How to Transform Your House Into a Home

By Mark Spain Real Estate

There is nothing like moving into a new house to give you the urge to decorate and create your dream home. Sometimes, though, even after your boxes are unpacked and your furniture is arranged, your house still just doesn’t feel quite like home. 

We have gathered the best starting places to transform your house into a home. Beyond making your home a place of your own by filling it with memories and personal mementoes that celebrate the people and things you love, these 7 tips will transform your space into the perfect place to call home.

1) Turn Your Focus Towards Flooring

This may seem like an unexpected starting point, but flooring tends to perfectly unite a home. Especially if you have children, you and your little ones will spend a large amount of time on the floor.

If you have moved out of a home before, you can recall how empty the space feels after the rugs are rolled up and the furniture removed. Without any carpet or rugs to absorb sound, steps echo and make a space feel emptier than you wish. There is a great softness and warm feeling that comes from having textiles in a room – one that makes a space instantly feel more lived-in.

Knowing this, one of the first additions anyone can add to make a house feel more like home is find a way to introduce textiles. Whether that means laying down your grandmother’s throw-rug from the 60s or buying the beautiful shag carpet you fell in love with at your home goods store, add something to the room that both absorbs sound and promotes coziness. Your home will feel more inviting in no time!

2) Illuminate Your Way with Intimate Light Fixtures  

An update to pre-existing lighting in any space will immediately make a room feel more homey for multiple reasons. New lighting allows you to add a personal touch – think a favorite family chandelier or lamp. We recommend investing in dimmable overhead lighting in as many rooms as possible, especially in your child’s room where low lighting can be perfect during the bedtime routine. Strategically place lamps and fixtures around your home to control the level of lighting according to your need.

Homes are often constructed with the simplest lighting available – a single overhead bulb or grouping of builder-grade recess lighting. The cost effectiveness of these choices is understandable, however a quick and inexpensive update of soft lighting can do a lot to make a room feel cozy. We suggest the replacement of existing overhead lighting with table top lamps that direct light into all corners of a room. Chandeliers or other unique fixtures will create beautiful light patterns on surrounding walls as well. Different types of lighting will allow you to easily separate areas of your home for certain purposes including reading, relaxing, eating and more.

Lighting is one of the easiest ways to add a personal inexpensive touch to your home – especially if you are thrift store or flea market savvy.

3) Use Wall Space to Display Your Memories and Decor  

From framed family photos to your child’s works of art, a quick way to make a new house feel like home is to adorn the ways with personal pieces. Artwork is too often written off as being expensive or elitist, but families have been decorating the walls of their homes with all types of memorabilia and items of significance for decades. Use wall space to give your items a special spot in your home – visitors will get an instant feeling of affection when they walk in the door.

Family photographs, purchased sculptures or paintings, the collection of shells your family gathered during last year’s beach trip – any of these are great examples of the types of objects you can display. Best of all, these pieces add an element to your home that makes it feel unique by highlighting your interests and what you find beautiful. While some families may find empty walls to be fairly soothing, artwork can add additional meaning to the architecture around you.

If you hope to bring your rooms to life, make a short list of the things you adore and want to see every day. This list could come together to create the perfect gallery wall. From a collection of family portraits, framed trinkets, your favorite typography, children’s artwork, unique small mirrors, or framed foliage, a gallery wall is the best way to display your favorite items in a creative way. Need more inspiration?

4) Create an Open Feel, Even If You Don’t Have an Open Floor Plan

One of the best ways to make the most out of your home is to embrace an open floor plan design. While set rooms will be used for designated functions, homes today truly embrace the shared space for living, cooking, eating, and relaxing. This is both aesthetically appealing and functional, especially for a growing family. Consider renovation that may open up two rooms into one larger space, allowing for togetherness and a flowing floor plan.

An open floor plan can help to alleviate a little bit of a parent’s stress while trying to get through the day looking after their children. Not to mention an open floor plan creates an automatic close-knit feeling. The luxury of preparing lunch while also being able to keep an eye on small children playing in the living room makes a world’s difference.

5) Adapt Your Home to Your Current Needs – Don’t Be Afraid to Break the ‘Rules’

There is no law that says a dining room has to be a dining room. Several of the rooms in your home can serve multiple purposes depending on the stage your family is in. What may start out as your children’s playroom could later evolve into your home office when the children grow older. Or, the room that starts out as a home office may need the simple addition of a row of hooks for pint-sized coats, sweaters, and backpacks to help it serve as a combination mudroom/library.

The key is to adapt your house to fit your current needs – that will really make it feel like home. And remember, it is just for the moment, not forever. You may have fallen in love with the home’s front sunroom but as you move your belongings in, that sunroom may need to serve a purpose other than your oasis to read and relax. Use the rooms in your house as you see fit and it will really start to feel like home.

6) Invest in Furniture and Pieces That Can Handle Wear and Tear

If you are a growing family moving into your new house, you should consider furniture that can handle wear and tear. This does not mean you must compromise your design style or forgo glamour and luxury. Leather, for example, is extremely easy to clean while it still exudes elegance.

A great way to make your house feel like a home is to focus on its functionality. Most design decisions are based on aesthetics, and it is important to remember to focus with the basic necessities of storage before making decisions based on style. Go multi-functional!Hidden storage spaces, like a bench seat that doubles as storage space, are invaluable when it comes to minimizing clutter and maximizing the space in your home. We suggest investing in an ottoman that doubles as toy storage,

A well organized, built-in bookshelf is the perfect place for your stacks of books and magazines. Shelves keep clutter at bay and allow you to focus less on cleaning and more on displaying items you love. Storage pieces can also be aesthetically pleasing. The latest open shelving kitchen trend creates the perfect showcase for miscellaneous kitchen items and dishes while providing a functional place to store and display belongings. Give everything a place of its own and it will go a long way in creating a home that feels clutter-free, open, and beautiful.

7) Make It Your Own with Custom Hardware and Personal Touches

The existing hardware of your new house does not always match the feeling you are trying to create. Customize small details for quick, easy and relatively inexpensive ways to make your house feel more like a home. Add personal touches in places that are unexpected will leave a noticeable impression.

Start with handles, door knobs, and light switches. Just about any small aspect of your home can be personalized with paint, fabric, or other inexpensive materials. From there you can start to think about tackling the bigger projects, like adding chair rail or intricate crown molding details to specific rooms.

You can also personalize your space with antique or vintage decorative items, which add an intimate feel to any room. Whether it is a family heirloom or retro chair you picked up at a flea market, retro items instantly add a unique flavor to your space. Moving into your new home with children means you’ll prioritize the practical over the peculiar, but a quirky touch to both your child’s space and your own will make you feel more at home. Add a chalkboard wall in your child’s room and let them fill the space with their own creations.

 

These 7 ideas are just a handful of ways to make your new house feel like home. As you transition into this new stage of your life, embrace the opportunity to work with a fresh, blank slate. Look at this new house as an opportunity to create memories and an environment you’ll love. Renovate, remodel, or keep your new home the same. Your home should becomes a place you want to spend time in that showcases all you love!

Learn more about Mark Spain Real Estate here.

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Mark Spain Real Estate is grateful to serve all of Metro Atlanta and Athens in Georgia, Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina, Orlando and Tampa in Florida, and Nashville in Tennessee!