The short answer is to make your home comfortable and relaxing. Many people struggle with this concept and wonder how to do it. But the key is to apply some basic principles that add comfort and make relaxation easy. Here are the main principles:
Focus on the functions of the rooms.
The old adage that “form follows function” is true. A house can only feel like a home if the rooms serve their function well. It is because a house has to be comfortable to feel like a home, and a room can only be comfortable if it functions. So a bedroom you cannot sleep in or a dining room you cannot eat in would be uncomfortable. Also, to feel like a home, every dwelling must provide at least the following functions:
Shelter from the elements
One or more places to sleep
One or more places to eat
One or more places to get clean
One or more places to relax
Some homes provide extra functions (such as a place to exercise, earn income, or park a car). You should determine the function(s) of every room in your house and furnish the room to meet those functions. Also, all the rooms combined must provide all the required functions of a home.
Pick timeless decor over trendy decor.
Trends by their very nature are short-lived. The trendier something is, the sooner it goes out of fashion. Also, the dumber it looks when it does. This is bad enough if the trends are for cheap clothing, but it is disastrous when applied to your house. Now interior design merchants often try to push trends. This practice is for their benefit and not yours.
Chasing interior design trends means continually re-furnishing or remodeling. This will waste large amounts of your effort, time, and money. Also, your house will feel like a perpetual work in progress and never a home. You are much better off choosing a timeless style and sticking with it.
Keep it tidy.
Tidiness is important to the quality of a space, and there is no such thing as a beautiful pigsty. A messy or cluttered room presents visual noise which can add a lot of stress. We might have inherited this response from our early ancestors. After all, visual noise can mask the presence of a dangerous animal. This would make it difficult to relax in such an environment. Tidiness removes this visual noise so that your house will feel more relaxing like a home.
Have a proper place for everything.
Keeping things in their proper places is essential to tidiness. Otherwise, the place will be a chaotic mess if nothing was in its proper place. Also, keeping things in their proper places helps with convenience. It means that you don’t have to go searching for anything because you already know where it is. There is also a lower chance of tripping over things that shouldn’t have been in your path. So, keeping things in their proper places will let your home look and function better. This will help your house to feel like a home.
Get rid of things you don’t use.
Things you don’t use waste your resources. They waste the space in your home. Sometimes they prevent you from finding proper places for the things you use. When that happens, they cause clutter which degrades the quality of your space. Along with ruining your decor, clutter makes it easy to misplace the things you use. This will waste a lot of time that you spend searching for them. Sometimes you can’t find them, so you have to buy replacements for what you misplaced. This is one way that useless things waste your money. Get rid of things you don’t use and your house will be more spacious, tidier, and more tranquil. You will have more time and money too.
Personalize your memorabilia and decorations.
Decorations can make your house feel more like a home, especially if they mean something to you. So a picture you bought on vacation will probably work better than one you bought at the local store. The reason is that the one you bought on vacation is connected to a personal experience. There are many other reasons why a piece of memorabilia might have a special meaning to you. But you should never keep anything that brings up bad memories.
Keep a garden if and only if it is feasible.
If it is feasible, a garden can make your house feel like a home. It can provide a fun hobby as well as a beautiful place to relax outdoors. It can even provide organic vegetables and herbs. So a garden can be a great addition to your home if it is feasible. But if you don’t have both the time and space for it, you will be better off without it.
Have comfortable places to relax throughout the house.
Your house should have at least one place to relax. In fact, there is nothing that should prevent you from having many places to relax. The living room and bedroom are obvious rooms to have places to relax. But you can also have a place to relax on a back porch, in a garden, a kitchen, or even a sunroom.
In summary, here are some of the ways to make your house feel like a home:
Focus on the functions of the rooms.
Pick timeless decor over trendy decor.
Keep it tidy.
Have a proper place for everything.
Get rid of things you don’t use.
Personalize your memorabilia and decorations.
Keep a garden if and only if it is feasible.
Have comfortable places to relax throughout the house.
These principles will make your house comfortable and relaxing. They will help to make your house feel like a home.