Please can you help me? - please describe things that you feel add "polish/finishing touches" to you/your home?

[GabrielleChanel]

So I always used to wear nail varnish as it made me feel like I had my shit together even when I - I have also recently moved to a red lip for a similar reason. Since Coronavirus/all the handwashing I have moved to a nude nail because I can see how clean my nails are better

But I realise that this polish is something I am striving for and I think makes one look less frumpy. I think my house could do with a bit of de-frumping too - e.g plumping of cushions.

Are there other things you do?

What do you think makes a house look polished/finished?

If you can't imagine the Dowager Dutchess using it happily, don't have it in your house!

Absolutely art work.
When I go inside other people's homes and they just have those terrible Next pieces on walls, or some small family photos in poundshop frames I wonder when their tastes will mature.
Art doesn't have to be expensive, but it shows some interest in the world and is interesting to look at.

Bloody hell, the snobbery.

My tip is dont have too much stuff. Regardless of if it's from next, the pound shop or harrods.

I really don't get the old phone thing. I have because I like it but really?

Have a look at this site- hundreds of great ideas.

I like the colours, Arietty. Very welcome in a monochrome world. Plus, they can be decorative and functional and are a design classic. In my opinion. They fetch a few quid on auction sites, especially the rarer colours. They were built to last. I'd be happy to spend that same few quid on a vintage telephone rather than an abstract art piece. Horses for courses etc.

Thank you BOF I will look
Thanks to all if you for suggestionsz

Our house has been evolving over the time we have been here, as has our family.
We came here from a flat with one tiny newbornand thought it was enormous
Newborn is at secondary school
Now - and now realise it is too small really (we have 4 kids now, Thanks to unexpected twins )
but can't afford much bigger. we have extended and done work and made decisions that were right for that time.

I think spending so much fucking TIME in the same four fucking WALLS has possibly driven me to despair about it all.
I think we do okay on mirrors and art and blankets and soft furnishings.
I think what I was looking for was some idea
Of Knick knacks/objects artfully arranged on trays. but I would end up
Most likely
With Lego tableaux and Amazon prime parcel still life.

Bloody hell, the snobbery

I don’t think it’s snobbery but the Op asked a very specific question about interior design. The reality is that if you’re aspiring to a high end look (which I’m assuming is what she means by polished) then you don’t want things to look obviously cheap or to be instantly recognisable. Loads of my stuff is good quality second hand and then reupholstered, painted or stained. It looks far better than when my first house looked like I’d just ordered the whole of the Laura Ashley catalogue.

Oh it's really very simple:

Only solid wood (no veneers unless they are inlays).
Have your pictures cleaned every generation
Picasso etching in the bog near the bog roll so nobody misses it

Apart from that just ensure it's always spotless and the dc say please and thank you and hold their irons properly.

It doesn't matter about your nails providing your diamonds glitter and your horses are well shod.

FFS - pur a glass of something crisp and love yourself.

I think nice switches, handles, skirting boards and coving makes any house much much nicer. My house is very squint so I cannot have coving

@BitOfFun

Have a look at this site- hundreds of great ideas.

Oh wow - this is really good - just been lost on there. thank you

I know what you mean! It was linked here a while ago and I still haven't read it all!

Everyone's talking about adding things to the house, but that could simply add clutter.

Walls, ceilings and floors need to be clean. No stains, no obvious paint marks, well maintained wallpaper, smooth walls (if painted) and clean carpets, rugs or floorboards.

Whatever you have in your house, make it the best quality you can afford.

Charity shops sell good, solid furniture - brown vintage or you could 'shabby' it to match your decor.

Soft furnishings go the same way - the best you can afford, clean and well maintained - cushions not threadbare, curtains or blinds well hung and running freely, throws cleaned and fresh.

Think about layout. If some bits of furniture can only fit a certain way, then you've got to work around them.

You've got to try to make spaces 'flow', with unimpeded access to doors and windows - less claustrophobic and safer in emergencies.

The finish on skirting boards, pin holes in walls, old hooks, the boxing in of pipes and the general 'finish' of carpentry, painting, plumbing or other DIY jobs need to be considered.

If your house was a very expensive hotel room, would you pay 'top dollar' to live there.

If not, why not?

Yes! Gingernaut - that's what it is! And annoying my FIL ages ago said about the doorhandles etc and we even bought them but DH isn't handy and they haven't been fitted. They are in a box somewhere under the amazon prime still life.
There are def maintenance jobs that need doing - I was in process of making a list but will do so.

@TrickyD

Why do you only have one red lip? What do you do about the other? Similarly what about the nine non-nude nails?

Fashion speak that was a bit lost on me! I misread the OP as saying "I also recently moved to Ruislip for the same reason" which kind of spoilt the impression trying to be made. All I could think was, if you are trying to improve your nail varnish, this was a rather baffling choice.

A list is good, Gabrielle, and you should display it prominently on the fridge to 'encourage' him , but in the mean time, try looking up how to fit door handles on YouTube? Sometimes these things are easier than you think, and door handles aren't going to need brute strength. Have a go!

Sometimes these things are easier than you think, and door handles aren't going to need brute strength. Have a go

Do this. Tackle a little bit at a time. It makes a massive cumulative difference and is really satisfying. One of the reasons I'm so into interior design is that I'm very motivated by improving things. Even if its just ten minutes spent with the paint jar touching up it makes me feel like Ive achieved something to improve my lot.

I agree with Gingernaut about the building maintenance. I keep a bit of leftover paint from each room in a jam jar (labelled) for regular touch ups. It's much more likely to get done if its to hand than if I have to go and poke around in a dirty outbuilding trying to find the right tin. Likewise we have a roomba for daily hoovering and have a carpet cleaner so that they can be cleaned regularly too. The DC both have navy walls in their bedroom so I use a felt tip to touch up in there since its even easier and a brown wax crayon is handy for any little furniture scratches (although as per upthread mine is mainly now second hand with "character" now anyway).

I think that to appear as if you have your shit together you will need both lips to be red, 'a red lip' isn't quite enough.

I thought this too. Neither is a nude nail

This is a great thread! I am fascinated that family photos should be in small frames in a surface and not in the wall. This is somewhere I have gone wrong ! Is it ok to get replica art rather than originals? And can anyone recommend some that look good and a bit quirky maybe? Also what are people’s thoughts on vintage travel posters?

I like ebay for art since you can get some amazing stuff (originals and prints) but we also try to buy something local when we go on holiday too to remind us of places we've loved.

I think for most families getting rid of things rather than acquiring more of them is the way to go!

I think, with art work, the problem can be scale. As I said, I live in a tiny cottage (with squint walls). Any pieces of artwork can't be much larger than A4 size or they dominate the whole room and not in a good way. Collections of small pictures grouped together can be better for a room than one ENORMOUS one, however artistic, valuable and stylish it may be.

And I like to see family photographs, cheap frames or not (who really looks at the frames?). It shows the house is lived in and loved, as are its occupants. Although I'm not keen on those 'studio shots' of the whole family in black and white all posed and hanging on a wall, but, again, that's usually because they are too large for the room they hang in.

I say from my hoarders paradise- decluttering. Our home won't ever look polished because we're not on it like some. If we were the mismatched lovely furniture and orange dinosaur table lamp would look spot on .

Crisply finished decoration. No wall paint on the door frames/coving etc.

We've recently viewed a house which is now devoid of all clutter, just a few piece of furniture. It looked polished, and lovely. It wouldn't look like that if we lived in it though!

I just went over to the Emily Henderson site - looks lovely but again, so many of these sites are either American or Australian. The houses over there tend to be far far bigger (and newer) than in the UK, so, although they can be great for inspiration, they rarely have to cope with rooms where you can only put the furniture in one place because of the number of access doors, or rooms so small there is little to no natural light.

I would say dont have everything grey like Mrs Hinch...its completely soul less...i'm also not keen on Ikea furniture or Next sofas....i live in an 220 year old Georgian cottage...its very quirky so ultra modern stuff looks awful in here.