*Paid Partnership with Desenio*
Hey Owlets,
I don’t know about you, but after spending so much time indoors in the past year I’m a little bored of my surroundings. I’ve been staring at the same four walls every day and trying to get work done but feeling totally uninspired. I’m someone that thrives off of novelty - I love to be in a new environment, I love having lots of plans and things to do - so when the pandemic took that away I completely stalled and really struggled to find motivation.
Our flat looked so empty a year ago by comparison!!
A photo came up in my memories on my phone from this time last year of our still partially-decorated flat with empty walls and barely any furniture and looking back at that it’s no wonder I wasn’t feeling motivated! So when Desenio asked if I needed anything for our new home last Winter I jumped at the chance to finally bring some personality into our home. With lots of travel-themed prints on the wall I finally felt inspired when I looked around the room. I would remember my trips to these places and think of all of the things I could write about. Unfortunately being stuck inside for another 6 months after that has left me feeling lethargic and the rut has set in once again.
Since we’re still not really in a place where I can go to a new environment I thought I would try to refresh my current one instead. We rent our home so can’t paint the walls and I love our furniture as it is, but I missed the feeling of looking up at our walls and being inspired. Long story short, Desenio asked if our artwork was in need of a refresh and I said yes!
Last time we chose a few pieces that made us laugh, a few “aesthetic” pieces for Instagram/generally adulty pieces so it looked like we were put together, plus lots of travel themed pieces to help get the cogs whirring. I loved this style & thought it really suited our personalities but I was bored of the actual prints.
The first thing I wanted to tackle was the wall of travel posters. Obviously I love travel, but I also love advertising so these posters really caught my attention last time. I still love how this wall looks but there’s something really subtle that’s annoying me - it’s a mix of cities and countries. I can’t tell you why this annoys me either but it really does. Luckily since my last online shopping trip the artist has released some new designs so I decided to swap them out. I couldn’t choose so I got enough to make it all cities and all countries and then I can work out what I like over time. The interesting thing is that some of the places I’ve chosen this time are places I want to go rather than places I’ve been - my only concern is that it will inspire me to book another trip rather than staying at home to catch up on my writing!
Next up was the dining area. I chose this print of Paris for the colour but I didn’t *love* it. The photo is stunning, but I hadn’t calibrated my monitor so the sunset looked a lot more subtle when it was delivered to my house than it did on my laptop. I still liked the photo as a whole, but after a year of being stuck inside I want a new one to stare at. It had to be something really perfect to make me change my mind, but I found it! I chose this Lisbon print, mainly because I’ve stood on this exact street and it brings back so many memories which is what I need to feel inspired again.
While we’re discussing the lounge/dining/office room (we have a big flat but only two rooms so it serves as a bit of everything!) we found ourselves distracted by this bear on a bike - we loved it because it was funny and obviously it’s my favourite colour and matches the sofa. I didn’t really know where it was going to go so I bought the smallest size as well as this poster hanging frame and I actually love it! I now wish I’d ordered more poster frames because I would love to swap the traditional frames for this new style - it just feels so much more relaxed and lighthearted.
The final place getting a little bit of a refresh is the hallway and this was just as much of an accident as the theme. Even though owls have always been my animal we’ve accidentally ended up with giraffe themed things all over our house and the two in our hallway always make us smile. I found this roller skating giraffe while I was mindlessly scrolling and thought it would be perfect above our shoe area. It took a little bit of jiggling to get the balance of the frames right (mainly because we didn’t want to swap out a giraffe) but we got there in the end and I love it!
We decided to keep the “pineappowl” in our kitchen, the giraffes in the plane in our hallway (seriously, I don’t know why we have so many giraffes) and the bunny in our bedroom because they still make us smile and we’re not quite bored of them yet. If I’m honest the main reason the lounge needed a refresh is because that’s where I spend all of my time working! Having said that, I saw some line drawings of famous landmarks on Desenio that I fancied for above my desk but I’m just too attached to my Lisbon and Rotterdam maps to put them in storage quite yet.
We did decide to swap out a few of the frames while we were here too - we messed up our original purchase and ordered one too few frames so we bought a cheap one on Amazon so it would arrive the same day, and just trust me when I tell you never to do that. It was awful to put up, looks cheap and it’s practically falling down, so I’m so happy to finally have a Desenio frame to replace it because you really do get what you pay for!!
That’s it for my home refresh for now. Swapping out the pictures has definitely helped me feel inspired again - it’s taken until now to realise that I’d stopped looking at the pictures because I was bored of them. Not being able to redecorate in a rented home can feel so frustrating, and while you can find free furniture on Facebook Marketplace if you want something specific it’s usually expensive so changing out your artwork is a really good way to make somewhere feel fresh again and it’s surprising how well it works!
Does this mean I can get some Christmas prints in a few months too?
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