How to intentionally decorate your home
Or, how to create home decor vignettes that *you* love
I am going to admit, right from the jump, that I have always been a very tidy and organized person. Everything in my home, and I mean everything, has its place. This has been particularly challenging since having kids, because there are so many toys, everywhere, all at once, all the time. I am always putting toys away. I know for some people, this isn’t worth it. Why put toys away ten times a day? Well, because my core value here is feeling calm, and a messy, cluttered environment makes me feel as if my nerves are on fire, aka, the very opposite of calm. For me, repeatedly tossing toys in the various designated baskets and bins around the house is very, very worth it. You know, because of the nerves on fire. Must extinguish. Immediately.
So, I dislike chaos and clutter. Being in an aesthetically pleasing, organized space tames my anxiety and helps me maintain that same sense of calm that a first sip of coffee brings. I want that feeling for as long as possible, you know? Since we moved into our home in 2020, I’ve spent a lot of time learning what decor styles I like and dislike, and how to achieve them within my own budget and time constraints.
As a reminder, my goal with this newsletter is to share easy shifts of habit or perspective that bring comfort, peace, and calm. Here’s today’s shift:
The most important piece of this habit is being intentional about what you put in your home. In spite of my tendency to constantly tidy my home, it does get messy. The Piles (you know what I mean) emerge. The laundry, it overfloweth. The dishes hang out in the sink too long. And the toys—I already covered those. Loved, aesthetically pleasing decor helps me look past all of this, and simultaneously encourages me to keep a tidy home so that I can enjoy the spaces I’ve created.
It’s quite likely that your style and my style aren’t exactly the same, and that’s okay. It’s not about your style, but more about how you select and arrange the items that you love. These tips will apply regardless of what jumps out to you next time you’re in the home decor section of Target or browsing an antique mall.
To start, here are two examples of decor vignettes, or small groupings of decorative items.
Example 1: Shelf
Items: basket, vintage hand broom, tiny crock, dried lavender stems, taper candle and holder, books, custom sketch art
Sourcing: The small basket is from a thrift store. The shelf, books, and crock are from an antique mall (collected on separate trips over time). The candle holder is from a local thrift sale. The oval brass frame is from an Instagram/Etsy shop. The sketch is a commissioned drawing of our home, and the frame is from Target. The wallpaper is from Sandberg Wallpaper.
Timeline: I probably tinkered with this shelf over the course of a year, and collected the items over that same amount of time. When I finally placed the sketch of our home as the focus piece, it really came together. I’m currently quite happy with it and am no longer making adjustments to it.
Example 2: Console Table
Items: mirror, lamp, reed diffuser, small and large landscape art prints, stack of vintage books, vase and faux stems, tea light candle, brass duck, baskets full of kid stuff, fiddle leaf fig hanging on for dear life
Sourcing: The mirror is from Amazon, the lamp is from Target, and the reed diffuser is from a favorite candle shop. The small, framed art is from an artist I found on Instagram. The large landscape is an Etsy print, and its frame is from Amazon. The books are from my collection of old books, gathered from antique stores over time. The vase is from a local decor shop, and the stems are from Target. The tea light is sitting in a vintage salt dish, a gift from my mom. The brass duck is from a local pop-up thrift sale. The baskets were a cheap Facebook Marketplace find and I love them—they are the perfect level for my one-year-old to rifle through and easy to toss things into all day long. As for my fiddle (Frida), I recently moved her to this spot (and this pot) and she’s having a tough time adjusting. 😅
Timeline: Again, I think I adjusted this spot several times over about two years. For a while, the space just wasn’t full enough, but I hadn’t come across anything that I just *had* to have. The brass duck was Christmastime find, and scooping him up led to some rearranging that I was ultimately very happy with.
Tips for creating your own vignettes:
Mix heights, sizes, and textures. Baskets and faux/dried stems (greenery or floral) are great ways to bring in different textures. I like stacks of books or tapered candles in vintage-style holders for height, and from there, vary sizes of additional items and trinkets.
Arrange in groups of three, minimally. Echoing my first tip, each item should be a different height and size. Try to create balance with your arrangement.
I love a good high-low mix. The lamp on my console table was $60, and the brass duck was $5. The commissioned sketch of our home was pricey, but its frame was $10 from Target and the shelf it sits on was only $20.
If you’re a no-frills person, focus on functional items, like lamps, storage opportunities (baskets or decorative bins), clocks, or candles.
I try to include an art print in most of my vignettes, mostly because art brings me joy, but also because it fills a space and creates visual interest. You can find very affordable digital art prints on Etsy, and I like mpix.com for printing. You can also find a beautifully curated selection of art prints from Juniper Print Shop.
Shop your home! The most satisfying thing is creating a vignette that you love out of items you already have. It can really bring new life to a space that before just wasn’t working, and it just goes to show that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a home you love. Once you start collecting items you truly love, you have so many possibilities at your fingertips with just a little rearranging.
Most importantly: curating means waiting. Play the long game. Creating little views of things you love takes TIME! It is worth waiting to happen upon something you love, rather than surrounding yourself with space-fillers or dare I say it, junk. If you aren’t sure what you love, scroll through Pinterest or Instagram with searches like “home decor aesthetic” or “home decor ideas” and save photos that you like. You’ll notice a trend in the images you collect, and this will help you find your style.
Although curating aesthetically pleasing views in my home brings me joy, it is important (for me!) to remember that this is our home, not a museum. Coexisting with my carefully arranged art and candles and books are The Piles, laundry, dishes, dust, toys, and life. That’s okay. It’s a both-and situation.
If you enjoyed this, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to respond to this email or comment below if you read on Substack. You might also enjoy my post about my home paint color palette.