How to Make a New Space Feel Like Home

It’s been roughly a month since the official 1st of July Moving Day, and for those who did change location, it’s time to settle in and make the new space something to call home. That can also apply to those who have been in their new house for a few months or even years; sometimes it takes a while to get used to a new space. I moved almost a year ago and I am still learning to know my apartment. As a follow-up to my Moving Starter Pack post (read it here), I will be sharing tips on how to make your new space feel like home.

When you’ve just moved into a new house or apartment, it’s normal to feel like it’s not perfectly right for you yet. That being said, it can be quite alarming. A few weeks after our move, I started second-guessing the decision to move here, because the apartment didn’t feel like ours yet. I thought maybe it wasn’t the place for us. Now, a couple months later, our little nook in the heart of Montreal feels 100% ours and it’s become what we call home. It’s a process that can take a while – there are a lot of new things to get used to – but here are a few tips that might help speed things up a little.

Hang artwork or pictures
Ironically, I’ve never been one to take many pictures of the people around me. At a birthday party, I’m never one to scream “Gather ‘round, let’s take a family picture!”. I like taking snaps of things that are happening in the moment, rather than staging a picture. Consequently, I don’t have very many photos of me with the people that I love. It’s a shame, because hanging picture frames filled with happy memories is a great way to claim a new space. It’s a great reminder that your loved ones are always close by, even as you’re beginning this new chapter of your life. A lot of people actually take their picture frames with them whenever they travel, kind of like old Rose in Titanic. If you’re moving in with someone, why not hang a picture of you together to make the space feel more personalized? Since my boyfriend and I don’t really own framed pictures, we decorated our apartment with pieces of artwork and photography. Most of these were purchased before we moved and used to decorate our bedrooms in our parent’s house, so they are solid tokens of teenage years. The goal here is to 1) spend time decorating your new space and 2) adorn it with things that are meaningful to you. It’s not about hanging the biggest Monet in your living room; it’s about bringing souvenirs with you as you move through life.

Objects from before
Similarly to the artwork pieces that we brought from our parent’s house, it feels comforting to have objects from your previous home. It can be anything, like a comforter, some pillows, towels, or even pieces of furniture. Trying to feel at home in a space that is filled with new stuff is very difficult, because you have absolutely nothing anchoring you down. It’s like nothing is holding you there, you’re just drifting. Bringing your favorite possessions with you not only is comforting, but it also gives your brain a little nudge that says: “hey, this is home”.

Familiar scent
Remember when you were a kid, and you would go over to a friend’s house for a play date? Remember how, the minute you walked into the door, you would be hit by a strange smell? Every house has a different smell, and it’s something that we heavily rely on to know where we are safe. When it’s a smell that you know, you know you can relax. When it’s a new smell – maybe even a smell that you do not like – you know that you’re not on known territory. In other words, you know you’re not home. When you’re just moving in, it is to be expected that the new space smells weird to you. It might smell like paint and saw dust if it’s recently been renovated, or it might smell like the Friday night lasagna of the previous tenant. Either way, you quickly want to replace that smell with your own. To do that, there’s no secret solution: you have to live in the space. Bake a batch of your favorite cookies, cook meals after meals to fill your kitchen with delicious aromas, burn your favorite candles… Anything that will leave a familiar scent behind. After a while, when you come through the door, the smell won’t be the same anymore. When you don’t even notice the smell anymore, you know that you are home. It’s kind of a primitive way to explain things, but we have a nose for a reason other than knowing when something delicious is cooking!

Bake & Cook
Not only will baking and cooking fill your house with a delicious aroma, it’ll also give you the feeling that you’re home. Chinese take-out is fun for the first few days, but at some point, you got to start using the kitchen. At first, it’ll probably feel a little awkward, because you’re not used to the configuration. The first few times that I cooked in my new kitchen, I kept reaching for things that weren’t there anymore, like my body thought I was still in my parent’s kitchen. Over time, however, I started to feel more and more at ease. I love baking, so one of the first things I did was to buy flour and sugar, along with basic ingredients to make cookies and cakes. My boyfriend and I organized our drawers in a way that made sense to us. We filled the fridge with all of our favorite food (ice cream for me, spinach for him.). The kitchen quickly started feeling like ours, and that feeling slowly extended to the rest of the apartment.

Invest in your space
Whether that’s time, energy or money, investing in your new space will make it gain value in your own eyes. And when something is valuable to us, it becomes important. And when something is important, it becomes a little closer to what we call home. For example, if you spend time painting a room and really commit to making it as beautiful and cozy as possible, chances are that’ll become your favorite room in the whole entire house, simply because you’re so invested in it. What we invest in becomes important to us, because we want our investment to be worthwhile. Similarly, if you invest energy and creativity into your new space – by decorating it, organizing, etc. – you’ll be amazed at how quickly it’ll start to feel like… well, like you.

Have friends over
I’m a massive introvert, so when we moved on our own, it was easy for my boyfriend and I to unconsciously become hermit. It took us months to have friends over at our house. However, when we finally did, it filled our hearts and our home in a way that’s impossible to describe. It can be tempting to wait until you’re fully settled in to invite people over. But when you think about it, why would you do that? Of course, it’s nice to have the basics covered; functioning bathroom, kitchen table, wifi and a fridge full of kombucha. But you don’t necessarily need to be fully installed and equipped to have your closest friends over for lunch or coffee. Friends can even help you settle into your apartment! It’s a nice way to give life to your new space.

I hope these tips were helpful to you and will help you build a home. I think it’s so important that have a cozy place to come back to at the end of the day, somewhere you know you are safe and are able to relax. I encourage you to make a space your own by using your creativity and getting inspired by things that make you happy.

Until next time,

Much love,