7 Ways to Style Your Home Authentically (Without Hiring a Designer)
How to Make Your Home Actually Feel Like You
How do you style your home “authentically?”
Dude, I’m so burned out on the word “authentic.” I think generally, we’ve beaten it to death. Somatically, it’s lost all it’s meaning —we don’t feel anything when we hear it, just another buzzword that will eventually fade when the next wave of culture floods in.
On one hand, it’s great that being authentic has become so mainstream, because if we actually took it to heart and focused (no, like actually) on living intentionally, we’d all be a lot happier. But with mainstream awareness comes commodification — the grifts — as if authenticity is something you can buy. It’s not. It’s something you slowly unearth, peeling away everything you’ve piled onto yourself that’s not really you.
And here’s the kicker: I can’t actually tell you how to make your home more authentic. You’re the only one who can create an intentional home. It cannot come from outside of you. And that’s the whole point of authenticity to begin with.
But I can shift your mindset. I can give you clarity and connect you with a version of home that’s sitting just beyond everything that isn’t really you.
This isn’t a hard thing to do once you understand the way your home mirrors your energy, your beliefs and your behaviors. It’s quite literally a reflection of your values, your decisions and your life.
If you want to change that, you have to change it. And that’s the simple hard part. But that’s where the transformation begins.
One: Home Declutter Reset
It’s time to get clarity first. You don’t need more home decor tips right now. You need to take a serious look around and be honest about what is not a representation of who you are now or who you want to be: the things you don’t like, the things you’re making excuses to hold on to and the things that are long past loving wear.
Holding onto things that don’t represent you accurately keeps your mind in a holding pattern. Let them go to break the loop.
Two: Color Psychology for Home
Color is the mood-maker of the room. It is quite unfair to expect an emotional response from completely neutral walls — unless of course, that’s the feeling you’re after. Color has the power to shift your internal state at a subconscious level. That’s so well known; it’s what drives logo and brand creation. Companies use colors to send us messages, to make us feel a certain way. So, why on earth wouldn’t you take that seriously in your own house?
You might need to remove or infuse a specific color in your paint or home decor to create the desired frequency in your home. Think about what messages the current colors in the room are sending you and decide if you like what you hear.
Three: Intentional Furniture Choices
Furniture, the structural pieces of the room, holds tremendous power and energy over your space. It’s something to be taken seriously. Furniture that’s sitting in your home broken, worn well past its lifespan, or held onto for no other reason than basic utility will drag down the energy in your house. Think about it: an environment that feels downtrodden, bland, un-personal or even in disrepair mirrors that energy back to you. If things need to be replaced, they need to be replaced.
It’s a matter of respect for yourself and your home.
Alchemy of Home hosts monthly pop up shops in St. Louis, MO to make curating your style easy. Subscribe to our newsletter for details.
Four: Texture in Home Decor
The number one indicator of living out of your authenticity is living out of connection to your body. Physical sensations play a massive role in your home and the level of comfort you do or do not feel in it. Spend time naming every different texture in the room. Then spend time feeling them. I’m serious. Have you ever paid attention to the fabric on your sofa and how it feels on your skin? Does light filter through the curtains in a way that catches your breath at golden hour?
It’s a mistake to believe that texture in interior design isn’t that deep. It’s the link between your mind and body. Add texture that feels good. Remove texture that rubs you the wrong way. Pun absolutely intended.
Five: Lighting for Ambiance
A regulated nervous system is the key to authenticity. That doesn’t mean you’re calm all the time — it means you can return to calm and recover quickly and easily after being in an elevated state. Our world demands an elevated state — constantly — from all of us. Your recovery and regulation is serious, and lighting plays a huge role in what your mind absorbs in a room.
Soft, low, dim and warm lighting all help your body find calm. When your body finds calm, you have space to actually rest. When you rest, your mind connects with who you really are. Like when you’re driving or in the shower, ideas come, problems are solved and connections are made. Let your lighting support this mental state.
Six: Personal Home Decor & Art
Get weird. Choose art and decor that you love solely because you love it. Not if it matches the room. Not if everyone in the house agrees that it’s cool or even likes it. Choose something that feels like you. Put it somewhere meaningful and important. This is like looking in a mirror — you’re looking at your inner world reflected back at you when you look at art that touches your soul.
If you don’t know how that feels, you need to book a session with me, pronto. Connecting with pieces in your home that feel like extensions of you is a pre-requisite for living in a fully authentic home.
Seven: Connect with Something Greater Than You — Nature in Home Decor
This is where I turn to Nature. Nature literally and symbolically represents everything we need to live a full, expanded and beautiful life. Think about what that would look like for you. Think about where in nature makes you feel like you’re most connected to yourself. Where do you feel so alive that you forget what it’s like in the “real world?”
Foster nature in your home. Remind yourself of that connection on purpose. Infuse Nature in your colors, decor, fibers, light — everything becomes a symbol when you let it be. There’s a reason biophilic design is on the rise — we need this now more than ever.
You Are the Key
I can’t tell you what’s authentic to you, but I can give you the map and the mindset to find it.
That’s what Alchemy of Home’s 7-step framework, The Foundry Formula, does. It leads you through every facet of styling your home, from clearing out what isn’t you to adding the final layers of personalization.
Step by step, your ideas manifest.
Your outer space becomes a reflection of your inner world.
The work is available for you to start right now for free: Reset your space in a weekend with this home styling guide I made, and get closer to the home that feels authentically you — for real.
Written from home,
Liz
I’m going to teach you how to make your bedroom more luxurious, and the effects are going to reach far beyond aesthetics. No bedroom glow up, in my opinion, is worth the money unless you feel different afterward. So let’s turn you on, bb.