Making A Rental Apartment Feel Like Home In 7 Steps

Moving to a new apartment can be an exciting experience, but it can also be a little intimidating. Many people face one of the biggest challenges – they don’t know how to make a rental feel like home

Making your new place feel like home can be a challenge. But don’t worry; there are many things you can do to make your new apartment feel cozy and inviting. After all, everyone has a different idea of home comfort and creates it for themselves. What is a convenience for you? Is its pillows and blankets or lots of plants?

I have prepared some great tips for you on how to make a new house feel like home. Read on and create the ultimate cozy experience for yourself.

#1: Starting With The Most Important Things – Cleanliness And Housekeeping

People often wonder how to feel at home and forget that a comfortable home environment depends primarily on order. So it is worth paying attention to the cleanliness of the house. Is enough time given to putting in an order in each room, and how often do family members do a joint general cleaning? 

Cleaning is not only comfort but also safety. If family members suffer from allergies, they are better off living in a clean environment. After all, in a dirty house, it is much easier to get sick. 

To make the transition to a new home go as smoothly as possible for everyone, you must ensure that cleaning is done correctly and regularly.

To make your new house feel like home, you need to create a space that reflects your style and makes you feel comfortable. You will quickly feel at home by taking a little time to personalize your new home. Here are a few ways:

#2: Apartment Landscaping – Create An Oasis In Your Home

Indoor plants are a source of oxygen, a natural atmosphere, and beautiful home decor. Choose plants you like – they can be ficuses, palms, orchids, violets, etc.

Don’t have time for flowers? Consider cacti and succulents – they’re easy to care for and don’t require much watering.

Green plants will be appropriate for any interior: loft, Scandinavian, minimalism, classical, or even ultra-modern high-tech. Therefore, you will feel like a home apartment in any interior with plants.

Tip: complete the vases with houseplants with beautiful cut flowers. In a vase, you can put both fresh bouquets (look out for seasonal flowers – they reflect the mood outside the window and are usually cheaper than specially grown) and dried flowers. Especially since today, you can find original vases that will become a natural room decoration.

#3: Change The Accents

• Add bright colors to the interior;
• Change the color of upholstered furniture;
• Add small items to the interior, such as cushions, plaids, etc.

Did you know that changing the accents in a room can completely change its mood and atmosphere and thereby make the new house feel like home? For this reason, many designers recommend choosing basic light or dark shades for the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Brightness is added to the room decor elements, harmoniously blended into the interior. It can be colorful cushions, curtains, or the original chair. So, for example, a white or beige living room with red accents seems bright and extraordinary. You can change the mood by replacing all elements of red with another shade. For example, by changing the scarlet upholstery of the chair for blue, you will make the interior more gentle and calm.

Moreover, you can change shades at least several times a year – each time you get bored with the accent colour in the room.

Important: don’t overdo it with accents. If your favorite color is too much, the interior will cease to be stylish and turn into a bright tasteless stain. In such a room, you will not be able to feel at home. 

#4: Create Your Gallery

Paintings have been used as room decorations for centuries ago. Of course, you can’t place originals of talented artists (and you don’t need them). However, copies of masterpieces or paintings by modern masters will also fit perfectly into the interior. Today, paintings are complemented by stylish posters and personal photographs, which bring us back to pleasant memories and create a sense of home.

It is the easiest and perhaps the most budget-friendly option for decorating the walls in the house. The suitable canvas helps you feel like a home apartment and visibly transforms the space. It can be a portrait, a delicate and romantic landscape, abstract drawings, still lifes, etc.

Tip: remember that any canvas on the wall, a painting, a poster or a photograph is an accessory. And accessories, both in clothing and interior, should not be more than the main decor. 

#5: Textiles Are A Real Source Of Cozy Atmosphere

What else would help to create a cozier interior than a beautiful fabric in the interior? Textiles are a popular décor that makes you feel at home. And most importantly – it is relevant in all rooms:

• living room: carpet, plaid or cushions on the sofa, curtains, tulle;
• kitchen: cushions on chairs, kitchen textile (even gloves or small towels), tablecloth, curtains;
• bedroom: bed linen, bedspread, tulle and curtains, high pile carpet;
• bathroom: towels, shower curtain.

Of course, it is essential to choose the textile decor by the style of the interior. So the result will be harmonious and complete.

Change textiles according to your mood, and experiment with shades and patterns. It is inexpensive and easy to give a room a cozy atmosphere without repairing.

Tip: one of the latest trends is the combination of carpets. And not a simple one – but with the layering of products on top of each other. For example, it can be a small bright rug with patterns on a sizeable monochrome carpet.

#6: Add Individuality To The Interior

Make the new house feel like home with all sorts of “trinkets” from you. Keeping souvenirs, you brought back from vacation? Don’t hide them – let the memories of your trip always be in plain sight. Also, stylish, authentic souvenirs can be beautifully integrated into the interior.

Take part in various competitions? Or maybe it was you who ran the marathon last month? Why not hang a medal or diplomas on the wall? When the interior reveals the homeowner’s personality, it a priori becomes unique and stylish.

#7: Decorate Rental Apartment With Improvised Materials

To transform the space beyond recognition and completely change the room’s mood and atmosphere, it is not necessary to buy new furniture and decorations. It is quite possible to do with improvised items.

One of your hobbies is needlework, or have you long wanted to try to create something with your own hands? Here are a few simple options on how to feel like a home apartment with decorations from handmade materials:

• Knitting. If you knit, try making beautiful rugs, garlands, curtains, or pillows. And, by the way, you do not need to know how to knit – you can decorate the room with colorful pompoms – balls of thread strung on a rope;
• Dishes. The best decor from dishes (and in addition to plates, it can be cutlery, a tray, or even pieces of broken pottery) looks, of course, in the kitchen. However, it can be used in the living room or hallway;
• Paper. You can create beautiful garland, volumetric decor, origami, and more from plain cardboard or colored paper. It is fast, cheap, looks very original, and makes the new house feel like home.
• Paints. If you like painting, try drawing beautiful art on the wall. It is not necessary to do everything by hand – you can use a pre-prepared stencil.

How To Make A Small Rental Apartment Cozy?

Often the owners of small, one-room apartments have problems with the room arrangement. At first, glance, making a small apartment cozy may seem impossible and, to put it mildly, problematic. Most often, this is because the size of one-room living space is small, and one room has to combine a place to sleep, receive guests, and work. 

However, even in a small studio apartment, you can create comfort by using small tricks. Fascinating techniques will help to visually increase even the smallest rooms and add light and home warmth to the room.

Create Your Looking-Glass World

The mirror is not just an accessory needed for hygiene procedures and morning gatherings at work. It is also a stylish decorative element that can visually enlarge the area of a small room. The mirror reflects space and light, making the room seem more spacious and bright and allowing you to feel like you are at a big home.

Of course, there is not always room for a large floor mirror in a small apartment. In such a case, it is better to come up with an alternative decor:

• mirrored doors;
• closets with a mirror on the doors;
• for the kitchen – a mirror apron.

Light Palette

The more light a room has, the more spacious it looks. It is a basic rule that all designers use.

To get a cozy, stylish space in a small apartment, use light, warm tones for finishing, furniture, and decor elements (cold shades make the interior more austere).

• Note. You better use 1-2 bright elements to make the interior more stylish. Be sure to think about the right combination of colours.

Like getting ideas on decorating your house? Check the home decoration category to get even more valuable tips.

FAQ