I’d always been a big fan of bright colours and that whole ‘shabby chic’ home ware vibe up until the last year or so. I don’t know if it’s from growing up or just fancying a change but these days I like minimal homeware. I like neutral colours, everything put away, but the only thing is that this can make the house look a little soul less and dare I say it… boring?
Although I do love, having everything away tidily, I did have some struggles feeling like our new house was ours as I didn’t feel it was homely. I had a good look online at some home decor sites, Pinterest and blogs, and they suggested some different things to make your house more homely and well today I finally feel a lot more settled (okay well this didn’t all happen today but you get my drift) so I thought I’d blog about some of the things that have helped make the house feel a lot more homely, just incase you’ve ever to feel like this too about a new house!
Candles: I bloody love a candle, like if you know me and never know what to get me for birthday/Christmas/general day cause I’m hopefully a nice person – just buy me a candle. If I could live in a house just full of candles then I would, I just find that lighting one (or 100) makes the home feel a little more cosy (esp in wintery cold weather.) Atm, my faves are my winter Yankee Candles, our Yankee Candle wax melt and latest addition The White Company Lime & Bay candle, though I’ve been burning that one a little too much lately and now I’m like ‘noooo please last longer.’ Candles don’t have to cost a lot of money, and I just think they add a homely feel to the room. Pick one that is your fave scent which will then fill the room, this is good to do if you’ve just moved in somewhere new and the smell is a little unfamiliar.
Fresh Flowers: Bit of a cliche, but don’t you feel like you are a proper grown up when you have fresh flowers in the house? Well I do, but then I feel grown up when I go to Tesco all by myself so you know it doesn’t take much. I love buying fresh flowers, I’ll pop them in a vase and feel like they just add a little something to the room. I like having fresh pink roses in the living room or in the kitchen. Recently though I bought some very realistic looking faux peonies which add a bit of colour to my office, and well I don’t need to worry too much about looking after them either! Winner winner chicken dinner.
Photos & Prints: I felt like our house became a bit more like a home when we started putting stuff on the walls, whether it’s photo frames dotted around or a print on the wall, it adds a little personality to the room. As I’ve mentioned about 74367463 times lately, I love Etsy for finding prints for the house. I love our New York map print that we have in our living room, I feel it brings the room together a little more. We also added prints to our bedroom wall which also helps it from looking too soulless and white!
Fairy Lights: I am a sucker for fairy lights I tell you, I own so many it could be concurred that I am single handily keeping the fairy light business going. I love Christmas mainly for the fact of the decorations, I love how the house looks with the tree and all the lights, so when we put them away in January, I couldn’t bare to say goodbye to all the fairy lights. You can pick up cheap battery powered fairy lights from everywhere these days and I have some draped around our fireplace, and when it’s dark, we light the candles and out the lights on and it looks so cosy. I’ve also got some in our bedroom that I’ll sometimes pop on if I’m having an early night and snuggling down with a book, I just think they’re pretty and just make things little more interesting in the house.
Cushions and Blankets: If Henry reads this post, he’ll roll his eyes to high heaven as he hates my obsession with cushions. But I think having cosy cushions and blankets really help to make the place feel more cosy and welcoming. You want to snuggle down in the evenings and you can do this quite easily. I love our £5 Primark fleecy blankets which we snuggle up in every night, you can pop Netflix on and just get cosy. I think part of making a house a home, is making it comfy and cosy, you want to live in it, not just have it as a show home. Another cosy thing I would do is get really comfy bedding for your bed. I struggled to sleep when we first moved into our new place as I just didn’t feel settled, so having a really cosy duvet, brushed cotton sheets and a couple of new pillows, meant that bedtime was something to look forward to. I started to feel more comfortable each night and before I knew it, I was back to sleeping normally.
I don’t think it takes a lot of money to make a house a home, I think just having personal things out that you love and mean a lot to you can help, as well as candles and snuggly things that make you enjoy spending time in your home. I finally feel settled in our new place, it’s taken me the longest to settle here than I have anywhere else, but all these things have really helped me and sometimes it does just take time. What do you think makes a house more homely?
