Furnishing a Vacation Home From the Scratch

This totally renovated 2 bedroom apartment was bought for rental purposes as well as for the family themselves to spend their vacations and for remote work when ever possible. Beautiful sea and garden views together with an open plan layout make the small apartment feeling airy, light and spacious.

Renting out a vacation home in Spain is rather easy. Of course, it’s renters market at the moment and that makes it even more important to stand out from the crowd and attract potential renters.

Living & dining - natural hues with tones of fresh blue & sunny yellow.

Tips For Creating a Standout Vacation Rental

1. Keep it simple

   When designing vacation rentals, simplicity in the furnishing is the key word. Keep the furniture highly edited and accessorising down to a minimum. Use neutrals as your foundation, then build on that with accent colours. Use cushions, blankets, vases, bowls and ‘feel good’ art.

2. Mix & match

   You can buy the main pieces of furniture in one place and save with the transportation , but add also some smaller pieces from different brands. In this particular case we bought a lot from Ikea such as the sofa, dining table and beds, but the home was spiced up with pieces from Zara Home, Westwing and Casa Mijas.

3. Decorate with Purpose

   Every room and space should have a function. In this home it was easy and obvious as the open plan layout gave spaces for different functions - cooking, dining and watching TV & relaxing. Both bedrooms were quite small, but it was important to make the beds inviting and comfortable. In the other bedroom there’s a locked sideboard for owners’ personal stuff, and a desk for working in the other.

4. Add Thoughtful Touches

   Choosing matching bedlinen and towels show that you care and want your guests to enjoy their stay. Same thing goes with the kitchen utensils - there should be enough of them and all going well together.

When you need beautiful images to your walls, go to StockBoutique by AT!

Blue bedroom.

Sunny yellow details.

The idea is that if guests have a wonderful experience with the home, hopefully they take better care of it. The more you finish a rental home — the more you complete the story — the more respect people have for it.

Beautiful and well-maintained garden with 2 pools.

If you need a holiday home for a week or 2, or for the whole month, this home is available here.

Living Room Make Over

In Spain you usually buy a house or apartment with furniture. The previous owner takes the most personal items, but often leaves the whole set of furniture and plenty of decor items such as lamps, rugs, curtains, paintings etc. This was also the case with the apartment my clients bought in Benalmadena.

The 3 bedroom apartment was basically move-in ready, but the style was not exactly what the new owner couple wanted. It’s always quite a job to get rid of the old furniture. You don’t want to throw them away, especially when everything is in good condition and made of quality materials as it was in this case. We put an ad on Facebook and immediately received plenty of responses. The whole sets were sold and picked up in no time.

Here’s a sneak peek how it looked

1. at the time of purchase

2. after getting rid of the old furniture

3. when furnished according to the taste of new owners

In the living room the first step was to choose a sofa, and then build up a modern, light & cosy atmosphere to the space. White painted walls suit perfectly to the beige marble floor and together they create a fresh, clean and cosy look.

Couch in cognac was the winner. Below you can see the moodboard I made with the chosen couch. White, cognac, beige and black with some shades of blue create a relaxed yet stylish combo, doesn’t it?

Here’s the result. The floor lamp in the corner was kept from the previous design, but all the other furniture is brand new. The colourful rug is a real statement piece and that’s why we decided to leave the walls without art. Time will show if some art work is needed.

How To Choose The Colour Theme For Your Home

We all have our favourite colours. This doesn’t mean that all the colours around us have to be in that specific tone. Sometimes it can be difficult to choose a colour, especially if it’s something you see every day, affects to your mood or costs a lot of money. Choosing colours for your home can be confusing - suddenly you see so many different options. I have collected here a few tips to make it easier for you to find the right colour palette.

1. Get Inspired

   You can find your colour inspiration in a holiday photo, your fave cashmere pullover, flower field or by looking out of your window. Perhaps you are looking for a certain atmosphere and you want your home to be fresh, dramatic, bright, moody, cosy or what ever you feel.

2. Start with neutrals

   Neutral hues are those basic ones such as white, grey and beige. Keep in mind that there are a wide variety of neutrals- not all greys are cool, and not all beiges are warm. It is completely possible to choose both grey & beige - just make sure they are both in same tone level; either cool or warm side. Even white has plenty of different tones.

   In case you like to have different colours in each room, keep the same neutrals in every space. That pulls the whole home palette together.

3. Add Two Accent Colours

   When the neutrals are picked up, go for the ‘real’ colours. Even if you think that you don’t want to add any colour for your place, I recommend you to choose at least one colour. You will see the difference in atmosphere just by adding a tiny hint of a colour. It can be a stripe in a cushion, a glass vase, a poster on the wall.

4. Create A Moodboard

   Choose one or more pictures which represent those colours or that atmosphere you are looking for. Pick up the main shades and you get a beautiful colour palette.

PS. if you still find it too complicated and time-consuming, I’m here to help you. Just drop me a message tiina(at)tiinaarminen.com and I’ll make you a perfect colour scheme for your home.

Here’re 3 example how I create a colour palette moodboard:

Btw, you can find out more about moodboards here!

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Make Your Rental Feel Like Home

How To Make a Furnished Rental Apartment Your Home?

Making a furnished rented apartment feel homey can sometimes be a bit hard. Especially when your decorating options are limited by rental rules. But you can still make a space your own with a few design ideas. Here’s an example:

Laura fell in love with the light and airy feel of this apartment - and with the breathtaking sea view! The flat was renovated and furnished with white pieces, but the style was not exactly what Laura prefers and the living room was not functional for her. She needed a space for practising yoga, making videos and online yoga courses.

First we rearranged the furniture. The couch was pretty heavy but we managed to move it - we put blankets under the leg avoiding scratching the floor - from its original place in the front of the window to the other side of the room facing outside - now Laura can enjoy the sea view and watch TV while sitting on the sofa as the wall mounted TV set is adjustable.

Dining table got its new place by the window. The table will work also ask her home office desk, so it is essential to have as much natural light as possible. Laura had her own chairs, so we replaced the existing ‘antique’ chairs.

Now Laura has one side of the room free from all big furniture and place for yoga. She can make nice settings for her video backgrounds. She has a nice collection of small Buddha figures, yoga pillow and other yoga related items.

After having the pieces of furniture rearranged it was time to declutter. The apartment has two bedrooms and some closet space, so Laura can use the other bedroom (guest room) as a kind of storage room too. Laura prefers clean lines so it was important to remove all disturbing items -such as wall and table decor, and textiles as well - and replace them with Laura’s own ones.

Laura had her own cushions, blanket and rugs. Those are things that make the place immediately feeling your home.

Easy Tips For Decorating a Furnished Apartment

1. Rearranging for a new look

   Rearrange the furniture to suit your needs in the room. Just because the apartment comes furnished it doesn’t mean the furniture has to stay in exactly the way you found it.

2. Rug decor

   With a rug you can totally change the look of a furnished apartment. If there is an existing rug, replace it if you prefer another style.

3. Personalising your space

   You want to make it your home and have your own personality and interests present, in order to feel at home. Remove or replace the knick knacks.

Just add some flowers and plants, and the place is yours!

Homey feeling!

Make it functional for you.

Rearrange the furniture and make it functional for you.

Remove the disturbing knick knacks and replace them with your own ones.

Now there’s space for yoga.

Before

Before. Look at that view!