Our homes are an extension of who we are. The things we do inside our homes shapes our mood, influences our outlook on life and affects our productivity. Studies have shown that even making small changes inside our home can have an impact on our happiness.
If this is true, then we would want to do what we can to make our houses more like home.
Say you just bought a house. Bayou Properties Realty, your residential real estate agency in Houston, did a wonderful job selling your old home and helping you find a new one. Papers have been signed and everything has been moved to the new location.
But there seems to be something amiss, a little off. You see, this wonderful new house is yours, but it has yet to feel like a home. What you need to do is make it your own. Here are a few things you can do to help make your new house feel like your home.
Break Out and Display Sentimental Items Throughout Your Home
In all likelihood, you have boxes somewhere stuffed with sentimental items gathering dust. You kept these keepsakes because they are strongly associated with happy events in your life. They make you happy when you look at them.
So really, it doesn’t make much sense to keep them stored away in a box anyway, break them out and find places for them around your home. Make your home a gallery of positive, happy memories.
A Rug Really Does Tie a Room Together
The floors of your new house seem like an unlikely place to start, but one way to unite everything in a room begins with what is under your feet.
You have probably have been in a house or apartment that feels empty for some reason. Well, it could have been because there wasn’t a nice rug to tie everything together. If your new home has hardwood floors, you should have rugs placed in every room to break things up and add to the warmth. Rugs also add some much-needed color to a room.
Lighting
Lighting represents a huge part of your design focus. And while you don’t need a professional to come in and complete a lighting project, a few lamps here and a hanging light over there can make a huge difference.
Adding or changing the lighting in a room will immediately make it feel warmer and homier. This happens because it allows you to add a personal touch and it allows you to determine the amount of lighting available in a particular room. While the previous owners may have been satisfied using only the ceiling light in the bedroom, you are much happier with two lamps and a string of lights criss-crossing the room.
Artwork
Too many people write off art as being elitist, expensive or just plain frivolous. Well, it can be all of those things and none of it depending on your opinion. But the truth of the matter is that there is beauty in paintings, sculptures, photographs and weavings.
Art adds an element to your home that makes it feel unique to you. It isn’t just a matter of swinging by Walmart and buying a picture, take the time to really look around and find something that speaks to you. This can be done at a flea market, garage sale or an auction.
Heck, you don’t even need to display a traditional piece of art, you can totally wing it. If there is a set of books that you really like, find a creative way to display them. If you can’t find professional photographs that speak to you, take your own pictures, blow them up and have them framed.
A little art will go a long way in making your new house feel like a home.
The Sounds
It’s easy to think about putting music on when we are doing certain things. For example, you never workout without your earbuds, iPod and Ed Sheeran. But when you are just putzing around the house, there is nothing to hear in the background.
We say kick out the jams when you are at home. Some of your best moods happen when you are listening to music. Let your home echo the sounds of music and you will feel warm and happy, unless someone is playing Nickelback of course.
The Smells
A house just isn’t a home unless it is full of familiar smells or good smells. This means that you can bake chocolate chip cookies every evening.
That’s not really the best advice, someone has to eat all of those cookies after all. But you get our meaning.
When you move into your new house, it isn’t going to smell familiar right away. Fill it with smells that make you drool and smile.
If you are ready to find your dream home, give Bayou Properties Realty a call.
