8 Effective Ways to Make Your New Build House Look Unique
Renovations

8 Effective Ways to Make Your New Build House Look Unique

Moving into a new build has its perks, namely that you know everything is brand new and unlikely to break on you anytime soon, but what about its character? Here, we provide some tips to make your new build look more unique…

So, you’ve just bought a new build? Congratulations! Now it’s time to make it your own.

Once you’ve bought your house and been through all the new build conveyancing procedures, the next step is to try to make it into a home. Making your new build unique to you isn’t a simple task, but it can be done with a few clever design techniques.

In this post, I’m going to share eight effective ways to make your new build house unique and stand out from all the other new builds. Take a look…

How Do You Make Your New Build Unique?

Making a new build look unique is about removing that plasticky ‘fresh out of the box’ feeling. The house should look modern and stylish, but also have elements that make it appear like it’s been around for a while and is relatively lived in. 

The following ideas will help you do just that, and transform your new build into a living, breathing home for you and your family. 

1. Put up panelling

Adding panelling is an easy way to add texture to the blank walls of your new build, but it’s not always easy to decide what panelling to go for.

Before you start you should do your research before you decide which type of panelling is for you. Try to pick panelling that fits the room you’re installing it in but also matches your own personal taste.

There are also lots of little tricks you can perform with wall panelling such as:

  • Extending your wall panelling along the ceiling
  • Covering a chimney breast with wall panelling
  • Using wall panelling to frame artwork
  • Using panelling instead of tiles in your bathroom

2. Layer your lighting

The way a room is lit can completely change the mood and the rest of the décor. In new build homes, there tends to be a lot of bright downlighting that makes you feel like you’ve walked into a dentist’s office.

Having this lighting is fine in the bathroom and kitchen so you can see what you’re doing. But, there should also be softer lighting you can switch to that makes the setting more intimate and homely.

Installing pendant lights and wall sconces, as well as putting floor and table lamps in every room, allows you to switch between functional and mood-driven lighting.

3. Place art under your feet

Some rugs are only there to provide relief from walking on wooden floors and to have something soft to lay your feet on when you’re watching TV. However, there are other rugs that are literal pieces of art.

Instead of going for a bog standard white, cream or grey single-colour rug for practical purposes, splash out and get one with a striking pattern or art deco shapes. You have to look at that floor every day, so you might as well cover it with art.

8 Effective Ways to Make Your New Build House Look Unique

4. Mix in vintage and upcycled items

The biggest mistake you can make when you move into a house is to think that everything has to be brand new. All you’d be doing is adding to the ‘new build’ feel of your house instead of making it feel like a home.

One way to make your new build unique and mask the ‘out of the box’ look is to mix some vintage and upcycled elements in with your new décor. Go to a local charity or antique shop and buy a nice chair or coffee table.

You don’t even have to buy antiques, you could always upcycle an old piece of furniture or build an entirely new item out of stuff you don’t need anymore. Why not make a palette swing for the garden, make shelves out of a ladder, or repurpose some old picture frames?

5. Pick a colour palette from a painting

If you’re looking to design a part of the house from scratch – i.e. choose the furniture, paint the walls, and put up some shelves – you have the perfect opportunity to choose a new colour palette.

One of the best, and most unique, ways to do this is to choose a large piece of art that you like and use the colours in the piece to design the area around it. For example, if you were to choose Van Gogh’s Sunflowers you’d have to incorporate furniture that had yellows, beiges and greens in them that match the colours in the painting.

6. Create a beautiful ceiling

A new build house will undoubtedly have a nice, clean ceiling looking down on you like a fresh canvas begging to be worked upon. 

Instead of leaving it plain and boring, you could turn it into a dropped ceiling where a panel hangs below the original ceiling. Or, you could implement a coffered design with recesses in it to make the room feel bigger and look more classic. You could also try:

  • Stepped ceilings
  • Ornate ceilings
  • Tray ceilings
  • Coved ceilings
  • Cathedral ceilings
  • Shed ceilings
  • Beam ceilings

Any kind of ceiling you can think of would be more unique than what you have now, it’s just down to your own personal preference which one you decide to choose.

8 Effective Ways to Make Your New Build House Look Unique

7. Paint with lime wash

Limewash is an ancient house staple dating back to Roman times. It’s made from limestone that’s been crushed, burned and mixed with water to make putty which, once aged, is coloured with natural pigments.

When you paint your walls with limewash it creates mottled surfaces with a chalky suede-like texture that provides depth and luminosity to flat walls. It’s also a very unique way to paint your home that makes it look like it’s been around for more than five minutes.

8. Breathe life into the garden

To make your new garden unique, you need to spend a bit of money buying mature plants and shrubs. It’s a good idea to hire a professional landscaper for this who can advise you which plants would work best in your garden’s soil, and which would complement the architecture of your house.

Are These the Only Ways to Make Your New Build House Look Unique?

In this post, we’ve shared eight effective ways to make your new build house look unique.

There are hundreds of other design tips out there, but the ones I’ve shared in this post are a good start and should help in making your new build unique.

Photo credits:

Family decorating a new home – Photo by HiveBoxx on Unsplash 

Rugs – Photo by Juli Kosolapova on Unsplash 

Ceiling – Photo by Barna David from Pexels

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