Methods for Maturing the Look of Your Home

At some point, you need to think about moving some furniture around in your home to change things up, give you a new and reinvigorated perspective, or just to make things interesting, it’s really not a bad idea to do so. But during these periods of shaking things up, you might also think about getting rid of junk and minimizing the decor around your home.

Sometimes, this means updating what you have on display and getting rid of things you once thought were particularly cool to show off. As you’ve gotten older, though, things that once were neat probably aren’t so fitting for your home here and now.

No matter the case, we’ve put together a few ways to make your home look more sophisticated, refined, and “adultlike” than it used to right after you got out of college.

Clean your windows.

Probably a simple thing to do when you really think about it, but having nearly invisible looking windows can be the difference between “has their stuff together” and “slob.” Don’t fall on the slob end of the spectrum, even if you do have kids running around putting their paws on everything they possibly can. It takes little to no work at all to clean windows, but boy does it make a difference.

Get rid of the mementos and thematic figures.

I’m guilty of having a few mementos from Japan standing on my home entertainment system, but I recently decided to adorn that shelf with a stack of like-genre books. Just as well, I’ve begun doing the same in other cubby holes of my entertainment system with other mementos from trips abroad (like a wooden Dutch tulip from a Dutch-owned island in the Caribbean). By pairing these souvenirs with different stacks of books, I’ve made my book collection the focus and these small baubles the accentuating, not focal, piece.

Choose appropriate photos.

Everyone likes to have photos in their home. That’s totally fine and understandable. But if some of the photos you have up are either super outdated (you with college friends), not presented well (i.e., in a weird, juvenile, or shoddy frame), or simply out-of-focus, you should consider taking them down. Just as well, too many photos can remind someone of their grandparents’ house. While this isn’t a bad thing, it’s more of a reminder that that was a different time and era and modern, “adult” houses nowadays are a bit more simplistic and uncluttered.

Clean up your empty bottles.

Having bottles of liquor in a designated place (along with tumblers, wine glasses, and mixing utensils) can be very classy. But keeping empty liquor bottles as a trophy “graveyard” is so college. Get rid of the remnants that show your guests you may be borderline alcoholic and leave only the unfinished bottles to show you’ve got class and options when guests do visit. You want your houseguests to know that you can have a good time and mix a nice drink together without letting them think you’re overboard on your nights alone.