What an amazing start to 2020 we’ve had! On January the 17th, we finally got to move into our very own home. It’s been a crazy busy month, but I’ve been loving every second of it. We were incredibly lucky to find a house that we didn’t have to work on a lot at all. We just had to paint some walls a different color, only because we wanted to. It’s perfect for us and I feel really blessed to call this wonderful place our own. It’s been a little bit of a switch moving from the city to a smaller town, but now I wouldn’t change it for the world. Everyone we met so far has been really friendly.
We’ve spent over a year looking for the perfect house and were almost ready to give up (at least for a while) after several disappointments. I am so glad we didn’t throw in the towel just yet. It just proves that better things are always coming… Even though it hurts for a while, I believe everything happens for a reason and not getting something you really wanted means there’s something better in your future. That’s definitely what this house felt like for us.
Now that we can’t throw a big housewarming due to the pandemic, I’d love to give you a little digital tour of our new place and give you some decorating tips for your new home as well.
Decorating Our House
Okay, enough with the gushing. Let’s get to the fun part: decorating! I’ve been dreaming up plans for our home decor ever since we got that happy call that we got the house and now they’re finally (mostly) done!
Bedroom
We decided to make the large attic our bedroom with lots of closet space and a vanity table. We also got a really awesome (really big!) new bed that I couldn’t be happier with. The house has really tall slanted ceilings and painted the biggest wall a soft shade of pink (which was actually Mark’s idea, I swear!). In front of the wall, we have four white PAX closets from IKEA with oak shelves and drawers in them. We also have an extra MALM dresser next to it. We also got our vanity from the MALM series and we got the bench from our local garden center. The black round mirror is from Xenos.
Office
We decided to turn the big bedroom into our office and storage room for our Magic webshop. We needed space for ALL of our Magic the Gathering cards… And there is a lot of them. To store all of them neatly, we got four oak KALLAX shelves: two four-by-fours and two four-by-threes. As we’re both kind of workaholics, there was no doubt that we needed a nice office space. It’s a great room with lots of natural light that we can happily work in. A dream come true and definitely a step up from working at my kitchen table all day (even though we still use that table in the office now).
Guest Room
Finally having a designated guest room is awesome. It’s something I’ve wanted for years. I love having friends and family over and entertaining, so I wanted to create a really nice and cozy space for them to sleep over when they want to. It’s definitely one of my favorite spaces. Mainly because of the incredibly beautiful macramé headboard my mother-in-law made for us. I went with a bit of a boho-chic theme for this room with a dark green wall, the off-white macramé wall hanging, a rattan lamp and some plants. When we’re not having people over to stay with us, I use the room to paint or watch Netflix on the little tv if Mark’s watching something else downstairs.
Living Room
Our living room isn’t a very big space. It’s just big enough for the essentials: a sitting area, a tv cabinet and a dining table that fits six chairs. The thing I love most about this space is the fact that there is so much light and there are double doors leading to our small garden. We also painted one wall the same shade of pink as our bedroom. We chose industrial-style EGLO lamps to brighten up the room.
Garden
One of the main reasons we wanted to move out of our loft was because we missed having a garden (or even a balcony). The garden we have now is not big, but it’s so cute and it has sun all day! So I’m very happy. I plan on soaking up all of the sunshine I can get this year to make up for the last few years.
Decorating Tips For Your New Home
So, enough about our house for now. As you can probably tell, it’s hard for me to contain my excitement. But now it’s time to focus on you and your (future) place!
- Get inspired and visualize the kind of space you want to live in. Use websites like Pinterest and/or home decor magazines to get an idea of what kind of style you like and decide on a coherent and fun color scheme.
- Style decorative items in odd numbers (ever heard of the rule of three?).
- Use rugs to define “zones” within a room. For example, we used a rug in our sitting area to clearly separate it from the dining area. A nice plus: it looks cozy!
- Sort your books and clothes by color for a nice and organized looking display.
- Play with the natural light and brighten the place up! Hang up mirrors to distribute the light through the room.
- Only keep the things that “spark joy”. Your home should be filled with happy things. For organizing tips, look up Marie Kondo.
- Use plants in unused corners and spaces. They will improve your mood.
- Use trays, baskets, and bowls to put stuff without a “home” away. They’re awesome clutter-catchers and make a room feel much more organized.
- Play with contrast to make a space come to life. Add a black item to an otherwise light room, for instance.
- Get creative and don’t be afraid to do a little DIY. Reupholster a chair in a new fabric, paint the walls a crazy color, use wallpaper, give an old dresser a new coat of paint. You can find real treasures in charity shops too!
I hope you’ll have as much fun (re)decorating your home as I had with ours!
With much love,
Maud
