How to make your new home feel like home

So you’ve purchased a new home, but it still doesn’t quite feel like home. That’s because you haven’t done anything yet to fix it up and make it your own. Here are a few things you can do to add your personal touch to make your property feel more like home for you and your family.

4 things you can do to make your new home feel like home

Clean

This may seem like an odd way to make your home, home but there is truly nothing better than starting out fresh. Some properties are left in quite a stinky state when they are sold, so one of the first and best ways you can make it more homely is to give it a thorough top to bottom clean.

The previous owners have inevitably left their unique smell (and food splatters on the wall), so wipe those signatures clean and leave your own fresh and beautiful scent. This is particularly necessary if the previous owners were smokers as you’ll need to do a deep clean and even replace or repaint some things to remove the smell.

It’s fundamental to give your walls a good clean with sugar soap or something similar. Not only to get the flood splatters out but also dust, mould, sticky hand marks and scuff marks.

Paint

The easiest way to renovate a property to make it more HOME is by giving it a fresh coat of paint. You can choose to paint the whole house or you can focus on specific rooms at first. For example, you may have a new baby and you’d like to paint and decorate his or her room first.

If you don’t have the budget to paint the whole place when you move in then you can always paint an accent wall. It’s a great way to add some colour and make the statement: this is our home! Here are some fun ideas. Don’t forget to use crack filler to ensure you get a smooth finish.

Alternatively, you can also focus on key areas that are most visible to guests like your front door. Perhaps you’d like to choose a bold paint colour, but even just a fresh coat of an existing neutral colour will do wonders to give your home a new look. Another way to give your home an instant facelift is to paint all the gutters, window frames and security gates as this will also add a little sparkle to your place.

Decorate

A space can truly be transformed by how it is decorated. Make your new home feel like home with these personal touches:

• Picture frames: putting up photos of your family and friends will instantly turn a house into a home.
• Paintings: the artwork you have chosen for your home often has a personal story attached to it.
• Furniture: once you move your furniture in then it’ll really start feeling like your place with your style and even your scent.
• Other decor items: you’ll be surprised when you move how much there is to actually move and how much of it makes your new space feel like HOME, e.g. clocks, fridge magnets, travel mementos, vases, etc.

Plant

A final way to make your new home feel like home is to plant things in your garden. Just like decor elements transform an indoor space, so too will plants rejuvenate an external space. But even if you don’t have a garden, you can still plant some herbs in pots for the kitchen or add some indoor plants to your living area.