18 Tips to Personalizing Your Car

When you get your first car, it’s both nerve-racking and the most exciting thing ever. This four-wheeling piece of freedom to take you, your friends, your family or whoever you like to place that sucks-to-get-to on public transport destination. Planning camping trips, your first family road-trip, traveling for fun – all of that good stuff. After picking your first car or getting it as a gift if you were fortunate, you might be thinking about how you can make the car more ‘you’.

And while changes to the outside cost a fair amount, the inside is cheap and cheerful. Aside from things like crumbs from the kid’s snacks, the odd stray shoe, and random junk items in the glovebox how can you make the inside of the car more ‘you’?

1. Get some fancy pedals. What? Okay so you don’t need these but how about some Swarovski crystal-encrusted pedals? They look cool, come in a lot of different colors, and Swarovski isn’t the only option. They’re called racing pedals/foot tread pedals/pedal covers, but most of them are just for show and have no impact on performance – but are 100% safe.

2. If you love the starry sky and want something like that in your car, you can get a Starlight Headliner installed. You can have one from the Starlight Headliner company, or you can google how to make your own. Either way, they twinkle, shine and look amazing with minimal effort.

3. Personalization when it comes to smell has never been easier. Where once there was green pine smelling trees in every car, now we have Yankee Candle car air fresheners, not only the most gorgeous scents for your home – but for your car too. They have a selection that works in cars or small spaces, meaning that is Bahama Breeze is your jam you can get it in a few different vessels now too. Scents help take us to a relaxing place – ideal for driving.

4. Chairs, you might not want to pull your seats out and get new ones fitted, but you might like to add some padding, a back-massage layer, some ergonomic support or just a fun, fluffy cover. You could even check out the heated chairs that plug into the cigarette lighter, imagine that on the cold winter mornings. Toasty.

5. Matchy-matchy. If you’ve opted to get covers for your chairs, why not get a matching steering wheel cover? You can get some wood effect, leather or cashmere. Whatever you get make sure they are correctly installed, when used correctly they are 100% safe so stick to recommended guidelines. If you get cold hands when you’re driving, invest in a heated steering wheel cover instead.

6. Light it up. As well as having some stars installed, think about having something jazzy in the footwells. Pick up some LED floor lights, you can get them in a few different colours, and it’s an excellent way to see your feet in the evenings or to see your bag and all of its content spilled all over the floor. There are some kits you can get to install, or you can buy a basic battery powered strip light and place it where you like.

7. Fix up the dash. If your dashboard is looking a little dull and grey, why not invest in a hydrographic print? They come in a range of designs, and you can stick them straight on when they arrive – no fuss.

8. Get a keychain that reflects your personality. Although there might be nothing more irritating than searching through 99 keyrings to find the car keys, and then listening to it clattering as your drive down the freeway, but still – get something that is distinctly yours, and it usually makes them easier to find.

9. Install a hanger system on the back of your chair. If you have change bags, handbags, reusable shopping bags, coats, scarves and probably some more stuff, having some of these will stop everything rolling around on the floor.

10. Get a plush tissue dispenser. They slip on to any visor (preferably not yours as it might obstruct your view), and when needed you can grab a tissue. Cute and practical.

11. If you are forever traveling between home – school – work and back, sometimes it’s not enough to have ‘almost’ enough power in your laptops, phones and other gadgets. Pick up an AC outlet that snuggles into your cup holder. It has 3 USB ports and charges your electrics as long as the car is running.

12. If you have fabric on the inside of your car doors, you might want to change that up a bit. Get yourself some fabric – whatever you love color and texture wise is perfect. Trim it up just a touch larger than the area you want to cover. A tub of modge podge as your adhesive, and you’re going to need something like a ruler to tuck the overhanging fabric into the panel. It’s not an expensive project but will take up some of your time.

13. Instead of trying to work out how to either spring for a car with all the electric you can need to entertain the kids, instead, just get yourself a bracket, mount and charging system. That way you can turn your tablet into an in-car system – easy and much cheaper. Plus, you’ll have some delighted back passengers!

14. Something on the outside could be an antenna topper. You can have practically, Disney princesses, dog heads, sporting ones. Pretty one for every taste. They usually come with a few in a pack so easy to replace. They take no time at all to fit securely either. The only downside? They might get stolen or dirty really quick.

15. Bumper stickers – they are good for on the inside and out. From political associations to a set of eyelashes for your headlights – you can go crazy with these decals, and they peel off just as easy as they go on, so you can change things as you go.

16. If you didn’t love the footwell light kits, then some simple floor mats might do the trick. You can get them in pretty much in any design you can think of, plus if you really want to you can make your own footwell mats.

17. You will have to be careful with the placement of this one, but small soft toys, bobble heads, even small photos can be dotted around the car interior. Tuck them safely out of the way of the windscreens, both back and front, plus not near the mirrors.

18. And finally, if you’re a mom, you’re likely to have a couple of car seats in the back. You can pick some that match you and the kids like. Do you all love Disney? Then find yourself some Frozen, or Incredibles seats. A fan of supercars? Ferrari has a selection of fantastic car seats. Jungle theme? Find car seats with lion headrests and paw shaped snack holders. As long as they meet all of the safety requirements, then you will be sure to find one that matches your car interior.

There are lots of ways that you can turn a car into an extension of your personality, from filling it with pink faux fur and dice to having the cockpit set up with red and blue LEDs and heated seats. Everything right down to the scent of your car can match you perfectly. As much as cars are practical when your expand your family, there is nothing to say that they need to be boring too!