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Simple ways of making your apartment feel larger

Living in apartments for any amount of time can get you feeling cooped up, hemmed in, and craving the outdoors. Humans and nature are inseparable, no matter how much we’ve evolved. The earth, sky, sunshine, greenery, and air calm and refresh us.

One of the most straightforward solutions if you can’t go out to nature that often is to, well, bring nature in to you! Several practical solutions lend themselves to making your apartment feel like it’s a part of the outdoors.

Here, we explore these simple techniques to help you transform your living space into a natural paradise.

Let In Natural Light

There’s nothing like waking up to a ray of sunshine streaming into your bedroom early in the morning. Improving the lighting in your apartment is one of the best transformations you can make to bring nature into your residence. 

Natural light instantly lifts the mood of a room. Invest in skylights in the bedroom or bathroom, and install big windows in your living room or kitchen to allow enough natural light into your home.

Install French Or Sliding Doors

French doors and sliding doors are one of those design elements that instantly open up your room. Install these doors between your living room and balcony, to open them up on sunny days.

Use French doors if you have enough space in your living room or sliding doors in restricted areas.

Use Natural Fibre Soft Furnishings

Introducing natural materials into your apartment is a simple but effective way to bring in the outdoors and take your apartment closer to nature.

Rattan, bamboo, hemp, seagrass, and jute are the perfect materials for your furniture pieces or flooring. A robust hardwood coffee or dining table also adds some substance.

Lampshades and wicker baskets can also enhance the outdoor feel near a fireplace or other focal point.

Use wool or cotton for your bedding and throws and decorate your walls with macramé and Native American Southwestern rugs or Aboriginal art to keep things interesting.

Fill Your Home With Plants

Apart from ‘greening-up’ your living space, plants are incredibly healthy for you. Introduce indoor houseplants like the Fruit Salad plant, Fiddle Leaf Fig, String of Pearls, Devil’s Ivy, Mother-in-Law’s tongue, and Bonsai trees that all do well indoors.

On your apartment balcony, you could place some potted Bamboo, Agapanthus, Rosemary, Cumquat, or Dwarf Oleander to add colour, scent, and pep to this semi-outdoor space.

Use Nature-Scented Candles Or Pot Pourri

Woodsy incense, pine, lavender, juniper wood candles or floral potpourri scents transport you outdoors in an instant.

Burn these scented candles in your living room or bedroom, and place pot pourri in strategic places around your apartment to bring in the scent of the outdoors.

Choose Natural Flooring

Natural flooring may cost more but is worth it in the long run.

Flooring like wood, bamboo planks, or cork, give your apartment a warm and inviting feel, look elegant, and are especially easy on the feet in colder seasons.

Natural flooring is also easier to clean and maintain merely requiring a wipe down with mild soapy water and the occasional polish.

Decorate With Natural Elements

Make a point of decorating your home with elements that represent nature. Outdoor items could be anything from pine cones, seashells, and beach-sand-filled glass jars, to rocks or driftwood.

If you have difficulty sourcing these elements, you could also use their photographs or murals to mimic the effects.

Install A Wood Burning Stove or Real Fireplace

Apart from adding warmth to your living space, wood-burning stoves or fireplaces are very energy efficient and cheap to run. The wood used to fuel the fire or stove is also much less expensive compared to gas or electricity.

Fires remind us of our prehistoric years when we huddled around them for safety. Bring that camp-fire nature-filled feeling indoors and enjoy the unmatched warmth, light, and crackle that can only come from a real wood fire.

Be mindful to check with the management of the apartment complex first before you install these décor items.

Use Wall Colours Inspired By The Outdoors

Nature predominantly favours specific colours such as blues, greens, yellows, beiges and whites.

Green will transport you to dense, lush forests, and is a calming colour, and blues remind you of the sky as well as water. Yellows represent the freshness and newness of spring as well as the sun.

You could opt to paint your bathroom in blues and whites to capture the beach and seaside or install yellows in your kitchen to brighten things up. A wall in green in the living room or bedroom will give your home a calm feel.

Hang Nature-Themed Artwork

Art instantly transforms a room, and nature-themed art is one of the simplest ways to enhance the nature theme in your home. Flowers, rolling hills, the outback, beachside, fjord, or lakeside painting or photograph could all enhance the idea of nature in your home.

Fool your eye into thinking you’re in the outdoors and calm your mind with stunning scenes for a fraction of the price.

Final Thoughts

We hope these simple tips will help you to up the nature factor in your home.

Living in an apartment doesn’t mean that you miss out on all the benefits that nature has to offer. Plants clean the air in our homes, which helps us to live healthier lives.

Besides, most of these décor choices are eco-friendly, so you’ll be playing your part in the preservation of our planet.

With a little out-of-the-box thinking you can transform your self-contained living space into an open and refreshing home, that’s just as steeped in nature as a log cabin in the mountains, a country home estate, or a spacious house by the beach.

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