There’s some old saying that goes something along the lines of a gentleman’s home being his castle, and although outdated (women may own property as well) the sentiment of the phrase still rings true. Your home is very much that, yours. As such, care and attention should be taken when making decisions about what type of home you should have and how you might set it up. It’s all very personal, and you should be wary of just going with the current trends, your choices will always to some degree reflect the style of the time as invariably that is what will be most prominently available. A balance is important between what looks good now and what will stand the test of time. Here are seven top tips as to how to go about making your home reflect your lifestyle.
Decorate with a Theme in Mind
For any project, a plan is essential, and when creating a look for your home it is essential to stay on theme. The first thing to consider is the colors you wish to use? Are you looking for something neutral or muted, this can allow other features of the property to stand out and take prominence? If you are considering using a bold or dark color scheme, consider whether this may make rooms feel smaller and claustrophobic? Lots of natural light is useful if using bold colors to avoid a dank and enclosed feel. Consider how colors might complement each other.
Consider the Age and Style of the Property When Choosing Furniture
There is much to consider when choosing furniture. You may have a range of furniture that you have accumulated through various house moves, and subsequently, they may not match the style of your current home, or even match each other. It may then be time for a renewal of one or several rooms. Look at the age and style of your home when deciding what type of furniture to buy. If you live in an old farm-house then perhaps traditional or antique pieces would fit in well. A modern apartment would require a much more contemporary look that wouldn’t be right in an older property.
Consider Hobby Rooms
If you are fortunate enough to have extra rooms in your house, then what to do with them? Spare rooms are always nice, but how many do you need? Extra rooms could be utilized as hobby rooms. Whatever your passion or hobby is there is a way you can remodel a room for that purpose, music rooms with sound-proofing, home gyms, craft rooms, and gaming areas are all options.
Dual Purpose Commercial/Residential Properties
Some professions benefit from having your business based at home. Look at this site to find a Horse Property for Sale in Utah as if you keep horses or any other animals, it makes sense to live where you are keeping the animals. Other examples of dual-purpose residential and commercial properties could be where you have an apartment above a store you own. Maybe you run a small hotel or B & B where being on-site all of the time make*s sense for operational reasons? Having one set of property outgoings certainly can only be taken as a positive, but on the negative side, you must be wary of never being away from your workplace.
Exterior Decoration
Often people neglect to consider how the exterior of the building they live in looks. Buildings get grubby and worn down very slowly and over a long period. Take house painting as an example, it is when you stop to have a close look you may notice that it requires renewing, and there is nothing quite like having a shiny new coat of paint on the exterior walls to make your building sparkle. Other features may need attention such as masonry requiring cleaning or blasting, or timber facings requiring sanding, treatment, or replacing over time. Be sure to get any work done by qualified professionals.
Garden Design
On the subject of the exterior, the garden space in a property is something that is often overlooked when we think of personalization. Sure, you can choose different features and landscaping ideas such as decking, paving, lawns, and planting. All of these are important and, of course, you need to balance budget and desire here. Good landscaping contractors should be able to accurately give you an estimation of the cost of what a project will roughly come in at. But be warned, full garden projects can run into five-figure sums. Set a budget and then figure out what’s most urgent and also most desirable for you to have done and start planning on that basis.
As well as these regular old ideas that everyone has that may look nice but are ultimately just a variation on a theme. You might want to consider something a little more bespoke. If you have an activity you might want to consider having an area dedicated to it. We’ve seen ideas such as basketball courts, putting greens, and even artificial climbing walls.
Balance Personalization with Sell-On Value
As much as it’s good to make things your own you do need to consider how the property would appeal to any prospective buyers should you decide to move on at any point. There are two ways of looking at this. Firstly, you might want to play it safe and make décor and other features moderate and appealing to the masses, but this rather defeats the purpose of what we are trying to achieve. The other potential option is to consider how easy it might be to alter any of the personalization you might have put in place. Furniture is the easy one it’s going with you and, as such, shouldn’t be an issue. Other aspects, such as design and garden renovations, will be costly to reverse, and you should assess if the cost of this will be worth the increase in property value.
