Making Your House into a Home in 5 Simple Steps

What all property owners should be aiming for is to create a living space so warm, welcoming and familiar that we feel completely at ease when inside. However, if you don’t add a personal touch or invest time in your house, you can’t expect it to become a home.

There’s numerous ways this can be achieved, although your budget and individual style considerations should remain important factors. To get your creative juices flowing, here are five simple steps for making your house into a home.

Image credit: Matthew Hutchinson via Flickr

Personal Memorabilia
Fill empty spaces with the things that are sentimental to you and your family. Pictures of loved ones on mantelpieces and walls are a great way to start, as too with children’s artwork and vacation snaps. You should also spread out holiday souvenirs and memorabilia around the home, regardless of their look or price tag. This way, you’ll have gentle reminders of good times gone by, personal to your family and nobody else.

Garage Conversion
Converting an unused garage into an additional room is a fantastic way to create living space and save money at the same time. You’ll essentially have a clean slate to transform this ‘new’ room into anything of practical use. For example, an additional bedroom will stop children being hid away upstairs for long periods, whilst a home cinema room creates a perfect den for a family night in.

Redesign
Perhaps the best way to turn your house into a home is to renovate rooms completely, shaping them in your own image and style. Rearrange furniture, change colour schemes, replace carpets and purchase new household items to keep things fresh. Remember that each purchase should be treated as an investment and may even become a lifelong purchase, thus adding to the acquainted home feel.

Image credit: Paul Pitman via Flickr

Holiday Decorations
For birthdays, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Christmas and other holidays, you can really be creative with your decorations. This will add an individual flavour to the home and set you apart from everyone else in the neighbourhood. It’s also a great way to get the family together and begin a longstanding tradition of decorating as a team, creating new memories in the process.

Pets
We Brits are a nation of animal lovers with around 12 million households looking after a pet of some sort. Their presence is a terrific way of creating a homely feel, bringing everybody together at the same time. After a long day at work, coming back to a friendly and loving animal creates a warm atmosphere within the home and is something hard to replicate elsewhere.

Image credit: Ana Rodríguez Carrington via Flickr

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in 10 Ways To Transform Your Garage and Natural Ways To Make Your Home Smell Irresistible.