10 Ways to Make Military Housing Your Own
A big complaint by those living in military housing is the inability to personalize their homes. This is true to an extent, but the options to temporarily tailor the space to your likes are affordable, attractive, and rapidly expanding.
There are some pretty talented and creative milspouses out there who love to share ideas on how to customize military housing. If you aren’t already part of the Facebook groups “White Walls” and “HGTV Followers Military Housing Style,” then make it happen quickly, because the imaginations these folks have are amazing!
But for starters, these 10 tips will put you well on your way to creating a military house you’ll want to call home:
1. Create Storage
A plethora of military equipment makes storage space a premium amenity. The typical coat closets near the doorway often get overrun by camouflaged items. To correct the space invasion, the answer is to make a faux foyer or mud space near an entry. A bench with baskets for shoes and a standing coat hanger add the storage needed but also delineate an extra “room” for everyday items like dog leashes and grocery bags.
2. Inject Your Style into the Neutral Palette
Beige walls and taupe carpeting are a perfect blank slate for adding color. Showcase your favorite collections and inject interest in the room. Antique linens make great wall hangings, and handmade candles brighten floating shelves. Most military families have at least one memento to remember previous duty stations; artfully arrange those pieces on a bookshelf system or mantel.
3. Make a Seasonal Statement
If “greige” or buff boredom is setting in, fight against the beige blah and change with the season. Seasonal decorating is fun and always evolves, spring through winter, year to year. Coffee tables and mantels adorned with spring blooms, 4th of July decorations, and Halloween pumpkins are easy to come by and simple to rearrange to make your own special kind of seasonal statement.
4. Use Temporary Coverings
Military homemakers have taken the contact paper trend to new lengths, heights, and widths. Because of the easy install and clean removal, it’s a favorite for covering counter tops, cabinet doors, and much, much, more. HGTV has even picked up on the trend and produced this video.
5. Little Upgrades Make a Difference
It’s the little things that make your military house a home. A personalized shower head is certainly more comfortable than the builder-grade quality the housing company installs. The same goes for those flimsy and easily breakable plastic blinds. Remove them, add your window coverings (preferably styles that can be used from house to house), and on move out day, reinstall the blinds. Safekeeping of the originals avoids the outrageous payment to the housing company for replacements.
6. The Smell of Home
If you’re someone who relates to pleasant smells, then your home probably has a signature scent, either from a room spray, a plug-in type of air freshener, or just the smell of “clean.” Your military housing should be homey to you, too, so add whatever scent makes the space feel comfortable. Don’t forget to change those air filters monthly to keep the air circulating as fresh as possible.
7. Lighten Up the Space
Recessed lighting is dated and boring, which is why your military housing probably has it! Check out what this company has come up with to dress up those lights. These decorative and magnetic shades are perfect for adding style to an accessory that usually doesn’t have any. They are entirely removable to pack and take to the next house. Check your light pots to make sure they are magnetic first!
8. Embrace Home Décor Trends
Military housing is actually a great place to try a popular trend: rug layering. A large floor rug in a natural woven style is easily dressed up with a smaller rug placed on top, providing interest and color. Even if the entire house has wall-to-wall carpeting, add a room-sized floor rug on top, but remember to place the rug on rug padding in between to avoid color runs.
9. Creating Privacy
In military housing, it’s not uncommon to be so close to a neighbor that you both have a direct view through your windows into each other’s space. There is an easy fix: window vinyl. It has advanced so much that the sheets are attractive, easy to hang, and simple to remove come PCS time. The sunlight isn’t sacrificed, but the views of your neighbor’s dirty garage are.
10. Personalize Your Outdoor Space
The yard is usually precious living space on post, so take the opportunity to turn it into an outside living area you’ll want to spend time enjoying. Durable outdoor rugs are exceptionally affordable and hand-me-down patio furniture is brand new again when coated with an outdoor formula spray paint. Small container gardens are low maintenance and budget-friendly if they are of the edible variety, like a salsa or green leaf salad garden.
Just because the next two to three years will be lived in military housing doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style. A little creativity and research is all it takes to make your home a place that your family looks forward to coming back to each day.
By Dawn Smith for MilitarybyOwner
