Moving Overseas? Here’s How to Start Fresh With Your Home Style

Moving overseas? Discover tips to refresh your home style abroad—blending comfort, culture, and design for a smooth new beginning.

Relocating to a different part of the world is one of the most difficult things people can do, regardless of whether it’s their first time or fifth. 

When moving, there are many little tasks you have to manage, from coordinating with different utility providers to packing and labelling your boxes of belongings. And getting all these done in a few weeks or months can be backbreaking work.

The challenge becomes much harder when you’re moving out of your home country. While the move can definitely be rewarding in more ways than one, it will test you in multiple ways, and it’s easy to crumble under the pressure of it all.

One of the biggest considerations you must make when moving is your new home’s interior. While a bed and a table set technically get the job done, there’s more to home decor than the bare essentials. 

Making the right stylistic choices for your home can be the difference maker in feeling cosy in your new space or feeling like you’re confined in a soulless cell. 

The good news? You don’t need to have a degree in interior design or hire a top-of-the-line interior designer to add some spice and flair to your new home. With the right strategic touches, you can build a home that feels safe, cosy, and familiar to you.

Without further ado, let’s explore some ways you can enhance your new home’s style. Let’s jump right into it.

1. Consider the Available Housing in Your Area

Before you commit to a home layout, it’s important to ground your decision on the practical aspects of the move. One particularly important factor is the location of your next house. 

Depending on where you plan to reside, you could see very different housing options available within your budget. 

For instance, if you’re planning to move to Sydney—Australia’s most economically developed city—the price of a standard two-storey home could be a couple of six digits more than it would be in smaller cities like Perth and Darwin. 

See this page to learn more about the regional areas and way of life in different areas of the country.

Naturally, you should be mindful of your buying capacity in the region you’re planning to relocate to before formally settling in. Home decor can’t reach its highest potential if you’re working on a shoestring budget. This is especially true if you’re moving to a higher cost-of-living area with a limited monthly income.

With that being the case, it’s important to save up weeks—or even months—leading up to the move to ensure that you have enough funds to get your new home looking livable on day one. You can also consider applying for bank accounts and mortgage plans to put you in a more financially flexible position. Think offset accounts.

Beyond the finances involved in the move, you should also consider your long-term intent with the house. 

Are you fine with a one-bedroom studio apartment in the middle of the city? Or are you planning to get a suburban house twenty minutes away from the city centre? Do you foresee having kids in the future, thus needing you to prepare with extra rooms? 

Your decision can heavily impact your quality of life and the optimal home layout. Keep that in mind before committing to a house listing that you may deem ideal for your new life.

2. Reinvent Your Style With a New Identity

The house or apartment you’ve lived in for years was thought out and decorated by a past version of you. And even if the design of it may be timeless, it’s not uncommon for people to outgrow certain stylistic choices and have them evolve into a new and better look.

Moving to a new country symbolises new beginnings. It’s the perfect time to create a clean slate and start anew, and this can also mean growing a new and more mature personal style for your home.

Rather than reusing the old wallpapers and design elements of your old setup, consider expressing a more refreshed identity that resonates with your preferences. 

For instance, if you were a maximalist in your old home and have never had a room that isn’t filled to the brim with boxes of belongings, consider flipping the switch and streamlining your belongings to only the most essential.

The changes don’t always have to be drastic, though. You can also make minor changes to symbolise this new growth, such as using a different coloured paint to cover the walls or adding new stylistic decor in your cabinet, whether it’s plants, tapestries, or carpets.

Oftentimes, you’ll naturally end up using different design elements as you move due to the different furnishing and decorative options available to you in stores there. In any case, moving to a new country presents the best time to curate a style that’s unique and fresh. You don’t have to transform your identity completely, but a few thoughtful decorative touches can be the difference maker in helping you feel like you’re truly in a new chapter of your life.

3. Display Mementoes and Sentimental Pieces

It can be very emotionally draining to leave all you know behind and move overseas. This is especially true if it’s your first time away from home and you’re doing it all alone.

Leaving friends and family behind and doing something completely new can disorient even the best of us. This is especially true if you have no support system in your new area and are completely alone.

One way to overcome this feeling is to bring belongings that meant a lot to you in the past. Think things like family picture frames, souvenirs, trinkets, and other sentimental items. Bringing these items can act as reminders of the past and the things that have and continue to define you.

When you feel small and insignificant in this new, unfamiliar land, taking a look at these things can help bring back memories of better times. You don’t have to bring everything into your room—just a couple of especially important items. Seeing these items in your new space can be a great boost to your mental health. It can also make your home’s style uniquely your own.

4. Harness Colour Psychology

Another way to enhance the style of your new space is by implementing colour psychology in your rooms. 

Colours play a big role in influencing our perception of a space. It can also subconsciously influence our energy levels and mood. Given this, it’s essential to be particularly thoughtful of picking the right palettes to ensure that your space is as inviting and as homey as possible.

If you want a house to look calming yet spacious, soft neutrals like beige and ivory are great to paint on walls and on furniture sets. For a grounded feel, earthy tones like terracotta and sage work exceptionally well. If you want your room to feel bright and joyful, pale yellow can add some vibrance to otherwise gloomy areas.

You should also consider consulting the colour wheel to know what colours pair well together. By painting your wall the right colours and complementing it with your furniture set and decorations, you can make your new home look stylish and thoughtfully designed. 

5. Play With Lighting

Lighting is another huge factor in transforming the feel of a room, or the house at large. A lot of people stick with the overhanging ceiling light, utilising bright white bulbs to illuminate the entire space.

While that light does get the job done, it can make the room feel sterile and disconnected. A much better approach is to use different types of lighting to improve the ambience of the space exponentially.

For instance, one effective approach is to play with depth and horizontal angles. Aside from fitting a room with overhead lighting, you should also add task lighting options in specific zones—such as kitchen counters or study desks—to make it easier to do things in those areas. 

Furthermore, you can also add accent lights like sconces and table lamps to create a relaxing mood in a particular space. In particular, these lights should be fitted with warm yellow LED lights for the most calming effects.

By using light effectively, you can dictate the emotional qualities of the room. This, in turn, can make a room feel inviting not just for guests, but for you and your family as well.

We hope these tips will serve you well as you navigate moving overseas. All the best in your next life chapter!

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