Ways to Decorate Simply & Meaningfully

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I can’t stand clutter. It makes my brain feel instantly overwhelmed. This extends to the walls in our house. While I think the “gallery walls” full of artwork on Pinterest can be beautiful, it’s just too much for me. I’ve found that our home feels best with a few, meaningful pieces on the walls that make the place feel homey. So today I’m sharing ways to decorate simply and meaningfully. Obviously home decor is completely personal, so if my style isn’t your style, that’s totally fine! This is just what works for us and what we enjoy.

Why Decorate Simply?

More things hung on the wall can make a space feel crowded or busy. Let’s face it, it’s hard to keep a house clean and picked up. Having more decorations lends to rooms feeling more chaotic. I prefer our home to be as calm and peaceful as possible. Sometimes it’s not possible, but simple, some might say minimalist, decor can help.

Why Decorate Meaningfully?

Well, if you’re going to decorate simply and have less on your walls, you want those few pieces to mean something to you or be something you really love. I don’t want our house to feel like a show house with stock artwork and nothing personal. That’s why we try to choose meaningful things to display.

Ways to Decorate Simply & Meaningfully

Family Photos

It’s hardest to rein in the family pictures because of course you want to have photos of your loved ones on the wall! I’ve tried to contain family photos to a few small areas and just use a few frames. Then I can switch out the photos whenever.

I have a small black frame collection in the dinning room by the piano. I narrowed down photos by using one frame for a photo of my family and one for the fellas family. This way all family members are represented on the wall. The rest are just some of my favorites. Don’t mind my piano triceratops. Doesn’t everyone have one of those? We also have one larger frame on the other side of the window with a wedding picture. It only took me four years to get around to printing and framing one of our wedding photos!

Our bedroom has a frame with one of our wedding photos and then a photo underneath of our five year anniversary. It feels kind of romantic for our bedroom.

By limiting the amount of frames you use, you don’t clutter up the walls and you force yourself to be a bit more picky about your favorite images to display.

Special Homemade or Purchased Artwork

I created some meaningful artwork for our kitchen. I took some of my favorite family recipes (including my Grandma’s amazing pumpkin bread recipe) and made them into artwork by just using a colorful background and interesting fonts. It’s simple and meaningful for me.

My fella bought be an awesome poster a few years ago. The image just looks simple from far away, but when you get up close, you can see that it is actually made up of the complete book of Pride & Prejudice, one of my favorites! It’s so cool and always gets a second glance from visitors. It’s from a company called Litographs.

Statement Pieces

I’ve figured out that I prefer one large statement piece instead of many smaller pieces grouped together, which just looks cluttered to me.

We went on a cruise a few years ago and fell in love with this Mediterranean painting. They had an art auction on board and we bought it, which was a fun experience! We adore this painting so much that it’s commonly referred to as “The Painting” in our household. And it’s hard to tell, but it’s massive. This is the only wall in the house that can fit it. It’s an awesome statement piece that has such fun memories with it too.

Another simple statement piece is the mirror above our “entryway” cabinet. Our house is lacking an entryway, but this is the wall you see when you come in the back door. It’s a convenient place to have a mirror, and this mirror is big, gold, and pizzazz-y, which I love.

That’s pretty much all that we have hanging on the walls in our house. All of our living areas have something special to look at without them feeling cluttered or overwhelming. By only having a few things up, we’ve made sure to choose things that are special to us and that we really love. Plus, I think our house has a calm and peaceful feeling because we’ve chosen fewer, larger items instead of many, smaller ones.

Decorating a house is such a personal thing, and while some of the decorating trends out there are quite beautiful, they just wouldn’t feel good to me. I’m happy with the way we’ve decorated our home over the years. Simple & Meaningful is definitely my decorating mantra.