5 tips for making your living space feel like home

Nayani is studying for her Master of Professional Accounting at Charles Sturt University Study Centres in Brisbane. She shares advice for making yourself feel at home wherever you are in the world.

Home is not just a building. Home is a feeling that we live. Home is a magical place filled with love, safety, warmth, emotional values and mental happiness. A room or new house may just be a concrete building, but to convert it to the feeling of home I use these five ways.

1. Create a family photo display

Home is the place where I feel the love of my family. Missing my family is hard to bear. To convert my new house to a feeling of home, I displayed snaps I took with my family in a random and creative way.

2. Find a calm space

Feeling at home is bound with the feeling of calm and mental happiness. So, I have created a unique space to spend time for meditation, music and reading.

3. Use plants for decoration

Indoor planting gives the feeling of mental happiness and that green environment helps me to feel that I belong to this location, the same feeling which I used to have in my home. Once I started indoor planting, I felt that my new house had a value to me.

4. Make a little corner to reflect me

I have set-up a comfortable chair and little side table in the corner of my house, which is perfect for me to spend some time with my hobbies. This corner helps me to talk with myself and to reflect. I used to write poems and read books in this corner. Sometimes I even use this corner to put on music and dance. Because of this corner I feel an attraction towards my new house, and I feel my new house as a free place for me to live.

5. Cook meals

Starting to cook by myself and setting up my own kitchen area was a great way for me to feel more at home in my new house. Instead of dinner outings, I started cooking by myself and inviting my friends to my new house. This gave me the feeling of warmth and value in my new house.

I hope with these simple tips, we can make our new house or room feel like home.