An empty house is not a home. Even if it is a model home that looks picture-perfect. Without people living there, filling it with their possessions, living out their daily routines, decorating it and personalizing it, a house is just a building. But something amazing happens when people move into that empty building.
It begins to burst with life. It becomes a place of hospitality and welcome, a place of hustle and bustle where family members and friends come and go. The house is no longer an empty shell, but has purpose, identity, and meaning. Most of all, it is the place where love thrives.
What makes a house a home?
It is the people who live there, the personal touches, and the relationships that really create the magic. A wooden and brick structure then becomes a special place in family members’ hearts. It’s the familiarity of our surroundings, the availability of all of our comforts, having our stuff handy, and even certain scents and textures.
Even if we live in a house alone, it can become our sanctuary, our escape and oasis from the cold world. There, we have control and can set everything to right.
How to make a house a home? There are many ways to help make a house feel warm and welcoming. Just moving in is the start of it. But then as you make it your own, it transforms into a sweet home that becomes a treasured space. Maybe almost a sacred space.
12 tips to make a house feel like home
1. Personalize it. Play up your unique personality and style. Involve an interior decorator to help, if you’d like.
2. Play with color and wallpaper, adding interest to different rooms and walls to make the space your own.
3. Hang artwork, portraits, and pictures that are meaningful to you and your family.
4. Add plants to give life and a taste of the outdoors to your space.
5. Adopt a cuddly pet for companionship.
6. Decorate for the holidays to create extra special memories with loved ones.
7. Keep it neat and tidy with amazing storage ideas.
8. Allow plenty of natural light to shine in and views of the outdoors.
9. Add soft textures – blankets, upholstery, or area rugs can make a room feel much more comfortable, relaxing, and homey.
10. Hide the clutter.
11. Enjoy the space with family and friends. Cook, eat, play, and laugh together.
12. Keep the emotional temperature set to warm and inviting.
“Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Why is home so important to us?
Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz, was right. “There’s no place like home!”
Home offers many benefits to us, tangible and intangible. The physical structure provides shelter from storms, heat, and cold. Homes are our refuge, granting us safety from harm and security. They allow us to keep our possessions all in one place. Home is the stage where we live a great portion of our lives.
Home also provides meaning and intangible benefits in our lives. It is a place of rest and healing when we are exhausted or sick. It is the place we go to celebrate life’s victories and happiest moments. And it is the place we go when we suffer the most crushing defeats and sorrows. At home, we should be able to share our most authentic selves with those who are most important to us in our lives. It’s the place where we can relax at the end of a long day.
Home infuses a sense of identity into us. Our emotional identity arises from a combination of the physical aspects of the home, the yard, and the community and the experiences and emotional atmosphere we experience in that place. We always carry home with us wherever we go because we have an emotional bond to that place full of treasured and important memories.
As adults, home is also the place where we raise our children, helping them grow into the people they will be one day. It provides them with stability. It is the place where we create the lives we most desire and go for our dreams. It may be the place where we care for elderly loved ones who need help. And home is increasingly the place where we also work and where our children learn.
What does a refuge mean?
Home is a safe place. Or, it should be. A place where family members find protection from physical storms and harm. A place where they feel emotionally safe, too. It should be the one place in all the world where everyone feels loved, cherished, respected, and important. It should be the place we can go where we know the people there, though not perfect, have our backs.
Home is a place where families and individuals grow—forming the bedrock of our society. Children who find true love, stability, safety, and nurturing at home eventually grow up and fly away, equipped to replicate that wonderful family life in the future for their own families.
“Maybe that’s the best part of going away for a vacation-coming home again.”
Madeleine L’Engle, Meet the Austins
What is the true love we find at home?
How we love is first defined here in this childhood home place. This is where we learn what living in this world means on the deepest levels. It’s where we develop our core beliefs and understanding of life.
We carry the nurturing, traditions, memories, and beauty of this home with us for the rest of our lives. As we grow and mature, we begin to understand love in our own way and create our own loving culture in our new homes as adults. There we can get rid of anything we didn’t like and embrace what matters most to us.
At home, hopefully, we all experience moments of real love.
True love is kind, gentle, and patient. It is not rude or aggressive. It is thoughtful and considerate. It cares about the wellbeing of loved ones. It nurtures those who are weak and hurting. It calms the fears of those who are upset and anxious. Real love makes us feel emotionally safe and empowers relationships.
When we find a location where love thrives like this, we find home. May we all find such a place.
This week is National Construction Appreciation Week!
We owe much of our amazing lifestyle in our country to the talents, hard work, and dedication of construction workers and builders in America. Without all the types of construction we have in our society, we may be living in tents or shacks.
We are all thankful for the familiar, beautiful structures we are so accustomed in which we live, work, and play. It’s a great week to stop and think about the blessings we have and how home building companies and the construction industry help make our dream homes possible.
In honor of construction companies and home builders, we celebrate the importance of home.
As custom home builders, we don’t just build buildings. We build the places where people live their lives, make memories, raise families, and find much of their identity and security.
Whether you have a new construction home or an old home. Your house is much more than a home plan, four walls, construction materials, and a roof.
“What was home, really? Just a place to lay your head. No. It was so much more than that. It was a place where a person belonged. Where a fellow would be missed. It was a part of a man. Something that couldn’t be sold or taken for granted.”
Suzanne Woods Fisher, The Keeper
Ready to build a new home sweet home for yourself in the Lexington, SC area?
At Blythe Building Company, we know the houses we build are more than buildings. They are the place where your family loves, lives, and bonds together. They are the place where your fondest memories are made. They are the very building blocks of a culture.
We love building people’s dream homes.
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