Creating a home when it’s not your house

Apartment dwellers live with the unique challenge of creating a personal style when you can’t do a major renovation. In addition to that, apartments are often just a place you are passing through on the way to home ownership. In every apartment I have lived I had to create a welcoming refuge with stark white walls, a minimal number of holes added to the wall, and a minuscule budget.

There are a few basic guidelines for creating a personal space in an apartment. Creating a home in someone else’s house begins with acceptance of the things that you have no control over, and then decorate around the things you can control. The goal of apartment decorating is to display your favorite things, add your favorite colors, and generally create a space that says “you.” The benefit of apartment decorating is that you can take all the stuff with you when you move to create a personal space in your next home too.

Accept the Things I cannot Change

The first step in creating a home in an apartment is to accept all the things that you cannot change. In my apartment, it’s white walls, dirty carpet, evidence of shoddy paint jobs inside, and peeling paint outside. There is nothing that I can do about it. I’ve done what I can (cleaned the carpet), and let the rest go because I can’t change it.

Change the Things I can.

Eliminate Clutter This is the where good home decoration begins. It’s probably the most difficult part, but remember the first step in creating a welcoming refuge is creating order. For decluttering help, check out FLYlady.net.

Incorporate Color. There are lots of places where you can incorporate color to counteract those white walls: Fresh flowers, slip covers, pillows, throw blankest, rugs, posters, art work, etc.

Full Spectrum Lighting. I recommend using full spectrum bulbs throughout your house, especially during the daylight-deprived winter. I saw full spectrum compact fluorescent lights (CFL ). Use floor lamps wherever possible. Floor lamps are easier on the eyes than overhead. Get a dimmer switch for your bedside lamp to help you wind down at the end of the day. Whenever possible, take advantage of natural light.

Window Coverings. This is another great place to add color to your house. I like having double layer curtains. The inner layer is sheer curtains to let the light through while maintaining privacy. The second layer is a coordinating color, but is solid fabric. The solid curtains can be closed at night to hold in heat in your house (in the winter) and to add to your privacy at night.

These are just a few ways to turn a house or an apartment into your home. Home is a condition of the heart, more than a condition of the home.

Tags: Inspiration

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.