How to Make Your First House a Home

By Justin Weinger

If you've just bought your first house, you're probably feeling fairly exhausted by the process. The idea of having to do anything else at this point might seem nearly impossible even if you did purchase a fixer-upper on purpose. Luckily, those feelings usually fade quickly, and whether you need to strip the place down to its bones and do some serious renovation or you just want to do some cosmetic fix-ups, there's a lot you can do to make it feel like home.

Throw a Party

Housewarming parties never go out of style, and this can be a great way to make a place feel like it's yours. This doesn't have to be a big bash unless you want it to be. You could just have a few friends and family members over. What's important is that you have people that you care about over and start to associate your new space with their presence.

Hang Some Art

Putting some art on the walls that's meaningful to you is a great way to make your house more like home. If you don't have any art, see if you can get some at a reasonable price in your town. If there's a cafe or gallery that sells work by local artists or an art school nearby, you may be able to pick up some pieces that you really like by artists at the beginning of their career. Online is another great place to seek out terrific, inexpensive art.

Practice Your Hobbies

If you love to cook, get yourself something you haven't bothered with so far because you were always moving between rentals, like a stand mixer. Or, if your hobby is playing music, pick up a guitar and an amp. Maybe you like using a vaporizer. If so, you could celebrate with a new purchase of a Volcano Classic, an easy-to-use and nearly error proof desktop vape. If getting outdoors is more your thing, you might want to start a garden.

Get Some Plants

House plants look great throughout your house, and if your thumb isn't very green, you can still get plants that don't need much care. If growing plants isn't your thing, consider fresh flowers, which can be refreshed weekly and which add color and a great scent to your rooms. Planting some things outside can be an even better way to establish your sense of ownership or belonging. Knowing you have a fruit tree that you get to see mature or a blackberry bush you can pick from every year can lend a comforting, homey feel to your new place.

Make Your Mark

If you've been a renter for years, living with white walls or dull neutral carpet, you've probably longed to put a splash of bright color on the walls or rip up the boring carpet to reveal the gorgeous hardwood floor underneath it. This is finally your chance, and you shouldn't hold back. After all, you can always repaint or get a new floor covering. There's nothing quite like doing a major redecoration that you couldn't do in a rental to make you feel as though you've arrived home at last.