Most of my childhood vacations were punctuated with an afternoon in the car, driving around nicer (as in, expensive) neighborhoods with my parents to look at houses. They weren’t house shopping - we would just load up and go for a drive in a nice neighborhood, appreciating nice homes.
They were, as I am now, fans of a great yard, nice architecture, and proper curb appeal. These excursions were pure and nice. As kids we didn’t love it, but it gave me an appreciation, perhaps an early eye, for what makes a home nice from the outside.
Today it’s much easier to go for that ride online. Instagram is littered with shelter accounts, and it’s a town square for discovering lighting, furniture, home design ideas. It’s nice to be inspired, but the whole experience of scrolling Instagram for design inspo can quickly lead to a wistful, woe-is-me, why doesn’t my home look like that sort of energy. (Maybe that’s just me.)
Add to this the complexities of living in Charleston, a city full of some of America’s most beautiful homes and beloved interior designers and architects. Dinner parties are great but it’s hard to not feel a sense of envy at some of the immaculate interiors you might encounter along the way.
And personally, we’ve got several close pals who design homes for a living. Some are even on the AD 100 - the pressure to “keep up” is too much!
So, I don’t try. We just follow our own vibe, find the furniture we love, have fun with paint and wallpaper, and make little improvements as we can. One of our guiding principles when it comes to home improvement is “something to look forward to.” As in, our house may not be perfect, but the journey is fun, developing ones’ taste is an adventure, and personal, idiosyncratic homes are always better than those fashioned by a designer.
To that end, I wanted to outline a few of the go-to strategies I’ve employed over the last decade to make easy, impactful improvements to the homes we’ve had without breaking the bank.
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