Are you a potential first-time apartment owner? Or are you building a budget for when you would move into your own space?
I’m hardly the expert on apartment sorting, but having lived in different house scenarios (with family, with multiple roommates, with only a single roommate, flatmate, independent single rooms, now independent one-bedroom), I have a good sense of different living situations and their distinct needs.
And having also experienced various house moves personally, I understand and can help with tips on what to look out for, how to manage your budget while moving, purchasing house supplies, or generally the process of settling into a new place.
There are things that are pressingly important, and others that are not.
2 Things Every First Apartment Owner Should Care About
1. Wall paint and 3D Wall Art
During the apartment selection process, there would have been tons of interest in which room paint color would have been and should be the least. It wouldn’t even pass for a secondary concern.
However, after new house key concerns (such as proximity to locations, availability of phone signal, etc.) have been out of the way, and the apartment that meets all expectations has been selected and paid for, the room color moves from a tertiary to a primary concern. Right before any material has to be moved about.
While this may not be a make-or-break case, this is quite an important one. Wall colors speak silently about how the room decor would be managed, which I realized almost too late.
It could determine the absolute details of the home, such as the color set for the impending furniture, curtains, bedding, and house accessories.
Related: 4 Tips to Consider When you decide to Relocate
Generally put, the wall paint color provides the first impression your home doles out and also impacts the mood of the home.
The Experiences You don’t Want for your First Apartment Wall Color
The majority of apartments come originally with a neutral white color for the interior walls, which already goes a long way to creating a good balance of brightness and stainless aura.
But there are the ones with colors that would make the future organization seem tacky or generally unpleasant to look at if left unattended to.
Most uninformed contractors tend to go for cheap paint jobs or the available/ leftover paint boxes from previous house works because they believe the prospective occupants would cover them up anyways with their set of decorations.
But then, there’s just so much you can do with, say, a maroon-colored sitting room wall on a budget.
Some negative experiences with unpleasing wall colors can be when your room feels shaded at all times, the room being consistently grim on the inside while fairly daylight and fairies are happening outside.
Now if you’ve gone through the troubles of choosing the comfortable place against those major factors highlighted earlier, a little thought can be spared to improve a dis-satisfactory wall color if you find that it exists.
In DIYnetwork, it’s said that “You do not have to spend a lot of money on an interior designer to redo the look of your house. With a little paint and a lot of imagination, you can easily change the look and feel of a room”.
Additionally, it doesn’t have to be a holistic full-blown paint job. For budget control, it could just be only 2 opposite sides of the wall getting a new paint job, the others retaining the original color. Or the bottom or top half of the 4 wall corners getting the new shade.
A pop of the ideal/intended color goes a long way to making it all pleasing.
If you wish to take it up a notch or if you’re not bothered about theories of cost-effectiveness, then you could install some 3D art instead. This would introduce a modern touch and provide the ultimate customized personality to your home.
As a rule of thumb, when in doubt, neutral colors work best for all situations. Also, they provide the best elegant appearance.
And when considering the decor, it’s always better to have softer paint colors with contrasting bold and dark-colored furniture or artwork.
2. Mattress and Bedframe
If there’s anything that is one of the most important elements in the house, it has got to be the bed.
Even if you’re a workaholic that may be believed to spend more time at the workplace than at home, it would surprise you to learn that most of the little time you spend at home would be spent on your bed!
The best effort, therefore, should be worked into putting together the best choice of mattress.
As we know, as far as life is concerned, sleep is unavoidable. And if we have to spend one-third of every single day sleeping, it’s only fair to make the time a good one and the sleep a deserving one.
And this is predominantly determined, among other factors, by the level of comfort we get from the mattress we choose to relax on. Comfort is not personal; only the style is.
Whether you select your style of comfort to be lying on your stomach, side, or back, if the mattress is not tasteful, your most suitable style will fail on you, and you will find yourself turning and tossing all around the bed.
When the mattress is of the wrong composition for your body, or when you’re exercising budget control on mattress quality, you end up spending more time with occasional body pain or searching for the “right” spot on the bed that does the trick. Rather than have all spots magical (or really just ok, no pressure).
What is it About The Mattress?
For mattress quality, they come in different kinds – e.g., spring or foam; the difference depends on what kind of sleeper you are and if you like a soft bed.
See, for the different kinds, there are even separate categories when considering puffy, bouncy & soft, or even a degree of firmness.
Some mattress brands have specific mattresses dependent on the style of sleeping – say, if you sleep on your back, there’s a mattress for you different from if you sleep on your side. There’s even the type for if your partner tosses and turns. But this is just overkill.
What you need to know is that mattresses are specially designed to suit different age grades. You need a bed that equally fits your length and body weight. Density and mattress thickness is very important. Regardless of the brand, the type of foam for an adolescent wouldn’t pass for an adult.
However, the duration of your stay in your new apartment should also determine the quality and budget of the impending mattress. Whether getting a naked foam with a cover, a branded mattress, a thick one, or a thin one.
Comfort can come in various styles and budgets
It’s better to get an average serving comfortable bed if your stay is hardly permanent. The same goes when considering building a bed frame.
If your stay is temporary, you don’t want to spend a ton of money on a bed/ bed frame when you’re only going to haul it somewhere soon and incur an extra cost.
But if you’re really not so crazy about bed frames, there are various options for elevating the bed above ground. There are custom-designed cubes on which your mattress is placed above. There are boxes and, most recently, pallets. All these are extremely modern and appreciable.
Interior wall paint color and choice of mattress happen to be the least worrisome concerns for first apartment owners and so are ignored. Mistake!
You want your first apartment to appeal to you in comforting terms. One where you’d look forward to pushing past your front door and being greeted by the toned walls all the way to the bedroom. And this is before you finally stretch all over the bed!
Little research here and there would keep you at the peak of comfort that could easily be omitted.
