I Used to Wish to HGTV-ify My Dwelling, However Now I Assume There’s a Higher Approach

Since HGTV started broadcasting within the mid-90s, its programming has change into each utterly engrossing and ideal background noise on the identical time. You’ll be able to settle in to observe a marathon on a Friday night time, or catch a couple of minutes whilst you wait in your physician’s appointment. Both method, the exhibits don’t lose their attract.

The channel’s influence on dwelling decor decisions over time has been exceptional. Folks look to HGTV to see what their dwelling may be. The fast turnaround tasks, dwelling flips, whole intestine jobs, and fixer uppers are aspirational — they present us what our houses have the chance to appear like with the suitable coat of paint, sort of flooring, or new items of furnishings.

It’s clear HGTV’s affect favors a impartial palette proper now — grey vinyl flooring, greige partitions, and white cupboards come to thoughts. I’ve undoubtedly checked out my own residence with a brand new distaste after a number of hours of watching dwelling after dwelling come collectively fantastically. What if I repainted all the things a impartial greige? Would I be glad with my home then?

Right here’s the factor, although: These HGTV designs are sometimes favored by flippers to allow them to create a universally palatable dwelling that’s move-in prepared. Which means there’s a conspicuous lack of character in them. But for some purpose once I ogle the grey bins on HGTV, I really feel the impulse to wipe the character off my dwelling, too.

However character is what you get once you make design decisions that suit you, your type, and your life-style. Character is the piece of furnishings handed down via the generations that bears the marks of use and love, or a hand-painted signal you made throughout a DIY part. It’s typically what you don’t see when somebody tries to repeat the right staging of an HGTV dwelling.

You additionally don’t glimpse the backpacks, coats, and sneakers littering the ground after college. You don’t see the sink stuffed with soiled dishes after the whirlwind that’s cooking and consuming supper. You don’t see the leftover wine glasses from final night time’s social gathering leaving purple circles behind on the countertop.

For a very long time, I wished my home to have HGTV’s shining counter tops and that completely positioned vase of recent flowers. I actually liked the look of a the stack of ornamental books atop a clear ottoman. However now I understand the well-worn desk prime and the backpacks on the ground are what make my dwelling mine.

As I dwell in and design my little house that holds our household of 5 plus our canine, I’ve come to grasp that there’s a substitute for making a magazine-worthy dwelling that mirrors what I see on TV. That different is a spot with character — a spot that’s uniquely ours. That’s to not say I gained’t embrace a classy piece right here and there, however designing a house that matches our life-style is essential to a well-lived life that flows.

So whilst you can completely settle in for a HGTV marathon and ogle all the superb areas you see, keep in mind that your house is yours and it doesn’t must replicate anybody however you.