We’ve been in our house for over three years, and I feel like I’m only just now really getting into making it truly feel like home. Maybe it was a matter of money (buying a house and then having a wedding 8 months later totally drained our bank account!), or maybe it’s because of an improvement in my mental health, but it’s been so nice to dedicate some time to think about what the house is missing and what would make it feel even more home-y. I thought I’d share some of our plans for the house as well as some specific items we’ve had our eyes on.
When people walk into our house (whenever that will be allowed again), I want it to feel calming, warm, and welcoming. I’ve been scouring Pinterest as well as taking notes on friends’ homes for ideas on how to curate that feeling.
Big Plans
The biggest thing we’re saving for, and we’ve been thinking about doing this since we first bought the house, is to completely redo the kitchen. Right now our kitchen is quite small and doesn’t get much light, and it’s separated by a wall from a small dining room we don’t use. We’re planning on taking out the wall and creating one big kitchen/dining space. I’ve always dreamed of having a kitchen island, and opening this space up will make it possible. The door we usually use to enter and exit our house leads into the kitchen, but it’s very close to the oven - you can’t have the door and the oven open at the same time. So when we knock out the wall, we’re also considering moving the door down the wall a few feet to give the oven some room. We’ll also get new cabinets and countertops since ours are outdated. I’d love to replace the oven with one of those stacked double ovens (my meal-prepping time on Sundays would be cut in half!) and our split sink with a deep farmhouse sink, but we’ll see how much the rest of the kitchen adds up. We’re hoping we’ll have enough saved in the next year or two for all this!
Kitchen
I’ve already started updating some things here and there, and I’m really happy with how much more comfortable the house feels already. The biggest improvement was getting some shelves for the kitchen. As I said, our kitchen is on the smaller side, and we didn’t have much counter space. We started using a folding table to keep some appliances on, like the toaster and coffee maker, but I wanted something that looked like it actually belonged in the space. I found this baking rack and matching shelf on Amazon and knew they’d be perfect. They’re actually really good quality too - super sturdy, and they look nice despite not being real wood. I love that we now have extra storage space for pots and pans, which freed up some space under our cabinets. And now I have somewhere to display cookbooks! I want the kitchen to feel as warm and comforting as possible since it’s the first room you enter in the house. I think a small area rug like this in front of the door or in front of the shelves would be nice! We’ve also been saying for months that we need a new set of plates and bowls - we bought the set we have now when we moved into our first place together almost five years ago, and as it was just the cheapest set we could find at the time, they haven’t really aged well. Almost every single piece has a big chip in it. I’ve been swooning over the tableware from Our Place - you’ve probably seen how obsessed I am with the Always Pan by now, and I can’t get over how chic the rest of their products look.
We have one wall in the kitchen where I don’t really know what I should hang there - right now we have a small 8”x8” painting I made in an art class in college. It’s just of a green apple with a red and blue background (the class was on painting materials, and we all had to paint the apple when we were learning how to mix colors), and although my husband says it’s his favorite painting (he’s too sweet to me), I’d like something 1) bigger in size and 2) done with perhaps a little more skill. I like the idea of keeping it food/drink-related. I like this cocktails print and this set of herb prints.
Living Room
We’ve also made a lot of progress in the living room this year - we spent a few months having no couch in there (my husband moved our old couch to the basement and put it on a platform he built with his dad behind the other basement couch to make “stadium seating”), and at the beginning of the year we finally got this one from Bob’s. It, obviously, made such a huge difference to be able to actually use the room. More recently, we switched out our small bookshelf to a larger IKEA one so our books can actually be displayed neatly. I’m really happy with the living room and don’t think we need to add much - maybe another area rug under the couch like this, and a smaller coffee table like this one (I’d prefer a smaller round one now that our couch has the attached chaise lounge).
Bedroom
I think our bedroom needs the most help - right now, it almost feels like a dorm room with things kind of thrown together. I hope to be able to make it a really relaxing space. We’re considering upgrading to a king-sized bed since the dogs take up so much room on the bed at night, but the measurements seem like it’ll be a little tight. Either way, I’m dying to get a real headboard or at least a nice bedframe instead of the metal one the mattress came with. And some nice bedding! Right now our bedding is just three throw blankets stacked up with mismatching sheets and pillowcases. It’s comfortable and gets the job done, but I think a matching set would just pull the room together. I’ve had Brooklinen bedding on my wishlist since we moved into the house, but I’m not sure I want to spend a lot when the dogs will be rolling all over it. I’m sure I sound like a broken record to my husband about the furniture in our bedroom - it’s been bothering me for years that doesn’t match! I have a black dresser from IKEA that we only got because I needed one when we first moved in together, and the black one was the only color our IKEA had in stock. His dresser is an old one he took from home when we first moved. I love this set. The last thing the bedroom really needs is new paint - it’s a yellowy beige color right now that isn’t bad, but I think something like a soft light gray or blue would make the room feel more relaxing!
I love our house and the memories we’ve already created there, but I’m looking forward to doing more to really make it feel like our home! We’re planning on it being our forever home, so we have lots of time to make it perfect.
Is the extra time at home making you want to redecorate? Where are your favorite places to look for home decor inspiration?
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