How to Make a House a Home
One of the things that some clients ponder on these days is when they buy a house, how can they turn it into ‘their’ home. Whether you are purchasing a condo, a huge villa or any building that becomes your dwelling, you need to add your own personality to turn it into and make it feel like your home.
The form of the house never matters as much as what goes inside it - because those are the people and the special things that transform any place into a home.
Don’t forget that making a home doesn’t need expensive furniture and a myriad of bookshelves and paintings.
All around the globe people decorate their homes in immeasurably different ways. For some homes, family-made textiles are the central point, for others, art, and for some, a clean, simple space with minimalistic furnishings is the most important. But no matter what size, shape or style your home takes, we all have our own ideas of what a home should look and feel like. Art is too often written off as being exclusive, lavish and frivolous.
But from the earliest days, people have decorated their homes with all sorts of things that mean something to them.
From natural objects that have been found (like collections of shells and pinecones) and family weavings to photographs, sculptures and paintings, art can be anything and everything you want it to be. And, most of all, it adds some part of your personality to your home that makes it feel unique to you, your interests and what you find beautiful.
If you are looking to make your rooms come to life, make a short list of the things that you love and want to see every day.
Your list could include a collection of books that you would like to display in a creative way, a family portrait, a branch you found in the park that becomes a tabletop sculpture – or anything else that makes you smile when you look at it. Give these items a special place in your home, such as on a table, on a bookshelf or hung on the wall and they will take on a whole new meaning that gives people an instant sense of what you find appealing when they visit you in your home. It seems that for most of us, creating a home is less about the building itself, but more about the emotional connection and sense of comfort we are able to create once we enter our residence and close the door. This concept of private space is crucial to our sense of wellbeing and self-expression. Personal space allows people to do what they want and truly be themselves – whether that involves doing the housework naked or watching back-to-back TV series, it is doing what you want to do. A house does not have to be worthy of a publication about interior design to make it a positive place, but it should reflect who we are and how we live our lives. You can live in cosy studio apartment or a luxurious villa, but it will not be your own unless you are aware of your emotional response to your surroundings.
The idea of “home” is about the place you feel safe and where you feel connected to other people you like.
Years ago, a home was about having a warm and safe haven, somewhere to bring up a family. You can add to that the fact that we are socialised into our expectations of what home means – many of our important memories are now created around our homes. As our memories become more and more, our homes should subtly evolve over time to reflect the different stages of our development. Our personalities are not permanent – we are changing all the time and our surroundings should reflect that. People can get into a routine about things: having a favourite chair, or their side of the bed, or a particular place on the sofa. It can be good to shake these things up, so they don’t become too habitual. Rearranging and redecorating a home is not a bad thing – change can be good and stimulating. Finally, if you want your home to make you happy, it is not necessarily about hiring an interior designer or adorning your walls with lavish paintings just because someone you know had done this. It is simply about your living space reflecting the spirit of the person you are.
