New-build homes tend to be very generic in how they look, and do have a tendency to look all the same… very boxy. There are only a few things that you need to do to transform your new house in to a beautiful individual home, and what’s more, it doesn’t have to cost the earth either.
The first thing you need to do is to break up all the square edges and soften them with some furnishings. Two of the easiest ways to do this are to put curtains up at the windows, and get some larger plants to put in the corners of the rooms and cover up external corners. Don’t be tempted to skip the idea of curtains as more often than not, putting blinds at the window tend to make a room look clinical and does nothing to enhance its homeliness and reduce echoes.
The next thing that you can do to transform your house to home is to buy some knickknacks, when I say knickknacks I mainly mean soft furnishings. There are at least two soft furnishings that you can get for your home that not only look good but also perform a functional task as well, these are doorstops and draft excluders. Although draft excluders are rarely needed now that we have such well insulated homes, they do help to make a home look softer and more appealing. The same cannot be said about doorstops; many homes that are newly built will have the self closing doors for improved fire protection and definitely necessitate the use of a doorstop. These automatically closing doors can actually become quite annoying but by getting a decorative doorstop you can keep the doors open.
The final piece of furniture that I would advise you to get for your home would be some form of table to eat at. A dining table and chair set can be bought at a very reasonable price and can really transform your house into a home. If you don’t have room for a full on dining set then perhaps you could look at getting a smaller glass table that is far less intrusive. Having a dining table is great for conversation and makes it easier to invite friends over something to eat.
Another area that you should look into improving for a new home is whole house surge protection. Anyone who has a computer or other electronics is familiar with individual surge protectors, but whole house surge protectors protect your entire house from electrical surges, instead of just one socket. They generally run about $300 or so, which is a small price to pay for protecting your whole house from electrical surges.