Turn Your Apartment Into a Happy Home With These 5 Mood-Boosting Design Tips

Your home should be a place for inspiration and relaxation, not just a place to store your belongings. Improve your rental's overall mood with these design tips that are sure to bring the "happy" back into your happy home.

  • Improve the lighting. It's no secret that natural sunlight improves your mood, so you want to maximize the amount of it that flows through your home. Switch out heavy draperies or blackout curtains with light, sheer curtains or bamboo blinds, and even replace fluorescent lightbulbs with modern bulbs that mimic the look of sunlight.
  • Create a place for everything. Target the areas in your home that collect clutter, such as the area around the front door or the always-overflowing recycling bin. Think of smart solutions for the storage in these areas to create a better flow throughout the home.
  • Add some plants and flowers. Studies show that adding some green to your home makes you happy, so fill small pots with leafy green plants, stylish succulents, or blooming flowers.
  • Redecorate in soft colors. If you're having trouble relaxing in your bedroom or feeling inspired in your home office, try switching up the color palette. Adding stark white bedding or soft colored throw pillows will create a calming effect in these frequently used areas.

How to Create a Chic and Stylish Bar Cart

Bar carts are the types of finishing touches that add a major pop of designer flair to any room in the home. From the living room to the dining room, adding a well-curated bar cart will really give your home the type of 1950s style that is right on trend. Here are just a few tips for creating a truly chic bar cart.

  1. Start with the perfect cart. Scour flea markets and thrift stores for an authentic vintage bar cart. If you can’t find one there, try purchasing one at an affordable furniture store or even using a small three-tiered bookshelf.
  2. Choose your spirits. The types of spirits that you add to your cart really depend on your personal preferences. Investing in three or four bottles of common spirits like vodka, gin, and bourbon is a good place to start.
  3. Add your glassware. Next, invest in new or secondhand sets of wine glasses, low tumblers and martini glasses. You may even want to add decanters to fill with mixers or to trade out unattractive liquor bottles.
  4. Add the accessories. Fill a glass jar with stirrers, add a small cutting board for slicing lemons and limes and even add stacks of mixology books for the finishing touches.

How to Style a Bar Cart [The DIY Playbook]
How To: Create and Stylize the Perfect Bar Cart [Guest of a Guest]
Assembling the Perfect Bar Cart [Primer Magazine]
How to Style the Perfect Bar Cart for Any Party [HGTV]

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