Being in love with your home doesn’t mean you should achieve a certain look and never change it. Creating a home that you love is more about coming to terms with the idea that tastes and trends evolve over time. This often means investing in quality items for which you can find new purposes and arrangements as the home grows, or making remodels that increase the comfort and quality of life. Here are a few steps to help you get into a long-term love affair with your home.
Invest in quality products
Not many of us can afford expensive handcrafted pieces, basing most of our renovations on select IKEA pieces. However, being on a constant lookout for well-made, high-quality pieces that happen to stumble into vintage or thrift stores can be a valuable element of creating a home you’ll cherish. Quality pieces won’t only stand the test of time, but also withstand any DIY improvements you might decide to throw at them.
Choose flexible furniture
Another approach is to choose solid furniture pieces that you can easily change the look of, as you taste evolves, or which are so simple in design that they can adapt to a variety of different styles and decors. People who live in small homes should also consider buying or ordering tailor-made furniture that can do double-duty or invest in a neutral area rug. This means that a single piece can have a different role in different rooms, which is especially convenient when you have to move to another home.
Finish the basement
Finishing a basement is an ideal way to create an extra living space that can relieve the crowding above. However, to have habitable rooms, you need the adequate ceiling height, which building codes cite at 7′ over 75 percent of the space. If you need to dig down to get that height, your costs will keep mounting up. On the other hand, if you can just finish an unfinished area of an appropriate height, you can create an extra room with a minimum investment.
Convert a garage
If your car spends more time on the driveway than in the garage, consider converting the structure into an extra living area or an income suite. Keep in mind, though, that a space designed for cars has other properties than one for living. There will probably be zoning and legal limitations that will tell you what is possible and what isn’t. On the bright side, with proper insulation, air-conditioning, heating, and lighting, a garage can become a home office, playroom, or even a home movie theatre. Just keep in mind that these conversion projects ultimately require you to deal with the items you kept in the place before conversion, so you better have a plan for your garage stuff.
Build a home for granny
Having our loved ones close shows that we care about them and are ready to give a helping hand to make their golden years care-free. Granny flats have seen a huge jump in popularity, not only as a space for old nan, but also as a teenage retreat, guest accommodation, or a place for adult children to live before they finally leave the nest. Now, if you don’t like to turn your backyard into a building site for the next couple of months, buy a shipping container and have it modified for doors, windows, partition walls, and every other feature that a small home needs. The customization options for container homes are endless, varying from glazed wall sections and timber siding, to roof verandas and teak decks.
Make a wine cellar
Homeowners are often stuck with the idea of making a formal space for entertaining guests, other than the family living room. If you have an extra room in the front, why not make it a wine tasting room? Traditionally, a wine tasting room features a large table or seating area, allowing you to host ten, even fifteen guests at the same time. Apart from enhancing the wine-tasting experience, a functional wine tasting room can double as a space for gourmet meals, playing poker, or relaxing without disturbing the kids who’re off to sleep. Finally, apart from improving your quality of life, a wine-tasting room adds to the resale value of your home.
As modern consumers, we’re trained to discard things when they’re no longer being useful and buy the next big thing we like. However, we should consider evaluating our needs and your current living space and think of small adjustments that will make it even better.
