Easy Ways to Give Your Home a More Personal Touch

Your home, in many ways, should tell your story. Preferably without requiring guests to scan through a copy of your autobiography while they stand awkwardly in the hallway. But personalising your home isn’t always going to be easy—especially if you’ve recently moved in, or are laser-focused on modernising your space so that it’s packed full of all the latest trends. The risk with these homes is that they can lack the personal essence that we associate with making a house your home.

“Personality” can often be a tricky thing to define, sure. But the good news is that the means of injecting it into your humble abode are all relatively cost-effective. Fortunately, creating a space that better tells your story doesn’t require any dramatic renovations or structural upgrades. Instead, these sorts of details tend to lean on the ornamental side, where a few thoughtful touches here and there can soon add warmth to your home, make it feel a little more lived-in, and transform it into a space that is unmistakably yours.

So, without any further ado, let’s jump into some of the best ways to give your home a more personal touch.

Display the Things You Love

Something that seems like junk to me might be a treasure to you, just as the felt penguin on my bookshelf would probably end up in your bin. Maybe you’re into vintage ceramics, own a vast collection of books, or can’t help but hoard knickknacks from your travels.

Whatever it might be, try to resist the temptation to give all of these possessions a life sentence in a forgotten cupboard. Instead, rehome a handful of them to a place that’s visible, where they slot into the colour palette and can draw both your own eyes and those of your guests. There, they will exhibit your interests or remind you of the moments that are most special to you.

But try not to dish each item out too arbitrarily or dump them all together in one place. Their placement should still be deliberate and contribute towards the interior design of your home, and a room full of much-loved keepsakes can often end up looking more like a jumble sale.

Your favourite objects deserve more attention than a life sentence in a cupboard.

Put Your Memories on Display

Now that we’re in the digital age, many of us have grown accustomed to collecting digital albums of all of our photos and displaying them as smart TV screensavers. And don’t get me wrong—I’m all for that.

But we cannot forget our humble analogue roots—especially if your home is in dire need of a personality pass. Physical photos are blessed with the magical ability of making any room immediately more personal, especially if they harken back to important memories and moments, like holidays, graduations, or weddings that can offer guests a window into your life.

If you’re after a more modern, polished look, then you might want to try personalised canvas prints that can add a bit more texture and character to your walls and act as more of a centrepiece. But if you want something with more of a straight-edged, polished look, you could try framed prints instead.

Bring Your Travels Home

I’ve always loved souvenirs. Ever since I was a young whippersnapper, I’ve taken pride in my ability to give them a place among my everyday surroundings. Right now, as we speak, I have a colosseum on my desk which, come winter, will be replaced with a snow globe that I picked up in Norway.

You can opt for a dedicated shelf, as so many do, or you can question whether each item might complement a specific room or space (like my seasonal colosseum/globe switchuation). Bonus points if you display a particularly hilarious or questionable souvenir; that’ll almost definitely attract the “what is THAT?” questions. Every home should have one.

Add Colour That Feels Like You

This one’s a little more obvious, while also being a little more difficult to integrate.

We all have our favourite colours, so it’s painful when they don’t quite suit the vision of the home that we want to create. But worry not. My favourite colour is red—a colour that’s usually far too bold and dominant to feature in most of my spaces, whether painted on the walls or used sparingly.

But I needed red in my home. Otherwise, it just felt like something was missing. So, what did I do? I only put it in one place in the entire house: a red armchair that’s tucked away in the corner of one of our sitting rooms and is 100% mine. It is used for guitar playing and reading—almost exclusively—and highlights the boundary of my own special nook in the house that is used for my hobbies.

So if you’re struggling to find a place for your favourite colour, you might need to get creative. Think about furniture, photo frames, and secondary lighting if you’ve hit a brick wall.

Consider the Sensory Experience

Giving your home its own character isn’t just about visuals. Sound, smell, and touch are also aspects that can be fine-tuned to make your home unlike anyone else’s.

I’d highly recommend spending an afternoon discovering your favourite reed diffusers, for instance, as these can give your home its own signature scent—especially if you really go deep and find something a little obscure.

As far as sound goes, the trickle of a garden water feature can create a peaceful, relaxing atmosphere, while having hardwood floors can boost both the sound and texture, as the sound of formal footwear on it lets everyone know that somebody means business. On the flip side, the feel of hardwood floors on socks anchors me in that feeling of being myself at home—shoes off and done for the day, with the occasional shuffle to and from the fridge.

Closing Thoughts

These details might seem small on paper, but this article is all about adding the icing to the cake. When I’d just moved in, I was delighted with my new home, with its trendy open-plan kitchen and modern bells and whistles. But it didn’t really feel like home yet. Its soul wasn’t quite there.

But decorating with photos, keepsakes, souvenirs, and equipment for hobbies (like my guitars), as well as considering the full sensory experience and injecting some much-needed colour into the place, provided small windows into the souls of its inhabitants that made the house unlike anyone else’s. So what are you waiting for? You’ve probably got most of this stuff already.