I think it’s fair to say all of us, at one point or another, have walked into houses that have felt just like that, a house. They might have felt impersonal, maybe cold, and in general not very homey. Some of those houses might have even been really beautiful and looked professionally decorated, but still have not felt comfortable, warm, or inviting. There are definitely some tricks of the trade to making a house feel like a home that everyone should try to incorporate if they are looking for that warm inviting feeling in their home.
Create an Inviting Entryway
Your entryway is everybody’s first impression of your home and sets the tone and mood for the rest of your home. Having a plush rug that mirrors the style and colors of the rest of your home is a must, it also helps to define the space. Other entryway must haves include a table, mirror, a bench or some type of seating, somewhere to hang jackets and store purses and bags (whether that be a closet or hooks), and some type of lighting. Your entryway doesn’t need to be big and grand to be inviting. Having a combination of these elements in some form, even if it’s a tight space and you have a skinny entry table with a little ottoman or stool tucked under it and an even smaller mirror hanging above it creates the start to a space that is both comfortable and homey.
Seating and Fabrics
I’ve grouped seating and fabrics together because I feel like they go hand in hand. As a designer, I can tell you there is an endless number of stunning options for seating out there, however there is a slightly more limited amount of truly comfortable seating that looks really cool. If you want your house to feel homey, it’s imperative that you have plenty of seating and that it’s comfortable seating for you and your guests.
It’s also equally important that your fabrics are comfortable not only on your couches and chairs but on throw pillows, blankets, and rugs. Nobody wants to sit on couch or chair with scratchy fabric. Make sure you have layered, soft, tactile, fabrics throughout your home that make people want to cuddle up and not leave for long, long time (unless you want them to leave, then that’s a different story for another day).
Personal Touches
There is nothing that can make a house feel more sterile than when it lacks personal touches. Make sure you add personal touches, such as pictures of family and friends throughout. Also, adding pieces of art that you love or mementos from vacations that you have. Even if it’s a rock from a hike you saved from a vacation or a bottle of sand, you can find an interesting way to display it in your home that adds a unique personal touch to your space. Use the rock on a coffee table on top of a stack of books or pour the sand into a decorative glass bottle and use it to style a shelf.
Scented candles are another great personal touch to add a homey feel to your house. I have two scents of candles that I stick to at our home depending on the time of year it is. I hope whenever my kids are grown and move out of our house whenever they smell cloves they are flooded with great memories of growing up in our home in the fall and winter and whenever they smell strawberries they have fond memories of spring and summer. These are the personal touches that make a house a home.
Get Rid of Clutter
My final tip for making a house feel homey is get rid of the clutter. Nothing can make a house feel more uncomfortable to be in than too much clutter. That includes too many knick knacks, too many throw pillows, and in general too much of anything. It can feel stuffy and suffocating, and that definitely doesn’t feel homey. Take a step back and evaluate. If you feel like there might be too much of anything, take some of the things away and put them in another room. See how the space feels without it for a while, and decide if you really need those things there.
Hopefully these tips have been helpful in making your house feel more inviting and homey. I would love to hear about some of the ways you have used them your space. Feel free to reach out with any questions, I’m always happy to help!
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