Putting Personality On The Walls

I’ve got a confession to make. I love decorating. I really do. But there’s one thing that I’m really bad at. I never finish a room. It’s not that I don’t want to. I spend hours looking at little trinkets and pieces that will sit perfectly in different parts of our home. I’ve got baskets saved all over the internet with bits and bobs that would look great. It’s just… I never quite get round to ordering them and the rooms stay as they are; inches away from being complete.

One of my worst traits is not putting things on the walls. Again, I have good intentions. I love prints. I love photos. I love the fact that you can get your personality up on the wall so easily, without being tied to anything with the permanence of a paint job. In our last house I made an entire gallery wall running up the stairs. It looked lovely. Well, it would have if I’d ever gotten round to putting pictures in the frames. In the end I tried to pass it off as an artistic statement! This time I’m determined to finish things off. I refuse to live in a house with empty walls and sad looking shelves. I want to walk into a room and instantly be able to pick up on the vibe we’re going for, whether that’s quirky and fun or chilled and collected.

As you know, I’ve been on a decorating mission of late with my biggest job being our spare room. We’ve painted. We’ve bought a new bed. We’ve re-designed the room layout to make the most of the space and now it’s time to add those little bits to finish it off. The personality. The icing on the cake. The prints on the walls.

I’m a sucker for seeing prints on other people’s walls and having to find out where there from. Recently, I feel like every time I’ve asked, people have given me the same response; Desenio, and once I’d heard of them, I kept hearing about them. Naturally, being the decor dreamer that I am, I’ve been storing away print ideas in my basket for quite a while, just waiting for the right moment to hit the button and finish things off. So, when we were offered the opportunity to work with them, I literally did a little whoop. Not only would I be buying frames, I’d be filling them at the same time!

Despite having a basketful already, I still spent hours browsing the site and flicking through Instagram looking for inspiration. They’ve got a huge range of prints grouped into different tastes and sizes, leaving me like an adult homeowner version of a child in a sweet shop. Knowing that I wanted to run the prints along one wall of our spare room made it a little easier as I knew roughly the size and style that I wanted.

The room is fairly minimal with a paint colour that wanders between a cool grey and a warm taupe dependent on the lighting and angle. It’s got to be an oasis for guests, a creativity zone for when we want to use the computer and act as my quiet escape when the hustle and bustle of two little ones is just a bit too much! I wanted to pull out the pinks from the rose gold and olive green lampshade in order to give it some warmth whilst drawing on the whites of the shutters and bedding. Straight away I was drawn to the dark green and monochrome tones prints in order to keep a calm, chilled feel to things. After all, this is a room for dreaming!

I was really pleasantly surprised at the quality of our Desenio prints; the frames feel solid and secure once the print is in place and the perspex ‘glass’ has protective coverings on both sides during transit so they come out in pristine condition. What’s more, seven prints, seven frames and two passe-partouts (the white mountings that I used on two of the prints to make them ‘pop’ a little) came to less than £150 in total leaving me money left in my budget to splurge on the rose gold clock and pebble mirror from Oliver Bonas. Finally, a couple of faux foliage pots, cactus ornaments and some soft furnishings from Ikea and we were done. My little oasis of relaxation is complete.

The prints used in this post are as follows: Forest, Breathe, Happy Cactus, Pink Sky Palm Trees, Eucalyptus Plant, Go Where You Feel Most Alive and Happiness (trimmed down to fit a square frame). If you fancy getting your hands on some prints from Desenio, then the code ‘devonmama’ gives 25% off posters* on all of our sites between September 11th – 13th. 

*Except for frames and handpicked-/collaboration posters