How I Turned A New Build House Into A Cosy Home
‘New builds have no soul or character!’. ‘New builds have so many problems, why would you want to live in one?!’. ‘I’m not moving in to a new build, no way’.
All statements made by me, before I inevitably found myself moving in to a new build under the shared ownership scheme.
Four years later, I like to think that my house has absolutely bags of character. It’s my warm, cosy sanctuary, my place to hide away from the big, bad world. It has truly become my happy place and I feel so comfortable and content there (despite our noisy neighbours!).
My husband and I have worked so hard to shake the new build aesthetic off and I like to think that if you were blindfolded and brought to our house, your mind wouldn’t instantly jump to new build.
While it’s still very much a work in progress (the kitchen is next on my hit list), I thought I’d share some of the ways I’ve turned our new build house in to a home.
Please note - As I said, I’ve been in my house for four years now and all of these have been done over time and as cheaply as possible.
Got rid of the carpets/lino downstairs
Our carpets were fitted by the housing association who own 25% of the house - They were perfectly fine grey carpets, until we got a puppy and she wrecked them (We also had some lino in the kitchen that my husband and I managed to wreck). We put some warm wooden laminate flooring in the living room and the hallway now has these tiles installed (the kitchen will have the same but our tiler has retired and we haven’t found a new one yet). Changing the flooring has instantly transformed the spaces and you wouldn’t think you were in a new build when you walk through our front door.
Said goodbye to the white walls
White walls work for some people - But when you are a mucky pup, your husband works in a dirty scrap yard and you have two nutty dogs, they definitely do not work. On top of that I just bloody love colour so of course we got rid of the white walls the minute we could. I love the Lick eggshell paints - Our bedroom (blue 07) & living room (teal 03) were painted with Lick paints a few years ago and they still look brand new and are so easy to keep clean. We’ve now got blue 04 in the hallway and I’m eyeing up one of their greens for our kitchen.
Never underestimate the power of a piece of furniture
For a long time I felt like our living room felt like we had just moved in. We had a big corner sofa that was a bottle green colour, the laminate flooring was in and we had pink velvet curtains hung up…But it didn’t feel right, it just felt empty. I ended up ordering this cupboard thing on a whim and it’s really brought the room together and made it feel whole.
Tore out the new build bathroom tiles
Our upstairs bathroom had a distinctly new build feel too it with it’s white walls, grey lino and brown/beige tiles…So I ripped them out, replacing them with pink metro tiles, cute black floor tiles and giving the space a black paint job. By keeping the white bath/sink/toilet we saved ourselves an absolute fortune, while still managing to completely transform the space.
Never ever ever ever use the big light
My husband is a big light person and it drives me bonkers. I have lovely warm lamps dotted all over the place but still he insists on using the damn big light. Lamps just give such a warm and cosy feel to a room, whereas a big light feels cold and uninviting.