*This post contains gifted products.
One thing you’ll often hear about new builds is that they lack character and a sense of home with their white-washed, grey carpets. Sure, a new build home is always going to lack the character that a Victorian or an Edwardian property might have, but there are many benefits to a new build, too. And there are a lot of quick, easy ways to make your new build house a home.
We moved into our new build property in December 2020, and despite being pretty short of funds, with next to zero experience of interiors, I’d argue that we’ve done a half-decent job of making our new build feel more like home so far. By no means is it a finished job (I still have a list the length of my arm that I want to do), but there are a few touches that have allowed us to put our own stamp on the place. Here’s what we’ve done:
From new build house to home
1. All the gallery walls
One of my biggest tips for a new build is to wait until you paint. I’ve heard countless stories from people who have decided to paint or wallpaper, before realising a month or few down the line they’ve changed their mind. I really think that moving into a new home, you need to understand how you’re going to live and operate in it. Learn how the different rooms work, where you spend your time and how you’d like to feel. Gallery walls are a great temporary option for adding a bit of character to space, without making permanent changes.
We’ve ended up with 4 gallery walls throughout the house. We have a darker, natural gallery wall in our living room to add some warmth and cosy to an otherwise bright, white room. We opted for a ledge style gallery wall with my New York City prints from my old bedroom in our main bedroom. New York City is a special place for Jamie and me, so adds that personal touch to the bedroom. And in the spare bedroom/dressing room, we matched the prints to the pink sofa bed to add to the feminine theme while trying to keep the room bright and light. Finally, back downstairs, we have a more personal gallery wall in the dining room, made up of photos of Jamie and I’s best moments in our relationship.
The best thing about gallery walls is you can quickly switch them up. You can completely change the vibe of a room with a few different prints. Or, if you use command strips (these have been a total lifesaver since we’ve moved in), you can remove the gallery wall altogether with no damage left behind.
2. Pick your colour themes and schemes
A room can very easily be tied together with a good colour scheme. Plus, it can be relatively simple and cheap to do so without any need for permanent paint jobs. We’ve currently got two rooms with a clear colour theme: the living room and the spare bedroom. Our living room is such a big, bright space, helped by the bay window and opening into the dining room, that we really wanted to make it as cosy as possible. The dark grey corner sofa, and deep, natural gallery wall helps to add to that warm vibe.
Whereas in our second bedroom, also known as my dressing room, we’ve had a bit of fun with it. I always dreamed of a pink velvet sofa and this was the perfect opportunity. A sofa bed made sense – we didn’t have a need for a full bed, so the sofa bed takes up half the size, but will still come in handy when we have guests over. Matching the pink sofa bed is the scallop velvet chair from Aldi, and a pink-themed gallery wall from Desenio. I know this bedroom won’t always be my dressing room, so I really loved being able to have a bit of fun with this one.
3. Add the little touches
There are a few little touches across our home which I think reflect our personality really well. The coffee and cocktails prints in the kitchen for one (I’ll let you decide who’s the coffee and cocktail fan out of our relationship).
The photo gallery wall in the dining room is another project I love which we actually got done pretty soon after moving in. I’m a firm believer that every house should have some photos displayed to make it really feel like a home.
And the really small touches like our ‘Nice Bum’ mountra by Sighh in our downstairs loo adds a little bit of fun to the place and reflects our personality as a couple so well.
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What are your top tips for making a house a home?
Lucy x
