A fresh face for your place
Of all the ways to add some new life to your home, there’s nothing like making some special changes.
The good news is that sprucing up your place doesn’t mean you need to spend a huge amount of money to get the best results.
With a clever design and a little pre-planning on what you want to achieve, you can have a whole new look to your place with a minimum of effort.
There are a number of different ways you can make more of what you have without drastic alterations or enlisting the services and costs of a builder or interior designer.
You will be surprised at how effective the smallest changes and revitalising steps can be.
Here’s just a few ideas of how to make the most of your place and fall in love with your home all over again.
Ideas for how to spruce up your place
The most important step to take in sprucing up your home is to make sure you keep things as simple as possible.
Too many people get carried away with altering things both in and around their home until the small task becomes an all-encompassing project. Putting your needs and efforts into proportion will save you having things get out of control and causing yourself unnecessary stress and headaches.
The important things to remember are;
- You are NOT doing a whole makeover of your home
- Keep your ideas to a fixed list and set plan
- Spend only as much money as possible
- Use your time wisely and schedule your time to each task
- Enjoying the process will help you enjoy the best results
With the right planning in place and a little breathing space to allow yourself to re-examine what is possible, you will have a better chance to stay on track and prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed.
Sprucing up your place can be as simple as giving your whole home a complete Spring clean or just redoing the floors with a timber floor cleaner or your treating your furniture with a timber sealer or polish.
A few touch-ups with paintwork here and there, especially in the most noticeable areas, can make it look like the whole house has been repainted.
Simple clean-ups can work like magic
We have all been guilty of ignoring a few clean-up tasks around the home. They can be small things that can be forgotten or larger tasks that are just not appealing to do.
Taking your home as different compartments and tackling things room by room is a good idea.
You can start with the busiest place in your home and that is the kitchen.
Has the stove and oven been thoroughly cleaned lately?
Does the range-hood and splashback or tiling need a more methodical clean?
It could be that the grouting in the floor tiles or that your cupboards, bench and walls could do with some special TLC. Your kitchen can look revitalised with just a bit of elbow grease and attention to detail.
Doing a full clean of the kitchen windows and to any appliances can bring you a much brighter and more engaging kitchen space.
Adding in an indoor-plant and a different knick-knack can put a whole new look to your place. Even rearranging the space will have you looking at your kitchen in a brand new way.
The renewed look to your bathroom
Once you’ve managed to rework your kitchen, the next best place is your bathroom.
This is where you can restock or replace your towels or bathroom rug and bring a new personality and charm to the room.
Adding a new indoor plant or changing the pots that your current plants live in will freshen up the look too.
Maybe this is where you have been thinking of replacing the old taps with a sleeker style. A visit to one of the many bathroom showrooms can be a great source of inspiration. You don’t have to be looking at a full renovation to gather some great ideas of what can be done with your existing space.
For example, getting rid of a towel rack and using a towel ladder with a Scandinavian coloured towel set can add a whole new theme to your bathroom. It will look like you have remodelled the whole space when all you have done is add a stylish touch to a few key items.
Adding a design theme throughout your home
There is a very effective method of reworking your home without coming close to breaking your bank.
You can choose a theme for your home that renews and reinvigorates your place with a through-line that gives it a charm and continuity.
Having the freshness of a coastal interior design is a very popular choice. Using more of the natural light and utilising decorative effects for your furniture can make a huge difference.
For something as specific as the look of a coastal bedroom, you can add the touches of ocean colours and decorations such as nautical elements and sea shells.
Replacing a dark timber bedside table with a driftwood or rattan version can be the inspiration for other simple makeover items.
You will notice an almost immediate change to each room with the most basic changes to your furnishings and decorative effects. Any feeling of having a tired, old look can be eliminated with some clever design ideas and small purchases.
Hiding things from view
Not everything in and around your home is an eye-catching piece that you want in full-view.
These could be anything from a hot water service, air-conditioning unit, council bins, wood pile or portable barbeque.
This is when keeping things hidden from view or obscuring them enough to draw the eye away to a feature in the house or garden makes all the difference.
A rubbish bin that doesn’t fit in the kitchen cupboard that gets replaced with a new compact version will put the attention on the newly re-stained wooden benchtops.
Some well-placed mesh panels in the corner of the garden can hide any unsightly things from open view.
Even a group of pot plants can act as a cover for that ugly air-con unit or water meter.
A little bit of help from Mother Nature can bring a greener feel to the entire space.
The good news is that it doesn’t need to cost a large amount, especially if you buy items at discounted times of the year including Xmas deals, end of financial year sales and out of season bargains.
Your place can look as though you have spent thousands of dollars on it by spending time on thinking how you want your old place to get a fresh face.