Whether your Lanzarote property is rented out or not, it’s still in one of the most popular holiday destinations in Europe, and that will always dictate the way you furnish and decorate it.
Most of us who’ve come here to live first arrived on Lanzarote for holidays, and we never forget those fantastic first impressions. Yet, as our lives here perhaps become dictated by work, family and those everyday chores that holiday makers rarely have to worry about, we can lose sight of the fact we live in a place that people pay thousands to enjoy for a couple of brief weeks.
One way to remind ourselves that we all live in holiday homes is to focus on five elements that the best holiday accommodation offers.
Relaxation
What does a holiday home offer? First, there’s sheer relaxation. No holiday maker reaches Lanzarote without a long journey, and the first impression should always be that you’ve arrived at a safe haven. That’s also true when you live and work here – home is a place to kick off your shoes, take a deep breath and close the door on the outside world for a little.
You can achieve this by providing space, neutral, soothing colours, natural elements such as wood and stone, plants and flowers and, of course, comfortable furniture where you can truly relax.
Practicality
One way to discover the importance of practicality is to hire an apartment or villa yourself for a short break. You’ll immediately get good ideas that could be used in your home, and you’ll also realise what you’re getting right. Practicality means efficient living – things that work the way they should so that we can live well, and it applies to everything from the location of your furniture to the cutlery in your drawers.
Delight
Those things that lift your heart are what make a holiday home – sunlight streaming through a window in the morning, little birds chirruping in a tree, a palm tree nodding against the sunset. Delight can be coincidental, but you can also plan for it – this is where your taste for art and ornament come really into play, allowing to surround yourself with a few things that make your soul sing.
Nostalgia
Nostalgia is an important part of holiday homes, which at their best always remind us favourably of great holidays we’ve had in the past. It could be a vase full of seashells or a lump of gnarled driftwood; it could be slightly faded canvas chairs or a bookshelf full of good reads, or it could just be the perfect place in the sun for a morning coffee. If your home brings these warm memories back, it’s doing its job.
Activity
One of the big differences between holiday homes and residential homes is activity – the things the people who live there usually do. But whether you’re going out to waterparks or camel rides or just having a run and doing the shopping at Lidl, you’ll need to allow for these activities. A Lanzarote holiday home is never one of those sterile places you see in the Home and Garden magazines, where people barely exist and never do anything. It’s where you do what you love to do.
