With the gentle easing out of the lockdown, and the UK fast moving into spring, now is the perfect opportunity to refresh and de-clutter our homes, ready to welcome in friends and family. After reading my 5 tips below, you will feel eager to make a few simple changes and give your own wellbeing a boost too!
1) A Lick of Paint
As the days lengthen and daylight gets brighter, imperfections can start to show themselves. The wear and tear of winter, lockdowns, home schooling and working from home, will all have taken its toll.
Check your home for areas that have taken a battering or quite plainly, look tired.
A fresh lick of paint is a relatively quick, simple, and cost-effective way to bring new colour into your home. Even if you don’t change the colour scheme, a newly painted room or wall feels clean and tidy, bright, and smart. For example, the hallway, or point of entry, is one area that often needs a refresh and walking into your home after a bit of decoration does deliver a feelgood factor, and will be pleasing for your guests, when they eventually arrive!
2) Splendid Scent
Just recently I was smelling the scented candles and diffusers I have throughout my own home and of course currently I have an abundance of cosy, winter, and Christmassy scents.
Out with the old and in with the new!
When Spring comes along swapping the scent to gorgeous fresh florals helps awaken the atmosphere, encouraging you to throw open the windows and let the fresh air in …. very uplifting. I have even changed my laundry fabric conditioner ready to get that spring and summer feeling when I can hang the washing out once more.
3) Healing Power of Plants & Flowers
Following on from the importance of scents for spring, is the introduction of new plants and fresh flowers to your home. We know that houseplants are having a revival and not before time. There are so many wondrous varieties to choose from to suit all conditions and budgets, that it is hard not to increase your collection or get one started. Go on this spring, buy a new plant, and watch it grow (fingers crossed!)
And not forgetting cut flowers, especially at Easter. A vase of tulips or daffs we know bring a smile to your face. Summon up your inner florist and create displays to impress the family.
You could go one step further and start planning to grow a few seeds in a pot or small bed ready for summer and have your very own cut flowers to fill your home in 2021.
4) Update cushions & lampshades
Another amazingly easy refresh (and I think often overlooked) is to find lovely new cushions or covers to provide an instant pop of colour or change of pattern to a room without spending too much time or money on a complete redecoration. Thankfully, it is easy too to sell any pre-owned cushions or lampshades through an internet shop and have that income towards your new investments whether they be vintage or a new trend – so exciting.
Now I am a self-confessed lampshade addict (well and cushions too) but I love designer lampshades! I actually hug my lamps and cushions; I love them so much. For a little investment you can bring a few of the most expensive, beautiful fabrics into your home without a huge price tag where swathes of curtain fabric and wallpaper might be more prohibitive. It’s fun to mix and match lamps and cushions and in no time, you could have transformed a room and not even lifted a paint brush! Joy.
5) De-clutter & spring clean
OK so I am a little bit annoying when it comes to being tidy and my family just roll their eyes and ignore me, but every spring there is always somewhere in the house that needs sorting through… wardrobes, kitchen cabinets and other random cupboards that especially over winter (Christmas!) get all kinds of items stuffed in them. Adult children come and go from university or home just in time for lockdown and then move out again often leaving unwanted items!
I know this is a long-standing tradition, but a spring clean and a clear out is so fulfilling despite needing a bit of organisation and planning. It is amazing how much space can be freed up or re-purposed, how much can be recycled or sold on. A de-clutter, for me genuinely is good for the soul and revitalises the home.
If this has sparked a few ideas but you are not sure where to start, then I can help. Give me a call or complete my contact form and together we can work through the best solutions for you and your family. Change can happen one step at a time. #interiordesign