Want to make your house a home? Follow these DIY home decor tips to personalize your living space.

How To Make A House A Home

You know yourself, but design? Not so much. You probably already have the basics like big pieces of furniture and architectural elements you’d like to highlight, but you may need a bit more help making it all feel like you. Fortunately, it’s easy to put a personal touch on just about any space with the following five tips.

5 DIY Home Decor Tips That Will Turn Your House Into A Home

1. You Should Add Your Own Flair

This might sound kind of silly, but many people fall into the trap of purchasing, a complete furniture set that they place into a living room, bedroom or dining room and call it a day. However, this might look a bit stark without the furniture store’s added accessories, wall art, and warm lighting.

One easy fix for this is to use your rooms as a way to display the things of which you’re proudest. Perhaps, for example, you’ve collected a coffee mug from every city that you’ve visited on your international travels. Make a point to spend a weekend DIY-ing your own coffee mug rack, or place all of them in an open shelf above your coffee machine. Your space will instantly feel warmer and more personalized, and the same can happen in all of your rooms with just a bit of your own personal stuff.

2. You Should Have Pictures

In a similar vein, a house isn’t a home unless it’s filled with the ones you love. Unfortunately, careers and other adventures often pull us away from our loved ones. A new place in a new city doesn’t have to feel so far away from home, though; all you have to do is fill it with pictures of the ones you love, sit back and enjoy. You can place them on bookshelves, nightstands and mantles or transform an entire hallway into a display of your favorite pics. No matter what you choose to do, the end result will have your space feeling more like yours, thus making it just a little bit more perfect.

Add this to your home!

Brighten your space with these spring crafts! https://t.co/qrAtK2p9im

— DIY Projects (@DIY Projects) April 23, 2016

3. You Should Warm It Up

There are plenty of ways to make a space feel more homey, aside from making it yours with tchotchkes and pictures. You can make it feel warm and homey with some design-school basics. Area rugs, for example, have a wealth of benefits: they give your room a pop of personal style with a design that speaks to your tastes. Perhaps more importantly, though, they give your furniture an anchor and a purpose. Why is that couch against that wall? Oh, of course: it’s because the area rug is over there.

Here’s how one designer uses area rugs to break up large spaces.

Other ways to make a space feel cozier and lived-in include candles and house plants, both of which can be low-maintenance options that make a big difference. And, if you crave even more of an intimate setting, forego turning on your overhead lighting and instead flip the switch on table and floor lamps that cast softer, warmer glows. Your space will feel instantly cozier.

4. You Have to Dig In

Perhaps the most important tip is this one: you have to get your hands dirty if you want to love your space and take a part in making it perfect. This could mean just about anything, depending on how intensely you want to be involved in the process. For some, it’s the above steps, which mainly revolve around superficial fixes and changes.

On the other hand, some homeowners have taken their involvement a step further. Imagine, for example, that you love the log cabins and dream of living amid the rustic trunks that make up the structure’s walls. One way to create this perfect living space is by personally designing your own log cabin home, selecting the size, number of bedrooms and other architectural elements that’ll make it feel like the perfect space. The same goes for any other type of home that you envision: designing and building it yourself is the ultimate way to put your personal touch on your living space—and enjoy it for years to come.

5. You Have to Live In It

There’s nothing wrong with being a busy body, but those who spend the majority of their time away from home probably don’t feel a strong connection. If you want your home to be perfect and work for you, you have to take the time to figure out what needs to be fixed, do it and immediately enjoy the fruits of your labor. The more time you spend at home, the more you’ll feel like it is home. And, at the end of the day, home is always the perfect place to go, whether or not it’s perfect.