Create The Mood You Want In Your New Overseas Home

Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Life, Home, Relocation
2 comments

One of my favourite subjects!

I love using decorating and interior design to create an environment that inspiress, supports and replenishes you emotionally. I used to work in this field and my greatest joy was helping architects, designers and clients create precisely the mood they wanted in their homes.

It’s fun, creative and most of all it can boost your morale like nothing else, especially when you’ve just landed in an unfamiliar place!

How do you want your home to feel?

Your current home may not be exactly what you had dreamt of. Maybe you had that perfect vision of what a Paris apartment should be like, only to end up in a nondescript white box with an empty kitchen (appliances not included!) and no built-in storage. Or maybe you did get your dream house on the Mayan Riviera, but for some reason it does not feel very “you” after all.

Time to get creative! Before you redecorate from floor to ceiling, though, take a moment to ask yourself: What kind of environment do you want to come home to every day? Do you want to create a cocoon, an oasis, or the perfect place to entertain?

When I decorate a new place, I aim for a serene, joyful, and inspiring mood. For you, the key words may be welcoming, elegant, bohemian, romantic, warm… What are some easy, quick-to-implement changes you can make to bring more of this mood into each room?

What memories do you want to bring into your home?

Many expats combine influences from their home country and their host country when they decorate their home overseas.

Some interior styles mix beautifully: Moroccan and Regency; Scandinavian and mid-century modern or shabby chic; Asian and contemporary design, to name but a few.

But you certainly don’t have to stop there – if you have lived in another foreign country before, why not add that influence to the mix as well? It could be as simple as prominently displaying the pieces of art you brought back from Mali, repurposing that chest you found in China or painting an accent wall in a colour that reminds you of Spain.

What compromises do you need to make?

Like most newcomers, you may be renting, which means that you can’t very well go around knocking down walls and replacing bathroom fixtures. In some cases, you might not even be allowed to put up shelves or paint walls. Not all is lost, though: here is a great list of ways renters can feel more at home, courtesy of interior design blog Apartment Therapy.

If you find that some of the creature comforts you are used to are unavailable, or extremely expensive, try observing how local people live. Chances are that they’ve come up with their own solutions to problems like keeping cool without air conditioning, or saving space in small apartments.

Be open to doing without for a while and see how it goes. Many of the things we may think we “need” – be it AC, big closets or kitchen gadgets – turn out to be luxuries that are really nice to have but not that necessary all things considered.

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Emmanuelle

Images by pillowhead_designs (top) and yvestown, via Flickr Creative Commons