How To Turn Your New House Into A Home
Last Updated on: 5th March 2026, 07:31 am
Turn Your New House Into A Home
When you buy a new house, it is usually full of the previous owners’ finishing touches. Most people move in before they redecorate and do it as time moves on. Sometimes, your house might be filled with the previous owner’s belongings. It might take a while to add your own personal touches to the property, but this isn’t a race, and you have all the time in the world to turn it into a space that you will love to live in. Here are some tips on how to turn your new house into a home that you will love.
Give The House A Clean
As soon as you move in, you will want to give the house a good clean. Whether you do this yourself or you get a professional cleaner in, it will start to feel more like your home as you clean. Go to the local pound shop or hardware store and stock up on cleaning products and black bin bags. If you are getting the house professionally cleaned, ask around among friends to see if they can recommend someone. You would be looking at paying between £15 and £20 an hour. If you are cleaning the house yourself, get some friends around and have a cleaning party.
If you bought a house with all of the previous owners’ clutter left in there, then the job will obviously take longer! My daughter bought a house, and she asked them to drop the price by £2k, and she would empty the house of the rubbish. If this is you, then make sure to look for things that might be of value before giving them away or throwing them away. It can be quite a treasure trove!
Buy Some New Furniture
Decide what kind of furniture you need (or want). Determine your budget for each room and identify the necessary furniture first. In the bedroom, you are definitely going to need a bed! So whether you are looking for a modern bed or an old fashioned Divan bed, the choice is yours. If your house is modern, you will want to go down the modern route. Traditional furniture doesn’t fit so well with a modern house. You will need a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. Bedside tables and other bits can wait until you have more money.
In the lounge, you will need a sofa! But as this is a big purchase, many people use garden furniture to start with, or beanbags. Buy a sofa that is a neutral colour, so you can play around with different colour schemes over the years. If you have guests, you might want to buy a sofa bed. You will need a TV stand, but we had the TV balancing on a box for a while until we found the perfect stand. You might want a little side table to put your coffee on.
The kitchen and bathroom should already be built in, but the kitchen might need a table and chairs. A table and chairs are great for when you have guests over, and special holiday seasons like Christmas and Easter.
Change The Curtains To Ones That You Like
It is the finishing touches in a room that make the difference when you move into a new house. Most previous occupants leave the curtains because there is a slim chance they will fit in the new house. But although they will do until you have a bit more money, there is going to come a time when you will want to put up some new curtains. A lot of people use net curtains, and that might not be your thing, thats okay because blinds are a great option. And the curtains might not be to the colour scheme that you had in mind. So you will eventually want to change them. The Range do a great range of voile curtains for your home, and at a great price too.
If your house gets cold in the winter, you might want to think about some warm, lined curtains for the winter. But then swap them out for lighter summer curtains in the summer. If you live in an area that is quite well lit at night, thats always a great thing for safety. But get some blackout curtains to help you sleep at night. Blackout curtains are great for shift workers too.
Look For Original Features To Turn Your New House Into A Home
If you have bought an older house, you will have lots of quirks and hidden things in your house. Central heating wasn’t really a thing until the 1980’s. So if your house is older than that, you will find some hidden features like fireplaces that have been covered over by false walls. If you know there are hidden fire places, then its always worth taking the wall down and trying to restore it. A fire place is a great focal point in a room.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s people thought it was a good idea to cover their doors over with some plasterboard. This gave them a great new look and it was cheaper than buying new doors. But nowadays, it is so much better to have those original features on the doors back. If your house has old doors that look like they have been covered over, peel the wood back and see what is behind. You can always cover them again if they don’t look so good. Even staircases were bannisters were covered over, so strip them back and find the original stairs. Lastly, if your house is from the turn of the century, you might have some nice tiles underneath the carpet. Or if its from the 60’s you might find some lovely parquet flooring.
Turn Your New House Into A Home One Room At A Time
If you try to do too much, you will end up feeling so down in the dumps because you are not making an impact. You will find it is taking too long. Do one room at a time and finish it before moving on to the next room. You will notice the impact more on making this your own home. It is easy to give up if you feel like you are doing too many things and don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Be kind to yourself and take small steps at a time.
You will never finish doing things in your home, because as soon as you have finished your home, you will likely start again and refresh the look, or find something that works better for you and your family. Good luck turning your new house into a home.
