Make Any House Your Home

Other than throwing out the welcome mat out front, what do you do to make your home really feel like home? Have you ever thought about it or do you just pull it off somehow and there it is? We are scheduled to move overseas next year, and while I am dreading the move with pets, kit and kaboodle, I am amazingly already thinking about how we are going to make our small stairwell apartment feel like home. Here are some thoughts to consider.

Along with the obligatory welcome mat, I've been thinking of what I've done here in this home and hope to carry some of these ideas over with me.

I am a BIG family photo person. Not only do I have framed photos all over the walls and a few tables, since I am a genealogy freak, I also have an entire wall with photos from my family tree! It might be overkill for some people, but, you gotta personalize, so have at least a few nice framed photographs on display.

Since we will have hardwood floors....nice huh....I can never get used to a completely "no carpeting" zone, so I will bring my one Persian rug and perhaps a few more area rugs to make it feel cozy and secure.

I love the look of nature, and I love plants...but I somehow kill every single one of them along the way. So, I will continue with my few silk plants I have here. It'll be nice walking around my new home and seeing my lighted palm tree, the ficuses and the smaller plant arrangements around the apartment. Speaking of lighted palm tree, those small white Christmas lights draped over a faux ficus tree can look homey too. I won't even begin to think about the electricity issues yet, since Germany has 220 volt and you have to use these big heavy and loud transformers to plug in your American 110 volt stuff. It's a good thing Christmas tree lights are lowcost in Germany too. Guess I will have to pick up a few.

We all have some kind of collectibles, right? Don't forget to display what you love. Well, not only do I have a few of my own, I inherited Oma's things as well as my mom's after she passed away. I group like items together to make it more orderly. Here are some suggestions on how to group your things. You can really go overboard with the knick knacks, and if you have tons of this stuff, may I also suggest...for your sanity in dusting duty and sense of order...rotate what you got. My favorites are my grandmother's old kitchen implements and my mom's Russian laquerboxes. You can also dress up your displays with strategically placed scarves or doilies, just like you see in the museums. It also helps to have some of the smaller stuff under glass. You can get shadowboxes now with hinged glass fronts, curio cabinets and those small glassed-in tables. Be sure to look for them second hand. Don't buy them new!

With the holidays underway, keep costs down, as well as all the junk we haul from duty station to duty station and think about decorating only one room to the hilt. Or how about your front door area and just the tree? There are many ways to make your house feel like home over the holidays too, and just because each of us doesn't have a whole Victorian gingerbread house we can decorate to overflowing, doesn't mean we can't enjoy what we have!

Here are a few other sites to peruse:


Make Your House Feel More Like Home


When a House Feels Like Home


Make Your House a Unique Cozy Home


10 Ways to Make Your Home a Haven

What do you do to make your house or apartment feel like home?