How to Make Your Home Feel More Interesting Without Redecorating

There comes a point when you look around your home and think, “It needs something.”Not a new kitchen. Not three weeks of dust, paint charts and wondering why you ever thought moving the sofa was a good idea. Just something.

The good news is that you don't need to redecorate to make your home more interesting. Very often, it's the smaller things — the slightly unexpected ones — that give a home its personality.

At Oysters & Pearls, we're rather fond of things that make you stop for a second look. A glorious piece of glassware. A cushion with a bit of character. A picture that transports you somewhere else. The little treasure that nobody notices at first and then asks, “Where did you get that?”

And really, isn't that much more fun than having the same room as everybody else?

Start with the thing that makes you smile

You don't need to change everything in a room to change how it feels. Sometimes one brilliantly chosen thing is enough.

It might be a colourful piece of glass catching the sunlight, an unusual lamp in a quiet corner, a cushion that refuses to behave itself or a gloriously cheerful bunch of sunflowers on the wall.

The trick is not to ask, “Does this match everything?” but rather, “Do I love looking at it?”

Homes become interesting when they begin to say something about the people who live in them. The best rooms aren't necessarily perfectly coordinated. They're collected — a mixture of things chosen because they made somebody smile, reminded them of somewhere or were simply far too lovely to leave behind.

That's where the personality comes from.

Give your walls something to say

Blank walls are perfectly respectable. But they're not terribly good conversationalists.

A piece of art can change the feeling of a room remarkably quickly — and it doesn't have to match the curtains, the sofa or anything else for that matter. Choose it because of the way it makes you feel.

Perhaps it's a peaceful view that makes the room seem quieter. A sun-drenched landscape that gives you somewhere to escape to for a moment. Or something bursting with colour that makes an ordinary Tuesday feel a little less ordinary.

That's the idea behind our O&P Print Collection. Rather than arranging the artwork simply by subject or style, we've brought it together by feeling: Stillness, Escape and Joy.

Because the question we rather like is not “Does it go with the room?”

It's “Does it make me stop and look?”

A Little Sunshine — Joy Collection

For Mornings When Nowhere Else Needs You — Stillness Collection

Home decor ideas: let one unexpected thing into the room

The best home decor ideas don't always involve changing a whole room. Sometimes it's simply about adding one thing you weren't expecting.

Perhaps it's a wonderfully eccentric glass, a lamp made from natural materials, a cushion covered in colourful sea creatures or a little object that serves absolutely no important purpose beyond making you happy.

These are often the things that give a home its character.

You don't need dozens of them — in fact, we'd argue that one fabulous oddity surrounded by quieter pieces has far more impact. Give it room to be noticed.

And don't worry too much about whether it's fashionable. Trends come and go. Things you genuinely love have a rather better habit of sticking around.

Make it yours

Your home doesn't need to follow a formula. It doesn't need to look like a showroom, and it certainly doesn't need to impress anybody else.

Fill it with things that mean something to you. Things that make you smile. Things that remind you of places you've been — or places you'd still rather like to go.

Choose the picture you can't stop looking at. The glass that's far too pretty to hide in a cupboard. The slightly ridiculous little treasure that makes absolutely no sense but somehow belongs there.

Because the most interesting homes aren't the ones that get everything right.

They're the ones that feel like somebody lives there.