No home is made in one day. In fact, homes always evolve. Making a place your own is a process.

When we move to a new home, it takes me easily 3 to 4 months to get to where I want it to be. It often takes longer.

Most people furnish their home with their own furniture. For expats that is not always the case. There are expats who get to bring and furnish their rental homes with their own furniture while there are some others who live in rental homes that come with furniture. We happen to be the latter. I feel fortunate to live in a furnished housing because it is easier when we move overseas. I can’t complain that we don’t have to worry about furnishing the house. However, living in a house filled with furniture that is not in your own style comes with its own challenges.

What is home to you? As we pursue our family life overseas as expats, a home to me is a place of sanctuary where my family and myself can feel safe, comfortable and happy. In my opinion where you live or what your house looks like is not as important as who and how you live in it. Home is not a domicile. Home is where your heart can be filled with love.

Making Home

Just like how we dress is a reflexion of who we are, I think how we decorate our home is a representation of ourselves. I don’t feel the need to fill my home with expensive furniture and decor as long as I can surround myself with the items and colors I like. It, however, is easier to be said than it is done. It took me nearly 16 years of expat living to get where we are. After many years of exploring, I feel that I know my style and I know what I like granted that my style constantly evolves.

Yes, it would be nice to live in a forever home designed to your own liking and furnish it with the furniture of your dream. One day maybe I can live in a house filled with the furniture I love. It is not the reality for me at the moment while we continue to live this nomadic lifestyle. I feel okay, though. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

In this article, I hope to show you how you can convert your home with some furniture that may not be your style into a home that you feel represents your style.

ENTRY WAY

The very first time I opened the door to see our new home in Manila, I felt as though it caught me off guard.

I opened the front door and there I was in the middle of a living room.

HELLO!!

The front door area is the most public space in the house. I didn’t feel comfortable that our living room was totally exposed because of the way it was configured.

SOLUTION

I created the division of space by moving the loveseat and have its back face the front door.

I also brought an entertainment center from the family room.

You will see this same entertainment center in one of the photos in the Family Room section.

Voila!

You no longer walk into the living room.

LIVING ROOM

TIP 1: RUGS

Rugs make a big difference in the room. I also learned that I am allergic to dust mites when I had dermatitis issue back in 2016. Thus, I decided to send brand new rugs to overseas.

If you bring rugs overseas, try to get the right size for the room. This rug I brought for the living room is 7’10 X 9’10.

The rugs that are too big would make the room look smaller and if you have a rug that is too small for the space, it would not look as good.

TIP 2: LAMPS

Do you know that you can take lamps everywhere in the world and use them without fixing anything? All you have to do is to buy an adapter for your plug if you need one (inexpensive) and use a local lightbulb.

Lamps are the best ambiance creator for a space. Decorating with your own lamps personalizes the space instantly.

TIP 3: PLAY AROUND WITH THE FURNITURE

Finding the best placement for furniture takes time.

In this room the two arm chairs look better lined up together than angled.

I brought a chair from my now “Workout Room” to the entry way.

Then I moved the small table next to it.

DINING ROOM

TIP 4: FENG SHUI

Do you see that the china cabinet has mirrors in the back? The photo is not in a good quality, so it’s hard to see, but the mirror has a reflection of the front doors. In Feng Shui, it is not recommended to place a mirror facing any door. A positive energy (you can see it as a good luck) comes in, but it immediately bounces off the mirror and goes out the door. (Hey, don’t leave!!) I don’t always strictly follow the Feng Shui rules, but the mirror rule is one of the easiest to follow, so I do. When you don’t know where to put your mirror, I recommend you go search Feng Sui laws for the placement of mirrors.

WITH SLIPCOVERS

TIP 5: ARTIFICIAL PLANTS

Plants don’t like me.

The truth is that I can’t keep them alive.

When I did the math, though, I realized if I buy 3 to 5 plants every time I move, that would cost more than the artificial plants I invest in and they can be transferred from one country to another. I do love real plants. They are awesome! For our life style, though, I must admit that I am a fan of artificial plants.

The advantage of moving with some artificial plants is that you can decorate your space with them as soon as you receive your boxes.

WITH SLIPCOVERS

TIP 6: SLIPCOVERS

Custom made slipcovers are affordable in certain countries. I have been fortunate enough to have lived in Mumbai and Manila where slipcovers can be custom-made at affordable prices. I am very pleased with these slipcovers!

If you are curious about what I made in Mumbai, India, click here for the article.

The glasses in the china cabinet reflects the greens in the yard, which I find very pleasant.

Kitchen

I love our kitchen, but in terms of storage, this space was the most challenging in the house.

The table is a DOCKSTA purchased at IKEA in the U.S. It has been my dream to own it for many years.

The cabinets have no shelves and built at the height that is too tall to be practical. Those under the counter also come with zero shelves. I came up with solutions, but this topic is for another post.

TIP 7: BE CREATIVE WITH FURNITURE

Since we have no storage for dinnerware as well as cutlery in the kitchen, I had to come up with an alternative storage. I brought two bookshelves and a chest of drawers from a bedroom to use in the kitchen. I have all the dinnerware and glasses in the shelves. The cutlery and other kitchen items are in the chest of drawers. This way serving and cleaning is much easier and my young kids can get their own servingware, which is important to me.

Family Room

TIP 8: PAINTING WALLS

Ever since I painted our home for the first time in Jakarta, I’m a fan of painting walls. It is such a pain and a lot of work, though.

May I suggest something?

Painting a wall just a half or 2/3 is a great way to accessorize the space.

It is so much easier.

The half painted wall becomes a decoration itself for the wall. You won’t feel the need to fill the blank space with wall decor. I highly recommend this painting strategy for a large room.

I painted this room myself (this is the only room I did myself and I hired a painter for the rest) and spent about 3 hours for 2 layers including applying masking tapes. The end result was totally worth the effort!

More recent family room photos can be seen in the link below.
Family Room With Rattan Chairs ☆ Manila Philippines

TIP 9: LAMP SHADE

The best change I made for this room was this lamp shade. This bamboo lampshade is probably overused everywhere on social media, but I don’t care. I love it.

The lamp shades are also universal. You can use the lampshades you brought from your country anywhere in the world.

The entertainment center in the photo below was moved to the foyer in front of the entrance door.

The green chair moved to the master bedroom.

I moved the sofa forward because the TV and the sofa were too far from each other to be comfortable.

LANDING

TIP 10: HIDE CLUTTER WITH A SOFA

I’m a fan of hiding a clutter behind a sofa, especially kids toys.

KIDS ROOM – GIRL & BOY SHARED ROOM

I like my kids sharing a room. My oldest is fully into a teenage phase, so she claimed that she needed her own room, which my husband and I agreed and approved.

Unfortunately, my middle child, a girl, did not want to be in the same room as her little brother. He, on the other hand, was so excited to share a room with his big sister.

The compromise for her was to create two separate spaces for the two. She wanted the side of her bed to be against the wall, so we moved the bed.

Another Feng Shui law I try to follow as much as I can is placements of beds, but unfortunately I could not do well with this room. It is not always easy because of the way rooms are designed and the placement of windows.

KIDS ROOM – TEENAGE DAUGTHER ROOM

You might wonder where the furniture went from this room.

I swapped the furniture of this room with the one in our “Workout Room” because the simple design furniture suits better and the other set we had in the house came with a desk.

The bed was moved from the placement next to the door to the other side by following the Feng Shui law.

The grey chair shown in the photo below moved to the other kids’ room.

We brought the giant lounge chair from the master bedroom and covered it with the white blanket to hide the color. You will see the lounge chair when you get to the master bedroom. It is not in the color a teenager would like, but she loves this chair!!

By the way, blankets are awesome tool to cover chairs like this!

WORKOUT ROOM

The short chest of drawers was moved to the family room behind the sofa. One of these days I will show you behind the sofa in the family room.

The tall chest of drawers was moved to our kitchen.

This is a bedroom sans bed.

We were not given an extra bed, so for the first time, we don’t have a guest bedroom. This room will convert into a guest bedroom when we have guests with using our Japanese futon mattresses.