Adding Interest to a Plain House

Garden Retreat I
Art Print
Shipman, Barbara
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This is concerning those who live in plain houses with no architectural details, who would like to make them distinctly special. The intention of the articles on 19th century was certainly not to depress anyone who lived in a tract home or to make anyone feel they weren't in the right setting. Instead, we can use the elements that made these homes so homey and appealing, inside our own little houses.

The first thing that is perhaps the easiest is to add prints of good paintings. I was never so astonished as when I went to visit a studio in an architecture school. The students were working inside of places that were worse than jail cells. I wondered how in the world they could produce something good without the inspiration of beauty around them.

Romantic Pathway I
Framed Art Print
Brevard, Michel
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If I had free reign and money enough, I would allow each student to decorate their own studio using architectural salvage like columns and steps, arches, gates, fountains, roofs, gables and dormers. The steps could be drawers containing their supplies. The columns could be holders for tools, with real plants on top. The walls could be Trompe L'oeil, similar to murals (painting a scene on a wall) of gardens or houses or villages or old cities that had a lot of architectural interest. I would totally revamp each student's headquarters so that instead of thinking they were returning back to their slavery or back to the dust mounds, they would feel they had entered a world of of love and beauty and creativity.
The Well
Art Print
Warwick, Dwayne
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The paintings have stories in them or messages of peace and tranquility. A house without beauty can be really improved with such paintings on the walls. Now they are available at the same cost as a poster or a card, and fraimed quite inexpensively. There are even ways to mount them without traditional frames by a type of clip that has a fancy cord with a tassel to hang on a hook on the wall. Mural are wonderful and their themes can inspire the home owner to do more outside, adding a gate or a trellis or just a bench and a pot of flowers.

With paintings and posters of good art, a person can feel the joy of having a garden or living in the country even if they do not. This sort of thing, in my opinion, improves the home considerably. In choosing the kind of pictures you like, you can determine what colors appeal to you and why you like the painting. It has to make you smile, and in a way, speak to you. I like to feel something about a painting in all the senses: what does the picture make me think about? Is it reassuring and calming? Will I like it in a few years? Has it got the values that I love (home, family, beauty, children, domestic arts, etc.).

Another way to add interest in the house is with columns. Columns now are quite available, even in discount stores and can be used for any number of things: as a lampstand, a place to put a few books, an end table, or just a place to display something you value.

Paint is the best, easiest and cheapest way to change the look of a plain house. If you don't like it, you can re-paint it. Wallpapers are another way to make home a little less plain. Because it is expensive, sometimes you can decorate just one small area with one roll and it gives enough of a change.

Adding curtains made with interesting fabric purchased at a fabric store can also make a difference inside. Those kind of curtains generally give a softer and gentler look to the home, than the severely formal type of pleated drapes with those awful, sharp hooks and the pulley to open them. Those are also so extremely expensive that it explains why many people use sheets and blankets over their windows until they can afford something. The roller shades are very inexpensive compared to the venetioan blinds, and are more versatile. They can be trimmed in braided ropes and you can iron fabric on to them using a fusible web.

Little embellishments here and there take away the sharp edges of the modern house. Someone recently made me some gingerbread trim for the porch and two railings for the walk area so that it looks like a real entry. Inside, there are things that might not even occur to you that could add a more uplifting atmosphere; things like frames for pictures that are beautiful and colorful or just elegant, or the kind of accent cushions you choose for your home.

We really enjoyed a recent trip to the new TJ Max in our nearest city, where there is a big selection of beautiful things for the home. Some of it makes you feel you just stepped in to a beautiful walking garden or a garden cottage. Some of it inspires you just to have someone over for afternoon tea.

The point is, you do not have to have choses a 19th century style house in order to be happy at home. I did describe in detail how some of the modern architects seemed to have deliberately made homes, public places and parks very inaccessible and undesireable for human life, but I also showed how many homemakers have thwarted this plan by painting their houses and adding trims and gardens and other embellishments. It is perhaps this plain-ness that has caused the demand in the market place for things like architectural type of decor and things to hang on the inside and outside of the house to make it feel like a real home where people want to be, instead of an institution.

Many years ago I could not figure out why the houses we lived in gave me such a feeling of lostness. I was happy in every other respect, but some houses just seemed to make my stomach lurch or made me uneasy. I did a study about the effect of color and discovered some interesting things. Some colors are used in public places to get people to move through fast and not stay too long (such as fast food places), and some colors evoke a feeling of home. There are also things that evoke moods and feelings, such as shapes, which can be studied and adapted to the home.

These are all rather large ways to change things, but if you want to start small then I would suggest the following things:

candles in your favorite scent and color (you don't have to light them)

a special pen at your desk

a pretty tea cup

buying every day products in pretty containers--such as your tissue and your dry goods

opting for the prettiest if you have to choose something for your table or your house.

You can go through some of the shops listed on the side bar for some ideas of what people are doing to make their little houses look great.

I have seen several small dwellings with hardly any yard to speak of around them, that have been transformed by a woman's imagination and use of garden decor. Inside, they changed things so dramatically, using practically free things, that when I visited I was transported in such a way that I forgot I was in a neighborhood and thought I was in a dreamland. I really admire women who can do this, for everyone around them benefits from it.