Starting is the Hardest Part

If you are new to your space, you may be looking around and feeling overwhelmed at your blank canvas. You moved in because the possibilities were endless... and also the price was right. But now that you're here, you can't help but think:

Now what?

Well, sometimes it depends. If you're in an apartment building or complex, your options to make adjustments may be pretty limited. Maybe a color choice, or a bold curtain, but even hanging up pictures can feel like you're playing with your security deposit.

Here are some of the things we have done in our spaces to make them feel more like us!

Type of Housing	What we did / Order we did it
Apartment Complex	Add storage with shelves that can easily go with you when you leave. Think that cube storage, or over-the-toilet shelving. We could only have outside facing curtains that were white, so we found black-out curtains that were white on the outside and fun colors on the inside of the room. Buy fun colored blankets and pillows. We knew this wasn't going to be our forever place, but we also wanted more than just white walls.
Duplex - lower level with basement access and some storage	Area rugs! The flooring was old and ugly, but more importantly, without proper insulation, they were cold during those Buffalo winters above an unfinished basement. Bought fun colored shower curtains. Small, but made a difference. Replace the blinds. The blinds were either in a slight state of disrepair, or those ugly vertical slat things. We took a financial "hit" knowing we would leave them when we left, and replaced them with nicer looking blinds. We also added rods and put up curtains. Bought a washer and dryer! We took full advantage of that basement access!
Bought a home!	Took a door off the hinges that I didn't like. Flooded the laundry/mud room while learning to hook up the washer and dryer (note, I don't actually recommend this one). Took paneling off the wall to get down to drywall. Painted every room. This was probably the biggest bang for our buck in a new house. It makes everything look clean, and you get to choose the colors. Pulled up the carpet in our living room and found hardwoods! (pro tip - if you're not sure, pull up just a small square in a corner somewhere before you commit to the whole room.) Replaced the vanity in our downstairs bathroom, which opened up more space in a tight room. Redid our entire upstairs to change a half-bath too a full bath, and added a walk-in closet. Redid our laundry room to add a drain in the center of the room (for the next time I flood it), and added built-in storage.

Listen, I could go on with the things that we have done in our house, but even I'm getting bored writing it! The point is that we go back and forth between cosmetic changes, like painting rooms and refinishing hardwood floors, to more structural changes like adding a bathroom and built-in shelving.

Worried that when the time comes, you won't know where to get inspo? Pinterest, TikTok, Better Home and Gardens magazine will all happily show you the changes you didn't know you needed. Behr and Pantone will show you complementing colors to their Color of the Year.

We have faith in you!