There’s a big difference between a house and a home. One is a place you use as a base to crash after having been out all day, and one is somewhere that you spend a lot of your time and that you’ve put your stamp on in some way – you’ve had some of your most memorable years and experiences there, and you can’t imagine living anywhere else.
A home will have your personality stamped upon it in some way, and the easiest way of stamping your influence upon it is to invest in some home decorations to give the home a sense of individuality. The best way of doing this is by trying to find retailers which aren’t used by everyone and aren’t really in the mainstream – this way, you can avoid getting the same things that everyone else has. If you’ve seen one IKEA coathanger, you’ve seen them all, and you can do a lot better than that with only a little bit of effort put in to find truly original pieces for your home and be the envy of everyone who comes round.
Of course, one way of truly putting your stamp on a house is by completely changing it around so it’s unrecognisable from how it was when you bought it. Whether that means installing a new bath and shower in the bathroom, completely remodelling the living room or tacking a conservatory onto the end of the house, there’s no better way of giving yourself a sense of ownership than standing back, looking at the work when it’s finished and knowing you’ve made things better and that you’ve accomplished something pretty significant.
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, there’s a huge amount you can do with that as well. You can build a shed that can act as a refuge or somewhere to keep the lawnmower, plan outrageously ambitious floral patterns or even start growing vegetables if you’ve always fancied a farmer’s life. Replica trees have been growing in popularity for those people who want a tree or two in their garden but haven’t got the time to wait for them to grow. They can be rooted securely in the ground and obviously won’t die or overgrow and dominate the garden, which means that medium-sized replica palm trees are a popular choice as real ones are too tall and cannot survive in a British climate.