New builds have quite a bad rap. Before I purchased mine, a three-bed near Manchester, in January, I lost count of the times I was told that they’re boring boxes and although I love the house, it’s true that they can feel almost clinical with their brilliant white walls and no personality.
I didn’t mind it. Many of the houses I had looked at beforehand needed extensive renovations or were poorly designed. With the deposit cost and various fees already extortionate, my partner and I weren’t prepared to pay tens of thousands of pounds more to rip up wallpaper, knock down walls or redo somebody else’s decor. The new build, although bland, was a blank canvas.
I’ve seen many new people transform their new builds online – people much more talented than I am have made their homes look like old countryside farmhouses, while others have made theirs a haven of colour. There’s an abundance of inspiration to be found, too; my Pinterest board was stacked full of ideas before we even moved in. According to Homesense, more Brits like me are also “room-scrolling”, with 86 per cent of people browsing property listings purely for interior inspiration.
Within a week of moving in, I got started on adding some colour. I knew I didn’t want a huge mix of bright colours but I definitely wanted it to feel more cosy (and like people actually lived in it). That being said, I didn’t want to spend a fortune.
