With the change of seasons often comes the desire to refresh and update your interiors, but there's also that new pair of boots you have your eye on, or that amazing coat! There are plenty of ways you can breathe new life into your home without blowing the budget, and I'm going to share a few of my faves.
Bring the outdoors in. Flowers and foliage always looks beautiful in your home, adding life and texture. You don't need to spend a lot of money at a florist, just look to your garden. Sometimes the simplest arrangements are the best.
Clean and declutter. It goes without saying that the easiest way to make your home look good is to clean and declutter it. I love knick knacks and ornaments, but I'm careful to only have pieces that I absolutely love. Look around your house at the things you have on display, if they're not beautiful, sentimental, or functional, let them go. Once you've done this, rearrange your shelves and table tops to create new vignettes with your favourite possessions. Your home will look and feel lighter as well as tidier.
Change your layout. Regularly changing the vignettes around my home keeps things fresh and interesting. The same applies to furniture. Changing the layout of your room can transform your space. Pull your sofa out from the wall, swap pieces from another room, move pieces around, it's fun creating a new look using your existing furniture.
Get out your paintbrush. Paint is one of the simplest ways to transform a room, and is much cheaper than new furniture. You may want to freshen everything with a crisp white, or get brave and introduce colour. If you're not sure about which colour to choose, talk to us, we love working on colour palettes for our clients.
Display your kids' art. Kids often create the best art - they're not afraid to go crazy and they have a certain freedom about their creations. One of my favourite pieces I've seen online is a bedhead made by a teenager and her friends on a simple canvas drop-cloth.
Get crafty. Don't leave it all to the kids, get in touch with your own inner artist and crafter. Are there any pieces of furniture that you can repurpose or breathe new life into? I love this simple side table created by a stack of magazines on a piece of wood with caster wheels. What a great use of all those magazines you have lying around.
Here are a couple of cool DIY projects that I came across recently (click on the image to see how to make them)... I love the wall hangings and they will add great texture to a room.
The pressed flowers hark back to my first suggestion to bring the outdoors in. You take the glass from two equal size frames, place your pressed flower or foliage between the two and tape together with strong white tape creating a frame - love that!
I hope you find at least one thing in this post that you want to try. Remember, it's your home, the choices you make should reflect you, and make you happy when you walk through the door. Change is as good as a holiday.