I wanted to pop on today to give a really quick tutorial on how to style a space. If you’re one of those people that aren’t on the internet, or don’t take photos, this blog might not be for you. Me being in the business I am in, I’ve gotten good at styling spaces for photos or blogs. I personally love a lived-in look. It’s where the image looks like a person just left the room. There are some components of a human actually living in the space.

Now for the above photo – please ignore the terrible lighting. I snapped this photo the other day for a Tiktok video ( which I will have below )
In this photo, what makes the space look lived in is: The tea towel thrown on the counter, the stool and the flour sprinkled on the counter.
I’m allll for a good Home & Garden magazine spread, but often times, those photos are styled to perfection making it look like humans don’t actually live in the space.
In my photos I really like to make it look like we actually live in our home and that it oozes coziness.

To achieve a lived-in look is actually quite simple; use what you have.
I will break down where every single thing in this photo came from and it might surprise you.
The plate shelf is from Ikea and the cutting boards range from Ikea to Superstore to Homesense. The glass canisters are from Walmart and the rolling pine was thrifted from my moms house. The canister is from Starbucks from 2010 and the wooden spoons range from all over.
It doesn’t take a lot to make a space look high end and lived in. To me, this counter shot looks a lot like Magnolia Home.

If staging in another room of your home, you could have a throw blanket thrown carelessly on the edge of your sofa/bed or a magazine or book laying open or a coffee cup on your side table.
Here’s a video below of how I styled the above space in under 2 minutes.
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