House to home without renovating
Small lasting changes making a new house feel like your home when renovating is a while away
It is very rare that a new house, whether rented or owned, is feeling like your home when first moving in. There is a small chance that you may get lucky and find a home that already has your style, the wall colours are exactly what you like, the floors are what you would have chosen, and so on. I have not yet come across this home. But then it is also not something I am looking for, as I would always go for the house that I can add to and put my own stamp on.
While house hunting for my current home for instance, I viewed exactly one house that had a new kitchen, the bathroom recently renovated, new floors, and was beautifully decorated throughout, but all this did not excite me, as I didn’t feel like there was much room for me to inject enough of my personality, without undoing the then owner’s hard work. So I didn’t book a second viewing and let someone else enjoy the house. Who knew that I would move into the perfectly sized project next door a few months later…
And here I am, in a house that is not a complete gutting and rebuilding job, which would simply have been too much for my available budget (cost of living crisis and all), but a home that is as much temporarily liveable and neutral in its décor as it is tired and in need of a lift to show its full potential. This includes redecorating every room, updating some of the electrics, new floors, an update to the kitchen and bathroom, and the garden is a complete blank canvas.
As soon as I got the keys, I sat down and made a plan on how and importantly when I may be able to achieve the list of renovating jobs. It became obvious quite fast, that although this is a relatively straightforward renovation project, some sizable investment, in terms of time and budget, is still needed to achieve the design and finish I envisage, even if a lot would be DIYed. Thus, this would be a project spanning over a few years, rather than months, and in the meantime I needed to make peace with the fact that until I redecorate, I will be living in a house that feels slightly tired and like the previous owner still lives here.
Or do I? Having spent a few months in the house with my furniture and some décor items on display, I looked around one day and thought, I don’t need to live in someone else's house, or wait until I can decorate each room properly. I can make small, well considered changes that will put my own stamp on the spaces, and will last, even past the future redecoration. The latter is especially important to me, as I really don’t like wasting time and money, even on the smallest of things. This for me includes temporarily painting a room for instance, which is maybe tired and not to my taste but perfectly liveable. My approach usually is, if a room’s décor causes me unbearable stress when spending time in the space, it moves up the priority list, if not, the time and cash spent on painting it, though one of the most affordable ways to update a space, is best put into the renovation pot to use once the space can be considered and decorated properly.
So I needed to find ways to make my new house feel like my home, which I wouldn’t perceive as a waste of effort but would rather complement or even give a head start for any future renovation. And here is what I’ve done…
DIY easy wins:
Silicone and grout update
Nothing helps to develop the feeling of taking ownership of a space than thoroughly cleaning it. In a bathroom for me this goes a step further into also tidying up the basics of the room, such as the group and the silicone.
Updating the grout could not be an easier DIY job, if the grout itself is in good condition of course. All I needed was a good quality grout pen and a bit of practice and patience.
Removing and applying silicone however, is high on my list of least enjoyable DIY jobs, topped by sanding, and any kind of plumbing work. However, since discovering this magical sealant remover and getting a good quality profiler kit, I find working with silicone so much less painful, and the results are so rewarding. The bathroom looks so much cleaner and tidier now, and the little side effect of preventing possible water leaks is an added bonus.
Holes and scratches be gone
I always find unsightly holes and scratches on walls make rooms feel unfinished and unloved. It is also a reminder for me that someone else lived in the house before, if I wasn’t the one who scratched the walls of course. In my current home, for instance, I removed a few of the window dressings and was looking at the holes left behind for months. Filling these was the quickest DIY ever, made the space feel less like a constant renovation site, and ticked a job off the future decorating list too, even if I’m not planning on repainting the space very soon.
Window handles update
This is something I was mulling over for a long time. I was considering to replace the windows, but as this requires a lot of savings, this job is firmly at the bottom of the list for the time being. So I went ahead to replace the old handles which were not working properly and were really really tired. Doing this was another unexpectedly easy job. I ordered good value sturdy handles and simply reused the already available screws where possible, meaning no sawing of metal required.
I have completely underestimated the effect of updating something you look at, even in passing, and use every day. Making this small change made such a huge difference in terms of security and the tired windows suddenly have a completely new lease of life, which also definitely minimised my disappointment of not being able to replace them any time soon.
Injecting my personality and style:
Shower curtain upgrade
Changing the shower curtain is high on my must-do and easy-wins list when moving into a new home, for obvious reasons. Previously, I would go for the simplest and first vinyl shower curtain I could find, but not this time, as I was intrigued for a while by all the beautiful fabric shower curtains I was seeing people use, and so I got myself a gorgeous textured fabric one. Now, these do still require a vinyl lining curtain to keep things water resistant, but the bathroom, covered head to toe in harsh cold feeling tiles, is now feeling so much more cosy, making this tiny change. It also feels like I’ve started to inject a little bit of my personal style into the bathroom, where design changes are usually quite difficult to make without an expensive refit.
Wall art effect
For a while I did not hang much of my art. I simply used a few of the already available nails left in the wall by the previous owner to ‘store’ some of the bigger pieces I own. Overall, I was unsure where the rest of my collection should go, as it didn't really feel like my art suited the rooms as they are. But with redecorating being a while off, I was tired of looking at blank walls or art hanging too high or too low, making the spaces feel quite cold and lacking in personality. And so I re-distributed the pieces already on the walls and added some that were stored away until that point, and it’s simply so lovely to look at my art again. It instantly injected a certain amount of familiarity and suddenly the existing wall colour chosen by the previous owner is disappearing into the background.
Window dressings update
The previous owner very kindly left all the curtain poles, curtains and blinds in place, which was definitely something of a godsend moving in, as it definitely helped not needing to waste cash on a quick temporary solution, which I would have most likely replaced once I considered the room’s design properly. After the dust of moving had settled however, the curtain poles and curtains felt, well, like they belonged to the previous owner, in turn making the house feel less like it belonged to me. So something had to change even if renovations were a while off. As window dressings are expensive, I carefully considered which pieces I am very likely to keep and which I will definitely be replacing in the future room designs. This led me to ordering some new finials and curtains where I felt confident this was a worthwhile investment.
I cannot express how happy the new finials especially made me, as it was such a small inexpensive change and means I can keep the curtain poles for years to come. Also the new curtains in the bedroom were such a good investment. These feel much more me, are covering the whole of the wall, making the room feel much bigger, and are thermal lined, helping keep the space much warmer while saving on heating costs.
Clever storage and furniture swaps:
Kitchen flow improvement
A good working kitchen is so important to making a home feel comfortable and ultimately yours. But it is certainly a little challenging to achieve that when inheriting a pre-existing kitchen. I am a strong advocate however of the opinion that a few well considered changes can make almost any kitchen flow perfectly.
When setting up a new kitchen, no matter if it’s one I install new or one I inherit, I always first and foremost consider how I will use the new space which helps define where everything I own should go. I have written in detail about this here. Then I see if a few clever add-ons can help make cooking in the space even more seamless and enjoyable. In my current kitchen for instance, months before starting to decorate it, I added, amongst other things, lid and kitchen roll holders, a spice shelf, baking tray organisers, and boxes, baskets as well as bowls, a lot of them. I also changed the tap aerator from a fixed to a swivel one.
Now, I can see and easily access all my spices, don’t have to lift all the lids to get to the one I need, or can clean the sink in one fell swoop using the tap’s new swivel head. It really is the small everyday conveniences that make the biggest difference.
Hook upgrades
Same as with the window handles or scratches on walls touched on above, hooks installed by the previous owner are another tiny detail, which may seem absolutely irrelevant to the overall look and feel of a space, but once upgraded make such a big difference.
My current bedroom door for instance had pre-existing screw-in hooks, which were functioning but were partly broken. I’ve been hanging my dressing gown there every single day for months, and all this time I was thinking: I can’t wait to renovate this room, repaint the door, and hang some beautiful hooks here. As this would not happen for a while, I went ahead and installed some pretty screw-in hooks I found while shopping one day, but knew these would stay even when I redecorate in future. Suddenly, the whole room feels much more comfortable, having fixed something broken, while simultaneously saying goodbye to another little reminder of the previous owner.
Clever furniture swaps and add-ons
Now, swapping or purchasing new furniture is not something I would usually do before having considered a room’s design properly, as there is definitely a danger of making a misinvestment, which can seriously waste the budget available for the renovation.
In this house however, my well loved round IKEA VEJMON coffee table for instance was simply too big for the space. I could hardly move around the table to get to the couch or the TV. So it had to go. FB Marketplace was my immediate thought, but then I discovered IKEA’s handy buyback scheme where I received a voucher for my old coffee table to use at any time in future. IKEA did not have a suitable coffee table at the time, but I found a perfectly sized one which suited my overall design style at John Lewis. Before purchasing, I was told about their bargain corner and I couldn’t believe my luck to find the table I was after there at a reduced price.
The living room is now so much more comfortable to use and having looked a bit further than the immediately obvious options when sourcing furniture, saved precious cash and was definitely worth making this swap sooner rather than later.
And that’s my list of most impactful and lasting changes I have done in my current house thus far to make it feel like my home, even though each room’s renovation is a long way away. It is important to note that none of this happened overnight. It does take time to make a home, so these changes happened gradually, when I came across the right pieces. This process is also still continuing today, as just the other day I invested into some beautiful art and footstool, I knew would be pieces I’d love for years to come. Now, have you made any changes to your home before being able to properly renovate that brought you priceless joy? I’d love to know!
Well done, lady!
Thank you for the great tipps! Seems to be I'm not alone with bad looking silicone. This one gives me the courage to finally do something about it.