Hi, I'm Ambar. I write about real homes for real people.
I started HomefixTrends because I couldn’t find home decor content made for someone like me — renting a slightly crooked 700-square-foot apartment with popcorn ceilings, a landlord-beige paint job, and a budget that definitely didn’t include an interior designer.
- Interior design researcher · University of Texas at Austin
- Writing about home decor since 2022
- Every guide tested in a real home, not a staged set
Ambar Mitchell
Founder of HomefixTrends
How this site started
I sat on the floor of my first apartment and opened a design magazine.
A few years ago I was sitting cross-legged on the floor of my first apartment — a rented, slightly crooked 700-square-foot box with popcorn ceilings and landlord-beige walls — flipping through a home design magazine looking for ideas I could actually use.
“Every photo showed a room that cost more than my car. A ‘before and after’ that was quietly two different houses. A ‘budget makeover’ with a $1,200 throw pillow in the corner.”— Ambar Mitchell
I closed the magazine, looked around at my actual apartment, and realized none of that content was made for someone like me. Not the person renting with no equity to tap. Not the starter homeowner whose first project was figuring out why a door wouldn’t close. Not someone who needed to know if peel-and-stick wallpaper would actually come off without taking the drywall with it.
So I started writing down what actually worked — the $9 can of paint that stopped my living room from feeling like a hallway, the mirror placement that made my bedroom feel twice its size, the thrifted side table I sanded down on a Sunday afternoon because I couldn’t afford the one I actually wanted.
I studied interior design research at the University of Texas at Austin, which gave me the framework. But it was the apartment — and every home after it — that gave me the content. HomefixTrends is the site I wish had existed when I was sitting on that floor.
What I believe about home design
Three things I won’t compromise on
Have a question or a room you’re stuck on?
I read every message. If you’ve got a space that’s frustrating you — wrong proportions, bad lighting, no budget — send it over. I either answer directly or it becomes a guide.