Gone are the days when homes were only made of married couples and children. Today families have to go an extra mile to give a pleasant look to their homes.

How to do this may not only require experiences from other homes but ready to apply skills that will make any home attractive at first glance.

Jovia Umurerwa, a supervisor of a cleaning company Trustcom says that a pleasing exterior appearance is essential for first impression.

"A pleasant home comes with a design that suits one’s desire and the best is to find a colour pattern or a piece of furniture that you really like and build around it”, says Umurerwa.

Painting your house is the best that will improve the splendour of the home; have a clean environment that will not send off visitors due to bad stench.

"In fact it’s a cost effective move that some choose to paint their houses quite frequently in order to change the atmosphere of their homes or just to express their personalities,” Umurerwa explains.

The colour one should use during painting is a completely a matter of taste, but there are a few things to remember that may make it a little easier for you to choose the perfect colours depending on one’s taste.

It is important to remember that colours have a relatively strong psychological impact on people in homes. The common knowledge that lighter colours, such as white and yellow tend to make the room appear brighter and larger yet darker colours can make a room seem smaller are just personal tastes of different people.

Warm colours like red, orange, and yellow which are commonly known as inviting colours and green, blue, and purple are cool colours and tend to relax and sooth the environment.

Lighting a home is a vital element that one should consider before thinking of enclosures. Bright and dim lights are separated according to needs of a particular home.

Homes where interior design lighting has been taken for granted no matter how expensive your furniture or accents may be, will lose their appeal when situated in a room that is poorly lit.

If a house has chips with exposed wood or outdated colours, it requires a paint that will neutralise its interior and exterior look. Possibly the first impression of the interior will be the aroma of cleanliness or lack of it.

A clean house will easily accommodate visitors than a dull and untidy one with less concentration to detail. Umurerwa advises families to pay special attention to dogs, cats, drunkards and smokers in homes.

Their smell simply sends off visitors because they are bound to notice them immediately they enter the house. Living rooms need special arrangement that will also require daily care and change in appearance to make them new every time.

With the right arrangement and seating styles, you can turn a drab and quiet living area into a lively den of conversation.

"Look for ways that best reflects your personal style, but also offer comfortable seating to guests,” she said. Seating that is too soft will make it hard for people to sit forward and engage with others in dialogue.

The compound

This is the first place any visitor comes in contact with, so it deserves the right touch of sense and beauty. Take extra care towards the beauty of your compound since it earns the home a credit for a pleasant environment.

Umurerwa said that planting glass and trees with different colours within your compound is very essential for beautiful scenery and scientific purposes associated with the formation of oxygen as well as absorption of carbon dioxide.

It’s quiet good that most homes now especially in town have developed a culture of planting flowers and short trees in pots along their roads and compounds.

Entering a compound with a lot of green vegetation gives you a feeling of a natural setting environment unlike those homes with tarmac and cemented compounds.

Trimming grass in the compound regularly, pruning trees and making stone laid paths towards your main house door gives your visitors an impression of order in a home.

Dry leaves and flowers that shed off from compound trees should be removed twice a day to avoid having a dirty and untidy compound.

Thus goes the saying: "Charity begins at home”, the impressions people get from your home appearance will extremely affect your socialization processes either positively or negatively in society.

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