Home, Daggy Home

I love the idea of being a home owner. Not so much being in hundreds and thousands in debt- that part sucks. But what I love is the idea of having a place that is truly your own and you can shape and mould it in whatever way you chose. Owning a home is a distant goal for Hubby Greg and I at the moment. We're not quite at the stage of taking the plunge into home ownership.

Instead, we rent a little humble unit. It has some quirks e.g. the unit is on a tilt so there are certain places you can't place a bookshelf without it falling on you but at the end of the day, it's a solid roof over our heads. For a long time, I treated our rental like a transitional space i.e. I didn't really put much effort in making it into a 'home'. But I decided this year to dedicate some time and energy to making our rental feel like ours. After scouring the new Ikea catalogue – receiving the catalogue in my mail box is one of the highlights of my year, no kidding – and spending Friday nights watching The Living Room, I was inspired to take action in whatever way I could.

We have a lot of plain walls in our home. I often justified this by using the excuse we couldn't nail into the walls. But no more excuses! On a recent trip to Singapore, we discovered a store selling adorable prints. We loved them so much, we brought two home with us.

Hoot hoot!

Ok, don't laugh at our taste in artwork! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Of course if it's a dag's eye, the beauty is more questionable. Though you have to admit owls are totally "in". And thank you, Daiso (my favourite Japanese discount store) for giving us $2.80 frames to stick our prints in. I may want to beautify my home but I wanted to do it on the cheap!

Our backyard is something to be desired. It's really a long patch of grass with the occasional gift from Evie. The freshness and sunny days of Spring recently hit and suddenly I had the urge to develop a green thumb. A quick trip to Bunnings and I came home with a variety of herbs and plants. I arranged my new leafy green additions into their pots on our outdoor table we never use.

My mini-garden :)

I really hope I can keep them alive. My bay leaf plant isn't looking too flash. No leaves means it's a possible goner :(

Years ago, my Dad was kind enough to donate a kitchen table and chairs set when Greg and I first moved in together. Over the years, the seat cushions have turned manky with stains and it reached a point I was embarrassed to have guests sit on them. (Yes, I could have cleaned them but that would have been way too easy...)

Manky Chair

Upon our return from a visit to Spotlight, we reupholstered the seat cushions with some funky new fabric.

Good as new!

Yes, our seat cushions are now covered with babushka dolls and flowers. Greg picked the fabric as he oddly has a natural knack for picking eye-catching colours and patterns. (However, his other choices were penguin pirates and fluorescent owls and I had to draw the line somewhere...)

There you go! Here's some ideas you may be able to use to transform your dwelling into a home, whether you rent or own. These are for those of you trying to achieve the hipster, eclectic look. (Translation: Throwing together random items where nothing matches and making it look like you did it on purpose....).

What simple tricks have you used to improve the look of your home?

And where do you get your inspiration and ideas for home beautification??