Home's Where The Heart Is: Create Spaces You Love

Pexels Photo Credit: Unsplash

Ever heard the expression 'it's a house, not a home?' Chances are your mom said it after looking at the neighbors fancy new living room, while drinking a cup of coffee in the familiar lemon colored kitchen of your childhood. It doesn't matter whether you've lived somewhere for only a few months or have been in a property for years. Sometimes, whether it's down to building delays, constant repairs or ugly decor you just can't seem to embrace it.

If you feel like your house isn't quite what you'd hoped for, or that it lacks warmth then get busy and create memory boxes, personalized photo frames or feature walls that express your hobbies, interests and family life. Why not create a travel themed photo collage? Love cooking? Have a built in bookcase on your kitchen island for recipe books. Adore gaming? Design a bespoke entertainment system or convert your basement into a fully fledged home cinema.

Let It Go

Ok, so you've had a hell of a time getting the kitchen refitted due to a dodgy building firm, delays on sparkly worktops and a hole under the washing machine that needed filling in. If you've had many decorating issues, or delays that meant having to live in an house that's less than perfect for months on end it can be hard to let that bitterness go. Try to forget how long you've had the design sketched out for, or how hard it was to get your money back after being ripped off. Now's the time to take a deep breath and just accept what's happened. You have to trust that eventually you'll have the home of your dreams, but the more you fight it, the slower progress will seem so go with the flow and you'll feel much better.

Cozy Corner

Everyone needs a small space to call their own be it a meditation area, conservatory or homemade library. Create one with a selection of screens, cushions, and shelving or if you've got a large spare room why not put up a stud wall? Dividing the room in two will give you that quiet, calming refuge that you've been looking for where you can let your imagination run wild. Want to create a Japanese-inspired Zen space? Create an indoor water feature; it's easier than you'd think, buy comfy tatami mats and a white linen day bed or look at Dunlopillo mattresses. Pipe soft Tibetan chants through your laptop's speakers and have pot plants and palms on the bare polished wooden floorboards.

However, you choose to create that 'me time' space make sure you go into your home full of positive energy. Try to leave any negativity or worries on the doorstep or talk to your partner regularly about any issues that may crop up. By making your home a stress free, safe and happy environment, you'll be far more likely to want to spend time in it instead of making excuses to stay late at work. Once you've created a haven together, you'll be more likely to want to spend 80% of your free time just hanging out, listening to music and cooking dinner together instead of running out to the pub at the first chance you get.

Pexels Photo Credit: Hoang Bin

Have Guests Over

Stop worrying that your house doesn't look like Sarah and Pete's Spanish inspired sprawling farmhouse with authentic ironwork and enjoy it for what it does have. Your friends and family love you for who you are, not how well you can match the perfect shade of teal wall to the soft white cream of a corner sofa. Your house doesn't have to be perfect before you have guests over it just needs to have enough chairs so everyone can sit down. Take the time to invite other people over to share your space. Why not have an old fashioned games night? Movie marathon? Grown up dinner party or cheese and wine evening? The more laughter and life you bring into your home, the sooner you'll learn to ease up on sourcing the perfect glass coffee table.

Magical Memories

Houses are strange things, and often they only become homes when people are getting ready to move out. One day you'll look around the living room and no longer see chairs, sofas and a TV stand, but where you snuggled up together during a snowstorm. Or the moment you told your partner you were pregnant after dinner one night. Or the time your dog hilariously to play with the Christmas tree, before bringing it all crashing down in a wave of tinsel, baubles, and fairy lights as it clipped the TV stand.

Pexels Photo Credit: Lela Johnson