Replacing your invisibles
/We’ve all been there. You’re feeling a little ‘meh’ about your home, but you can’t quite figure out why. Moreover, you don’t have the time, budget or patience for a remodel or complete upheaval right now. You start looking around for smaller, bite-sized and wallet-friendly changes you can make - the kind you could swing in a Saturday afternoon with a Netflix binge blaring in the background.
I get you, I really do. Every house starts to feel stale after a while if you don’t show it a little love every so often. Maybe you rearrange the furniture, repaint your living room, switch out the cabinet hardware in your kitchen or even rotate your artwork. All will provide you with great impact, but what about the invisible options?
I know what you’re thinking, “Karissa, I live in this house every day, what do you mean the invisible options? Unless you’re talking about ductwork, I’m lost.” Well, you really aren’t too far off there. Let me explain – there are most definitely parts of your home that are so ordinary, so boring, that they have virtually disappeared from your sight. Are you looking around? Have you guessed what I’m talking about yet? I’m talking about your heat register vents, your switch plates and your doorknobs! Did you just give your forehead a smack? If I was a betting girl, I’d bet you did. Those items are in each and every room of your home and, in most cases, they are the most basic version the builder could buy in bulk. They aren’t offensive, but they aren’t exactly exciting either. They are the saltine crackers of your home.
It wasn’t always this way. Homes used to be built with charm down to the very last detail, and more importantly, with a specific family in mind. As the demand for housing grew, and builders began churning out homes without an end buyer, they needed to make them as inexpensive and neutral as possible to appeal to the largest group. That was all well and good until it gave us decades of homes that look exactly the same. The doorknobs, switch plates and heat registers aren't all that was sacrificed. Gone are the niches, the nooks, the curved doorways, the built-in shelving, the chunky trim, the crown molding and all of the other details that made those older homes so special. Let’s all take a moment of silence for the phone nooks of yore…
You might not be able to do much in the way of niches and nooks in a weekend, but what you can do is upgrade your invisibles.
Chances are, your registers look something like this:
But what if you replaced them with something along the lines of this beauty?
Or this charmer?
Not so invisible anymore!
Let’s move on to switch plates, shall we?
You’re switch plates probably look something like this:
Yawn…
Now, how about this ecclectic set from Anthropologie for a bedroom?
Or this art deco set?
While we are on an Anthro roll, they have some beautiful door knob options to replace yours, which might look a little something like this:
Switch to this classic glass knob and you’ve suddenly elevated your entrance into any room!
Or you could go with this modern take on the glass knob too – this might be my favorite!
We’ve barely scratched the surface here, but hopefully you’ve gathered some inspiration (and motivation) to take a look at your home’s invisibles and give them a second chance at life, because no house deserves a bunch of saltines in its nooks and crannies.
