How to Enjoy Living in an Ugly Home

How’s that for a title? Presently I live in a cozy house that my husband and I bought together, surrounded by furniture and accessories that I carefully chose or inherited from precious family members. I love our home!

However.

My first apartment was a walkout basement with one bedroom and an open area for the kitchen, dining and living room. It wasn’t horrible…but it was ugly. The landlords went back on their word and decided they didn’t want to remove their overstuffed 1995 era floral couches. It is extremely difficult to work with a color palette that includes a faded pink and dirty blue. Ha! We also had to store all of our Christmas decorations and extra boxes in our bedroom. Cardboard doesn’t work well with any theme you find on Pinterest. There were several other ugly elements, but I’ll spare you the details.

Living there as a single person and then as a newlywed, I tried very hard to make our cramped quarters as cozy and pleasant as possible. Looking back, I can identify two strategies I employed to achieve my goal. I’ll share the first one today and the second one tomorrow.

1. Enhance a space you love

There was a large hutch in the kitchen that I really liked. It was the first thing you saw upon entering the apartment, so I did my best to draw attention to that space and away from the overstuffed floral monster chair lurking just to the left. I put all my prettiest dishes in the cabinet, so they could be seen through the glass doors. This was also the space I decorated seasonally.

I grabbed an old flip phone picture off my Facebook to show you what it looked like. Keep in mind – these were my early days of decorating and I used what I had! I still love those dishes (they’re Lenox and were my Nana’s).

My kitchen space was really tiny, so this cabinet was always in my line of sight while cooking. I enjoyed looking at those things that I loved, and it helped me to keep from focusing on the ugly parts of the room.

What space do you love in your home? 

• A piece of furniture
• A gallery wall covered in your family photos
• A window or patio door with a nice view

Take that space or piece and embellish it! Put the things you love in that area, so that your eye is even more likely to travel there.

If you have a hard time finding an answer to that question, the second strategy might be helpful for you! Click here for part two.