House & Garden

A Woman’s Home Is Her Castle

It’s often said that your home is your castle, but what does that mean in practice? Do you suddenly have to join the English nobility, build a moat and erect huge walls? Or does it mean making your home a better and more romantic place to live?

 

Most of us think the latter. It’s no so much the military aspect of castle building that’s so enchanting, it’s more the fact that that it’s our own little patch of history, shielded from the rest of the world. The cool thing is that a lot of the things that turn out homes into castles are actually very good at boosting their value. According to Archilovers, it’s possible to get between 70 and 75 percent return on any investments you make when you come to sell your house.

 

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Whether you’re into DIY or would prefer somebody else to come and make the changes to your home for you, these home improvements can make a big difference over the long term, both in the value that they add to your home as well as the way they make you feel.

Create Some Storage Space

What’s the first thing you think about when you think about a castle? Probably not storage space, right? Well, think about that for a second. Castles in the past had to have a lot of storage space so that they could feed themselves while they were under siege. Entire wings of the castle, as well as cellars, were purpose-built to store grain and kegs of beer. Of course, you probably don’t want storage for this reason in your home; but you do want storage, nonetheless.

Many houses that lack storage become cluttered. When guests come over to stay, often there isn’t room for them to put their stuff. If you’ve got a lot of clothes, consider creating some sort of storage platform. One idea is to get rid of your old chest of drawers and transform an entire wall of your bedroom into a place where you can keep your dresses, shoes, and hats. This is the sort of thing that you can do yourself, with the right know-how, but it’s also the type of thing you can easily get professional help with too.

Sleep Like Royalty

Why did kings and queens of the past spend so much of their time in castles, even when there weren’t roving mobs outside trying to kill them? It was because staying in a castle was a luxury – at least for its day. That’s why any woman bent on turning her home into a castle needs to spend a bit of time focusing on how to make her bedroom into the perfect place to get some shut-eye. The easiest way to do this is to throw on lavish spreads as well as getting a high-quality bed (possibly with posts). It’s also a good idea to invest in a new mattress if your one is getting a little old to avoid that morning stiffness and numbness when you wake up. And, finally, instead of hiding a potty under your bed, like they did back in medieval times, you can substitute this for a beautiful ensuite, just feet away.

Give Your Home “The Look”

Some people go to extremes to make their homes look like castles, going as far as to include actual turrets and walls. But if you want to stay friends with the neighbours, you ought to consider a different strategy. The key here is to make your home feel like a castle for you. That means that you’ve got to feel safe in it, as well as the building looking the part.

Start off by focusing on the driveway. If you’ve got a home that’s set back from the street, line the drive with plants and make sure that there is a large courtyard area just outside the front of your home where carriages (or cars) can easily arrive and depart. You can also invest in your own, high-quality fences to keep the riff-raff out. Companies like Florida Fence have tools that allow you to design your own walls for your property – an essential for anybody who wants to feel secure in their home.

Finally, put some effort into your entryway. You might want to skip the drawbridge and the portcullis, but you could do things like use unusual door mats to make guests feel welcome as soon as they arrive at your home. Things like wreaths over the door can have a significant impact, as well as plants in your front entrance. Pots and baskets full of flowers are a nice touch, as well as hanging plants if you have a covered entryway. If you can’t be bothered to maintain plants in your porch area, then you can always opt for artificial plants. These days, they’re quite convincing.

Get Some Serious Security

Modern castles take the security of their inhabitants very seriously, just like the castles of the past. One of the ways that they do this is to make use of the latest technology. This is exactly what Golden Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight is doing. Golden Hill used to be a fort and a barracks used in the Second World War. However, it’s since been transformed into 18 luxury “castle” homes, each with amazing security features.

 

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For starters, there’s a single entrance to the complex, through a brick tunnel with electronic gates at either end. Then there’s CCTV camera placed throughout and around the outer perimeter of the complex as well as a bunch of other features you’d expect from homes that were once a fort.

The cool thing about this stuff is that you can implement the majority of it in your own home. Today’s home CCTV systems are cheap, and so too are things like electronic gates that can be controlled from smartphone apps, or pressure pads under the driveway. Keep your home secure and up to date with the latest technology and you won’t have to rely on a moat.

 

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