We all want to feel at home, but as expats it is even more important to feel happy at home. You left your country, your family and friends, your home. You’re starting over and encountered a new adventure. A new house represents the possibility to feel at home again while living abroad.
A happy home. Sounds great doesn’t it? We all want to feel happy at home, but what makes you actually feel good in your own house?
Instant hapiness at the front door
You know that feeling of total relaxation because you’re home? Whatever happened outdoors, at school or at work.. it disappears from the moment you enter your home. Instant happiness at home starts at your front door. No piles of shoes, bags or coats waiting for you. Just spaciousness, organization and an inviting atmosphere.
How to achieve this? By creating a designated space for all the “entrance items”.
PS: don’t forget to create a space for accessories such as keys, sunglasses and incoming mail!
A relaxing living room for the whole family
The living room is typically a space where kids play all day or afternoon, where we invite friends over for a coffee and where you would like to relax end of the day. How to do this if getting to the couch means having to stub your toes on toys lying around/spread all over the place?
First things first: do you actually need all these toys? Decluttering will do the trick. Toys your kids have outgrown can be donated. Broken toys can be thrown away. Only the interesting and challenging toys are left now.. let’s find a place for them!
With clever designed furniture you can combine functionality, storage space and your favorite style. If you make sure that the storage area for toys, books and art supplies have a place on the lower shelves, your kids will most likely help you to keep things tidy. At least they’ll have no excuse when you ask them to tidy-up😉
Last but not least is creating an end-of-the-day-routine around tidying-up. This will make things easier for yourself and your kids. Let’s make it become an easy to execute habit! Routines = No discussions = No stress = Happiness at home.
Kitchen design
While traveling around the world you may have been inspired to experience food in a new way. You probably have personal habits and traditions on how to prepare meals for your family.
If you love cooking like myself, your kitchen requirements are most probably not only about style and design. You need functionality too! Consider enough storage space for all your appliances, a big enough countertop for preparing your 12 pizza’s (every single Saturday! 😉) and easy to maintain materials. Then make it match your preferred style.
A spa-like bathroom
End of the day of hard work. Your bathroom: spacious, organized and beautifully designed. You and your bathroom: your personal spa moment at home. No kids, no deadlines, just calmness.
Did you know it is not hard to achieve this in your bathroom?
TIP: did you know that a well designed bathroom will help you start better in the morning as well? WIN-WIN!
Calming and inspiring bedrooms
Your bedroom is THE place in your house where you can completely relax and unwind. It’s the place where the magic happens. It’s a room where you want your kids to thrive, focus on their homework and sleep well at night.
The bedroom is your most personal space at home. As such, it is very important this room reflects who lives here. Your personality, your energy and dreams.
The bedroom needs also a very functional design: especially in kids’ rooms there is a lot of activities that need to take place here. Providing enough storage space for clothes, books and toys is essential. It will keep items in their place instead of lying around on the floor. And when a room is tidy (and well designed) we all know you sleep better, you focus better and feel better.
Atmosphere at home
Last but not least is atmosphere. It’s created by paying attention to little details. Small touches with a lot of impact on how happy we feel at home.
I hope to have inspired you to create your own happy home. Still not feeling at home? With Ben@home I help expat families to go from chaos&clutter to cozy&cohesion (Nederlands – English – Italiano). So you can feel at home while living abroad.
Book your 1-1 call to make a personalized plan for your happy home. Looking forward to meeting you!
As an interior designer I help expat families with home improvements, including renovations and tailored design solutions.
As a coach at home, I help expat mothers of young families who feel overwhelmed by the challenges of both home life and the expat lifestyle.
Best of both worlds is the Happy Home package where it comes all together!