It takes a while to settle in a new place, even after moving and unpacking all the boxes. There’s a certain unfamiliar, almost weird, feeling that follows the big change and prevents a true sense of comfort.

Sometimes, the uncomfortable feeling goes away after you redecorate and bring out your personal stuff. Other times, it lingers around weeks and months after moving day and never truly goes away.

The truth is, making your house feel like a home is more than just being there and unpacking your belongings.

It takes time and effort to design a house that reflects your style, highlights your memories, and makes you feel cozy and warm around the heart.

A sense of home is all about perception and personal feelings, and it doesn’t only rely on where you are at the moment. You can feel at home anywhere around the globe as long as you evoke the atmosphere that makes you safe, comfortable, and happy.

Here are a few ideas for making your house feel like home quickly and without overspending:

Create a Lively Atmosphere Through Lighting

We start the list with lighting for a good reason. Once the sun sets down and the night wraps around your house, you switch to artificial lighting, relying solely on it for illuminating the area and making a cozy atmosphere. That’s when the lighting temperature, color, and intensity turn out to be of great importance.

Harsh Light Out, Ambient Light In

If you want to design a warm house, you need to stop relying on harsh, single overhead lighting and complement rooms with floor and table lamps, candles, and ambient lighting. When you illuminate only certain areas (coffee table, points of conversation, and similar), you get to create a more comfortable atmosphere throughout the entire house and reduce stress on your eyes.

Changing the Lighting Temperature

Of course, introducing additional lights is not always an acceptable financial option. That’s when we recommend changing the lighting temperature throughout the warm bulbs. Warm lights usually come from yellow bulbs with 3000k, compared to cool lights that result from blue bulbs and measure around 5000k.

While cool lights are often used for commercial purposes and working environments, warm lights are more suited for residential purposes. The former offers unmatched illumination but is harsh for the eyes, especially at resting hours. The latter doesn’t offer much clarity but certainly feels better for the eyes. Remember how candles make rooms cozy and warm? That’s because they have only about 1850k! The lower the K (kelvin), the warmer the light.

Bring Life with Plants and Flowers

Have you moved all your plants to a new house? If you didn’t or you don’t have any at all, it’s time to go shopping! Plants add life to every home and create a fresh and enjoyable atmosphere. You can also mix and match them to complement the interior and make it pop out.

Now, if buying is not an option and you still want to freshen up your home with lush greenery, there are a few alternatives. You can learn to propagate the plants you already have or ask your neighbors and friends for cuttings. Propagating the fallen succulent leaves from gardens is also an option.

Fresh flowers and living plants are a beautiful touch but if you feel this is too challenging for you, consider faux greenery. Fake plants and flowers can look as lovely as living ones. You only need to look through the market to find the most realistic pieces.

Warm Up the Space

One of the ways to make your house feel like a home is to increase the overall warmth. Nothing beats the feeling of warmness in your house during the winter. You get to enjoy your days without worrying about the extremely low temperatures and piles of snow lying on your lawn. This alone makes every house more like home, no matter if it’s a cottage or a mansion.

You can create warmth in your home in several ways. Having a good and reliable heating system is definitely necessary, but insulating the house is sometimes even more important. Placing layers between yourself and the floor and filling gaps at doors, walls, and windows guarantees a warmer and cozier feeling.

For avoiding direct contact with cold floors and preventing chilly drafts from entering the house, we recommend fluffy rugs and draft stoppers. A soft rug will keep your toes toasty and boost up your interior aesthetics at the same time. Draft stoppers, on the other hand, will fill in the gaps between your floors and doors and prevent cold air from coming inside.

Another small and discreet accessory you can use for increasing the warmth in your home and enhancing the performance of your HVAC system is a vent extender. For more similar products, check out the following page.

Add Texture

How to add texture to your home? It’s easy! You only need to bring out the things you’re compelled to look at and touch. The texture is the surface quality of a material that adds depth to the room and makes it cozier instantly. You can add texture to the room with fabrics such as velvet, faux fur, and linen.

Try covering your furniture with these materials or getting accessories in leather, ceramic, and wood. These can enhance the interior and make it much more comfortable, both for you and the visitors. You can add texture and cozy up your home with a well-styled bookshelf as well. Stack your books on the shelves and create a modern or vintage atmosphere in your living room. Your nights will instantly become warmer and cozier with a daily read and a cup of hot tea.

Compliment Your Walls with Artwork

Don’t leave your walls empty and sad! Completely void walls make a house less like home and more like a foreign space. Thus, spend some time to find just the perfect piece of art for your walls that would enhance the look of your room and add comfort to your house. If original artwork is too much for your budget, there are DIY alternatives you can try out.

Paintings and prints are always an option, but fiber art, textile wall hangings, guilts, and photographs can look amazing, too. Don’t be scared to try out different things and even make a piece of art on your own. Sometimes, personal items and DIY stuff can make a house feel like home more than highly expensive art pieces.

Display Memories

Speaking of personal items, don’t miss to bring out family photos and other items that evoke emotions and memories. Photos of your family and friends will remind you and your visitors of gatherings and cherished moments in the past. Plus, when you display them in stylish frames, you get to enhance home decor. If you’re up for a large project, try a gallery wall with combined photos and sleek one-color frames.

Souvenirs from vacations can also make your house look more beautiful and cozier. You can even put small items (think shells, rocks, tickets, and more) into a glass box and make a gallery-worthy exhibition.

Create a Signature Scent

You know how some houses smell fresh and warm straight from the door? Well, a lovely scented place is not born that way. People spend a lot of time cleaning, refreshing, and scenting their belongings to neutralize bad smells and bring out pleasant fragrances.

The secret to a nose-friendly space is all about maintaining and refreshing the area regularly. With proper cleaning, every house smells fresh and welcoming. However, those who would like to have their home smell in a specific way may want to scent it with wax melts, scented candles, essential oils, and fresh fragrant flowers.

These items allow homeowners to scent their houses naturally, without using harmful and overwhelming chemicals and deodorizers. The freshness that comes from herbs is unique and heartwarming, creating a healthy and cozy environment you can enjoy all day and night long. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the potential side effects when relying solely on natural scents in your house.

Fashion an Inviting Entrance

When your new house doesn’t feel like home, think about changing the exterior. Yes, the interior decor is essential, but you also want to feel at home every time you see your house. You want to come home and feel like you belong there even before opening the door. By keeping the entryway neat, you bring up a special kind of feeling, so don’t overlook the importance of having a few potted plants outside the door or lighting up the doorway with some warm lights.