How to Make an Apartment Feel More Like Home

An apartment isn’t just a temporary stop on your journey. It’s home, at least for a little while. Regardless of whether you’ve signed an apartment lease to stay a year or are on a month-to-month arrangement, you want where you’re living to feel warm and welcoming to you. Start by cleaning your apartment. Cleaning it gets rid of any imperfections left behind by the previous tenant. It also allows you to understand the space better, observing every nook and cranny. As you navigate your way around the unit, it can be very stimulating psychologically. You will feel more inspired by a clean and clutter-free apartment.

Once your apartment unit is spotlessly clean, you can begin the decorating process. Here are some ideas on to make an apartment feel more like home.

1. Outside-the-box lighting

How you light your apartment can have a significant impact on how it’s perceived. Choose warm lightbulbs over a cold. Identify what aesthetic you want in your lights, i.e. modern, minimalist, vintage, rustic, art-deco, etc. Find the right fixtures, lamps, string lights, or other variations on apartment lighting to add an intimate, cozy atmosphere around you.

2. Choose a scent

Mimic a smell of old or select a new one. You can start with essential oils or find a scent from a candle or incense you like. If you can associate home with a signature scent, you can then recreate this feeling in whichever apartment rentals you happen to be living in. A scent in every room also adds cohesiveness and connectivity – something which is often lacking in rentals.

3. Comfy blankets

Although a lot of how to make an apartment feel like home focuses on the visual, scent and feeling matter as well. Comfy blankets that keep you warm and feel good on the skin will help. If you don’t already have blankets like this, get them. A comfortable bed or having a blanket with you on your couch goes a long way in keeping you positive in mindset and happy with what’s around you.

4. Add a stylish rug

It takes nothing from your available space when you decorate the floor with a rug. It’s an acceptable way to add colour and pattern in a rented space, ranging from having a flourishing area rug to a floor runner. Although this doesn’t work if you have carpet on hardwood or tile flooring, a rug puts a little warmth under your feet and helps insulate a room with your style.

5. Set up your kitchen

It can take time for an apartment to feel lived-in. However, focusing on the kitchen is an easy way to help it along. Set up your kitchen the way you want. Unpack what you have. Look at new appliances on the small side, i.e. coffee makers, pressure cookers, etc. Make your kitchen feel inviting. It’ll make you want to get in there and cook more meals, and, in turn, creates another attraction inside of your apartment.

6. Add some of your culture

We all have a culture. It’s our background, the music we listen to, or the films we like. From the iconography and images to the possible ways you can use your passions in décor. Your apartment will only feel like home when you start dressing it in items that represent you. Tastefully add in some items or imagery dressed from the culture you take as your own.

7. Put on display sentimental items

Family photos. A gift from a parent or close friend. Beyond relying on your culture for décor to fill an apartment with, you also want to put in sentimental items. These function as décor and something to remind you of the people who love you and memories. In general, most sentimental items are also things that you can’t find in stores. It’s another way to make your apartment unique.

8. Dress your windows

Dress up your windows in a curtain or shutter style that you love. This takes away the style already there and makes it so that you’ve decided for yourself what your window presentation should resemble. This approach can be applied elsewhere in the apartment. Move away from the decisions that have been made for the apartment style-wise and add in your own flourish where you see fit.

9. Use your walls as a canvas

Most apartments won’t let you lay out a snazzy wallpaper or repaint. An alternative is to get creative with how you dress up the walls. Treat them as a canvas. Use fabric. Strings. Stick-and-peel vinyl decals. Make your own artwork and mount it on the wall. There is lots of wall art and décor that can be added to a wall, taking up no space and adding a ton of personality.

10. Buy your favourite furniture

Cheap or broken furniture isn’t fun. If you want an apartment to feel like your home, invest in furniture. A comfy couch. An exquisitely stylish side table. A proper dining room table. A nice bed frame. If you don’t have the budget for it today, set aside some money from each of your next paycheques and start buying these things. It can be tempting to settle, but furniture really does matter.