neutrals but playing with colors and patterns in a room is fun too! What I’ve learned from some pretty expensive past mistakes is to stick with simple designs and neutral colors for large, expensive home purchases like sofas and dining tables. With a neutral base, I can then add the current colors and patterns I’m crushing on with things like pillows, throws, and other less expensive accents (you can find all of these and more in eBay’s home decor section {here}). As my taste evolves I can change these inexpensive accents up and always have a room that I love without having to throw a ton of money at it.

So while I went with a simple, neutral sectional for our living room in NC, I’ve added in some pretty taste specific accents including this I’m-completely-smitten-by-it blue wallpaper:

A few months ago I bought three rolls of it to paper our small powder room (stay tuned for that…) but then I couldn’t stop thinking of how great it would also look lining the back of our bookcases, adding some color & pattern to the sea of white:

I measured and realized I’d only need one more roll to make it happen so I searched for it on eBay – when I only need a roll or two of wallpaper, it’s the first place I look! You wouldn’t believe how many high-end wallpapers you can find for less! Often they’re from people who ordered several rolls to wallpaper a room and ended up with an extra roll that they can’t use or return so they’re selling it at a highly discounted price. These are just a few of the gorgeous ones currently listed (Scroll & click/tap to shop each one):

Obviously my wallpapered bookcase dream was meant to be because while I didn’t find my wallpaper crush on eBay the first day I looked, about a week later someone listed a double roll and I snagged it for about $100 less than I otherwise would have paid (see {this post} for how to easily set up an eBay alert like the one I did to be notified of the new listing). After a few hours work, I now have pattern-lined living room bookcases that make my heart sing:

You can check if this same wallpaper is currently listed on eBay in any of the different color options {here} if you love it too! And if you want some tips on styling your bookcases, check out {this post} where I share my tried and true shelf styling tips!

Along with adding colors and patterns you love, adding the scents that make you happy is important too (it’s crazy how much you realize your home has such a specific scent when you come back after being away for a while!). Whether you’re drawn to the smell of fresh flowers, cinnamon, or vanilla, adding diffusers or candles in your favorite scent helps personalize your home. My favorites are Voluspa candles because not only are there a few scents that I’m especially addicted to, 

(Anthropologie top also found on eBay – find other blue & white Anthro tops {here}) 

but I also love that they come in the most beautiful glass jars and patterned tins that you can use around the house after the candle is used up. 

For spring my favorite is the Mokara scent (notes of mokara orchid, white lily & spring moss)! Voluspa candles are pricier than many others (they’re made with better ingredients that burn cleaner) but I’ve been able to find both new and used Voluspa candle tin options for less on eBay by shopping them {here}.

2. Display Your Collections!

You guys probably already know this about me – I’m a didn’t-realize-it-was-happening collector of brass animals. I didn’t set out to collect them – I just couldn’t resist when I came upon an especially cute one and after a few years of this, my brass animal menagerie had turned into quite the collection (“collection” sounds a lot better than hoarder of brass animals doesn’t it?! 🙂 . Some of my favorite finds over the years are from eBay, including this brass swan planter that sometimes holds fresh flowers on our coffee table:

and other times can be found sitting on our open kitchen shelves filled with faux florals:

If you’re also smitten, you can find brass swan planters similar to mine in various sizes {here}. And check out my most recent addition that’s one of my all-time brass animal favorites – I mean come on, tell me that you could resist a pair of these brass pig bookends I just added to my shelves… 

(Anthropologie bracelet also found on eBay – see others {here})

So stinking cute & unique and it’s something that makes this space feel like ME (and my oldest daughter too because she has a thing for pigs 🙂 ).

If you happen to also have a love of brass animals, these are a few other current eBay finds that are nothing short of adorable:

If you search eBay for whatever you collect or even a hobby you have, you may be surprised by the unique items you can find to decorate with! Tennis lovers can snag a pair of {these vintage tennis rackets} to hang as wall art, music lovers can create an art wall using covers of {these vinyl albums}, and lovers of antique furniture pieces have over 100,000 options to choose from {here} (if you don’t want to deal with furniture shipping, you can limit your search to pieces within a certain mile range of where you live). So many possibilities!

3. Showcase Family Photos & Art

Get those photos off of your iPhones and into some beautiful frames! Whether it’s a large grouping of family photos along your staircase or individually framed photos sprinkled throughout your home, nothing will make your home feel more like you than showcasing your favorite memories. I’m a bit of a frame junkie and seek out frames that are every bit as unique as the photos that I put in them. One of my all-time favorite photos is of both of my girls in our window seat snuggling with Hope (we miss her so so much…) – I found the perfect scalloped frame for it on eBay while searching their bone frame options {here}:

(Anthropologie top, AG jeans, and J Crew bow slides also found on eBay – find similar Anthro tops {here}, AG jeans {here}, and J Crew bow sandals {here}) 

EBay has more of this frame and other similar bone frame options {here}.

And if you have any budding artists in the family, frame their art even if it’s a simple Kindergarten drawing! I framed art pieces that both of my girls had created throughout the years and hung them over the daybed in our upstairs landing. You can find a huge mix of frames to choose from on eBay and the search feature makes it easy to narrow down your search to anything specific that you’re looking for. You can also search by brand such as for Pottery Barn frames (which you can see {here}).  

4. Create Space for the Things You Love & the Way You Live

When we first moved into our CT home, we automatically put our family room furniture in the small room near our kitchen and our office furniture in the much bigger room with vaulted ceilings because that’s how the previous owners used those spaces. After about two weeks of the four of us trying to cram on a small couch to watch TV we realized these rooms weren’t going to work the same way for us and we did a room swap. Best decision ever! If you have a room in your home that goes mostly unused and find yourself needing space for something else, repurpose that unused space!

Making your house work for you doesn’t necessarily have to be something as huge as an entire room swap either – it can also be about simply portioning off more space for something that makes you happy. For Jeff, this means taking a big chunk of our finished basement to add an indoor cycling station (hence the reason why you’ve never seen our basement!). One of the spaces I’ve carved out for myself is the extra countertop and drawer space in our kitchen to have my Nespresso machine, big selection of pods, and coffee mugs:

It’s probably way more precious kitchen space than the average person would be willing to designate to coffee but a good Nespresso or two in the morning is a daily ritual I LOVE and having this pretty little corner of the kitchen makes me so happy! I’m such a Nespresso fan that I bought a second machine for our house in Carolina and have seriously considered getting a smaller version for travel. If you’re thinking about hopping on the Nespresso train, a great machine to start with is the Vertuo (it’s the one I have) that’s one of the least expensive models and will make either coffee or espresso depending upon what type of pod you put in it. You can find both new and used Nespresso machines for less on eBay {here} and check out their other kitchen products {here}.  

5. Take Your Time! 

The rooms in our house that feel the most like me and my family are those that I’ve taken my time with. It’s so worth it to wait until you’re sure of what you want for a room and be patient finding the perfect thing instead of dropping a load of money on something that is “good enough” just to get it done. In our living room that I shared earlier in this post, you might have noticed that I only shared the bookcase in the left in my pic. That’s because while I got both sides wallpapered, I haven’t yet found any accessories that I love for the other side and didn’t want to spend hundreds buying things to sit on a shelf that don’t speak to me just to get it done. Empty is ok while I’m taking the time to find things I love or that have special meaning to me and my family.

Here’s a little tip I use when I’m searching eBay and find something that I love but is above my budget – I simply put it on my Watchlist (just click the “Add to Watchlist” heart by the item). I’m then notified if the price changes and sometimes the seller will even send a personal lower price offer – waiting and taking your time can definitely pay off! Another tip for smaller budgets is to search for used and/or vintage decor finds on eBay – while over 80% of eBay listings are for brand new items, their used decor finds are great for small budgets because often you can buy the item, use it for years, and then resell it for close to what you originally paid for it.

I really should have added a tip #6 of “listen to everyone else but make your own final decision” to round out this post! Getting decorating input is great but in the end it’s YOUR house and you’re the one that has to love it so go with your gut! There were several decorating dilemmas with our master bathroom addition that I went back and forth on – I ended up going with my gut on all of them (even though I wasn’t 100% sure my gut was right) and they all turned out as I had hoped in the end (phew!). Speaking of our addition, now that we’re back in CT I’m ready to finally wrap that baby up! A visit from the electrician, installation of my floating shelves, and a few accessories are all that are standing in the way of me finishing it and I’m hopping right to it so stay tuned for the finishing touches and big reveal soon!!

XO,

Update! I just noticed that the eBay Dyson store currently has some great discounts PLUS an extra 20% off when you use code PICK2SAVE at checkout! My Dyson stick vacuum is one of my all-time favorite purchases – when you buy certified refurbished from the Dyson eBay store, they come with a 6 months parts and labor warranty (I got my handheld on the cheap that way and it’s still going strong). For Dyson stick vacuums, I recommend the v10 or v11 models in either the Animal or Absolute (Absolute is the same as Animal but comes with an extra hardwood floor attachment – I have the v10 Animal) – these are the four options (two refurbished and two new) currently listed that fit the bill: