Tips for Making Your Apartment Look & Feel Like Home

he design of a space has the power to impact the mood and emotion of those who inhabit it. Do your interior designing the right way and you’ll instantly turn the place where you sleep and eat into the place you feel most at home.

Family homes visited on holidays and special occasions tend to evoke warm, comforting feelings, like being wrapped in an embrace. That is partially due to design and partially due to fond memories. But, not not everyone is an expert in the art of design and not everyone is a homeowner with the fortune of unlimited options and space.

You may not be at a point in your life to be a homeowner and to create a replica of your favorite home. Instead, you may be an apartment renter going from lease to lease. If this is the case, it can be difficult to create that sense of homeiness you so desire for. But, don’t lose hope.

Moving into a new apartment provides a blank canvas with so many exciting opportunities and directions to go in. Yet, the task of filling the space requires a gentle hand. Do too much and your small space is overwhelmed and cluttered. Don’t do enough and your apartment feels less like a home and more like a hotel. However, it is possible to make a small rental feel like home. But, you have to work smarter, not harder.

So, what do you do? And, more importantly, how do you do it on a budget?

In this article, we’ll cover the several ways you can transform your apartment, large or small, into a place that is less of a storing space and more of a sanctuary. Rest assured, you’ll have your apartment looking and feeling like home in no time. 

Introduce More Texture

Adding texture into a room is a quick way to cultivate a resonating sense of coziness in your apartment. Texturizing a room is all about mixing different materials and elements. The simplest way to do this is through throw blankets, pillows, and rugs. However, there are numerous ways to add texture from wall decor all the way to the window treatments. Whether you end up going for a shaggy Moroccan fringe rug, a chunky knit blanket, or a braided pillow, you’re sure to add to the mood of the room. The trick here is to not overdo it. Keep it at three to four different textured pieces in each room that celebrate your personal style, and suddenly, you’ll warm up the room and feel right at home. When layered together correctly, textural elements should play like a symphony. For example, to create a cozy bedroom, try mixing linen sheets with faux fur throw pillows, a knit blanket, and a natural leather upholstered headboard. 

Add More Greenery to Enhance the Scenery 

The most beautiful places in nature are filled with greenery. So, take a tip from mother nature and bring the joy of greenery from the outside, inside. The best part of plant decor is that there’s really no wrong way to incorporate them into your design, just test out a few options, and follow your gut. To ensure that you don’t waste your efforts or your funds, do some research on what type of plants best fit your lifestyle. If you work from home and easily keep to an intricate routine, you may be able to go with a more high maintenance plant like the fiddle-leaf fig or a boston fern. 

We like to style a fiddle-leaf fig with its large, deep green, leathery leaves in a white pot in the corner of a room and a boston fern with its striking, protruding fronds in a woven hanging planter. 

Pro tip: a boston fern can easily add texture to a space. However, if you’re out and about frequently or don’t have a green thumb, you might want to opt for some plants that don’t require as much TLC, such as the paddle plant or a pothos plant. We prefer these on a shelf or a window sill, but as previously mentioned, there are no boundaries when it comes to creatively staging plants. 

Pay Attention to Lighting

Ironically, there is nothing chill about cool white overhead lighting. It’s no wonder the harsh white overhead lighting is used by law enforcement in interrogations. It’s uncomfortable and alarming to be under cold lighting. This also explains why cool white light, which can strain the eyes, may be related to sleeping issues and reduced sleep quality. 

With this in mind, you’ll want to make sure that the LED light bulbs you use in your apartment err on the side of warmth to evoke a homey and calming aesthetic. You’ll especially want this type of lighting in your living areas, dining areas, and bedrooms where you’ll want to feel most relaxed. Consider adding a string of warm lights to your bookcases or even dangling from the wall for that cozy fairy light oasis feel. 

To kill two birds with one stone, you could even get hanging vines that have string lights in them to get your greenery and warmth in one product. But, for an office space or workshop in your apartment, we recommend the cooler toned light bulbs because you’ll want to be wide awake in these areas of the home. If your desk is in your bedroom, this could mean using a desktop lamp with a bright cool light, while keeping the rest of the bedroom lights warmer and dimmer. 

Make Sure Your Home Smells As Good As It Looks

They say scent affects your mood. It also affects your room. It’s important to engage all of the senses when decorating a room, but in interior design, the power of smell is often overlooked. How a room smells can instantly offset or uplift your room, repelling you or compelling you to it. Scents can enhance nostalgia, reduce stress, increase focus, and boost your mood. Studies have indicated that 75% of the emotions experienced everyday are influenced by smell and that mood can be lifted up to 40% by encountering a pleasant smell. 

In short, smell is powerful. That said, why not incorporate fragrance into apartment spaces to make them feel more pleasurable and homey! So, stock up on your favorite candles, wall plug-ins, diffusers, room spray, or any other scent-sational fragrance tool of your liking. 

Use Books as a Decorative Accent

There’s nothing better - in our humble opinion - than hunkering down in a plush seat in front of a fire with a heavy blanket and a guilty pleasure book (the equivalent to a guilty pleasure movie). Did you know that just having a stack of vintage or worn-in books adds to the cozy feel of the home? It’s true! It’s a super affordable way to make your home more inviting and pleasant. If you don’t already have books to use, you could head to the thrift store, garage sales, sale bins, or local discount shops to snag some books to fill your shelves or occupy your tables. 

If you want your apartment to have a more lived-in feel, then don’t be afraid to stack books. For an added vintage feel, layer shelves that have framed pictures with those holding books. Don’t strive for perfection or you’ll find your efforts wasted. Done right, the book decor should feel eclectic with a blend of modern and antique elements. 

Color Me Cozy

Accent walls are a game changer in an all-white apartment!  

Every home improvement expert knows that adding a pop of color to the wall in a room is one of the quickest and economical methods for transforming it. Even if it’s just adding paint or wallpaper to one wall, making an accent wall, the difference is incredible. White walls are a safe choice and can be aesthetically pleasing, but adding richness and warmth to a room requires deep colors. If you're nervous to abandon your white walls, start with just one accent wall in a deep, earthy tone that coordinates with other accents in the room. Come winter, you’ll be happy to have a space that feels embracing and cozy rather than spacious and cold. Choose from the multiple paint colors that can make any room more snug:

• Behr plum royal
• Sherwin-Williams decisive yellow
• Benjamin Moore driftwood
• Benjamin Moore caponata 
• Shermin-Williams dark knight
• Behr vine leaf
• Behr in the moment

If your landlord doesn’t allow the walls to be painted, fear not, there are ways around this. There are tons of rental-friendly wallpaper options, that allow you to stick on the wallpaper, and when it comes time to move out, to peel off the wallpaper – like it was never even there to begin with!

Bring In New Artwork

A well-curated collection of art can go a long way in cultivating a more cozy atmosphere. You can buy art that comes in a set, meant to be paired together, or you can personalize what pieces you pair together. Art can be very expensive, but you can also get art on a budget by looking for deals or DIYing. Check out garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores, and sale sections for hidden gems. Alternatively, you can make your own art even if you don’t consider yourself artistically inclined. Frame a puzzle, a paint by number, or a paint with diamonds! There are many options. Inheriting artwork and frames from generations of family before you can also be a great way to come by exquisite wall decor that not only looks good, but carries personal meaning. 

Experiment With Window Treatments

A sure fire way to increase the homeiness of your apartment is to swap out your window treatments. Take down your light, sheer curtains from summertime and hang up luxurious, heavy drapes. If you get dark winters, it won’t matter if your curtains block out light, because there won’t really be any. If used appropriately, velvet curtains can look elegant and cozy, fostering an ambience of warmth and protection. 

Save with DIY

Venturing into DIY renovations can be a cost-effective way to enhance and personalize your space, especially given the rising labor costs associated with hiring professional contractors. However, the success of these projects is often predicated on the utilization of the right tools and equipment. Important among these are pocket jigs. A Kreg pocket hole jig, a vital tool for joinery, allows for the creation of accurate, secure, and hidden joints, ensuring a neat finish and structural integrity. This is perfect for creating your own planters that you can use to decorate your apartment. So, while DIY renovations can be a great way to save money, it's paramount to properly equip yourself. Investing in quality tools will enhance your crafting precision, efficiency, and safety, thus ensuring the success of your renovation projects.

People spend a lot of time in their home – now more than ever. Lucky for you, you’re now ready to call your apartment home! With such a cozy and inviting apartment home, it’s going to be smooth sailing through cold winters spent indoors, and bittersweet goodbyes when you have to go out. In fact, it may be tough to find reasons to go out at all. So, on days when going out can be absolutely avoided at all costs, have a well-deserved day at home. Cook, bake, do arts and crafts, read, or have a movie night! Enjoy the safe haven you’ve made for yourself.