We've been living in base housing for a little over a year now and since then, I've learned a few things about making base housing a home.
My Airman's JNCO rank meant that we qualified for the most basic house, which means on most bases, a joined home (like a town home). However, where we're stationed, there are four military bases we had access to living on, so we were given the luxury of deciding which base to live on and so we chose the base that I was working on, at the time, but is about 15 minute drive to the base my husband is currently stationed at.
Base housing, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, creates their neighborhoods and homes for the rankings of their military members, and then takes their entire Basic Housing Allowance which every military member gets, as "rent". For our particular location, it is a GREAT deal, because we cannot get the housing size we have in the neighborhood in town that we want for the price we are currently paying. So we're a little spoiled with base housing, however, not every duty location provides that same living opportunity.
With that being said, it did take a while for me to grasp the full opportunity I had to create this blank space into a cozy home we love being in. So, after trying a few different layouts, we've settled with a style we love and I'm sharing with you all, how this JNCO family embraced the white walls.
I am a huge fan of pink. You already know that. So I decided to incorporate it into my kitchen since the color is light, but with a smaller size kitchen the less out and cluttered, the larger it feels. And a clean kitchen means a happy mama. And a happy mama, means a stress free home. ;)
2. Go With Lighter Colors:
This particular living room changed a lot in the year we've lived on base, but it actually get's the least amount of natural light in the home and has minimal lighting for when the sun goes down. So it's technically the darkest room in our home. So to compensate for that we went with lighter furniture. This also makes our white walls feel like they are on purpose. This is also my favorite room in the entire house.
Pretty much every piece of furniture you see in this room was purchased at America's Furniture Warehouse and the rug is a 7 x 10 ft find for $100 at AtHome Decor Superstore.
3. Shift Furniture:
As a military family, moving is a guarantee. Which means that the furniture you bought for one house might not fit the new house. People will often sell their furniture before a PCS already anticipating the fact that their current furniture wont fit their new place. And there's nothing like moving furniture you wont end up keeping anyway. However, sometimes a furniture piece might just be worth keeping, even if it doesn't fit the small spaces. Our long sectional didn't fit any of the rooms in our home so we had to break it up and act like we meant to... meaning, we're faking it until we make it.
5. Go Ahead and Paint A Wall (or two):
In our home, I went ahead and painted two walls, and painting this dining room wall was key to making the room feel like it's own.
Our base housing allowed us to paint as long as we primered the wall before move-out. Simple enough for me. So while my husband was deployed, I spent super bowl Sunday painting this room. Sometimes you just have to paint a wall to make it feel like home.
Also, our dining table was a $20 find from a local Facebook buy, sale, trade page that I chalk painted and then we bought modern style chairs from Target to marry the modern and vintage styles together.
It was our goal that our home would be a place we want to be in, as well as a place that other's felt welcome in. So we kept that goal in mind with every way we laid out a room. Being on base means that we're smack dab in the tight-nit military community and we want to embrace that too, so having our home feel inviting was key!
What tricks, style, or design advice have you discovered in making a base house as home? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on our IG or Facebook page!
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