To make your new home feel more homely – like it’s yours – you needn’t throw money at the problem. Just a few small adjustments can be all it takes to feel like you’ve lived in it for years.
1. Swap Out Cabinet Hardware for a Personal Touch
The kitchen and its cabinets are often the most disliked aspect of a new home. Replacing cabinet knobs and pulls is a really quick way to give your kitchen a fresh feel, and warm metals like brushed bronze are popular choices to add style and warmth.
2. Upgrade to a Rainfall Shower head
A rainfall shower head can turn a basic stock bathroom into a relaxing retreat. High-pressure shower heads offer a full, satisfying rinse while saving water. This upgrade elevates your daily shower, and to go a step further, pick one of the fun or stylish shower curtains to match. This can radically transform your morning shower experience for such little cost.
3. Light Switches
Changing your light switches is a really obscure but effective way to make a home feel like it’s yours. It’s something you use various times a day and hardly think about, but people often subconsciously dislike their stock switches. They can be surprisingly dirty and discoloured, too. This is also a chance to add a dimmer switch, which gives you greater control and agency over the lighting in your room.
4. Install an Air Quality Monitor
Adding an air quality monitor can make a big difference in creating a healthier living space – even if it’s just psychological at first. This is particularly important if you’ve moved into a home with damp problems that you’re waiting to sort out. But it can also give you more freedom to dry clothes indoors, too.
5. Door Handles and Locks
Swapping out door handles and locks is an easy way to refresh the look of your interior doors while also booting home security. Trends lean toward warm metals like brushed and satin gold, featuring minimalist designs with clean lines, but the point is to go for what you feel is homely.
6. Accent Paint to Create Bold Focal Points
Painting accent walls in rich tones is a great way to add personality and focus in a room. In fact, you can radically change the depth and atmosphere of a room over the span of a weekend, making it feel like yours. Popular colours in 2024 were deep blacks, earthy greens and balanced whites.
7. Frame Your Bathroom Mirror
Adding a frame to your bathroom mirror instantly enhances its style, turning it into a feature piece. Curved and frameless mirrors are popular for their modern look, often with LED lighting for extra function. Ultimately, you could opt for a tone that matches the shower head and shower curtain.
Turning a house into a home doesn’t have to mean big renovations or hefty expenses. Simple, thoughtful updates can create a space that feels uniquely yours. Not just because you prefer the aesthetic, but the act of making those changes is what generates feelings of agency and ownership. Most of these tips could be exercised over a long weekend.