Refresh your home with these 10 simple hacks
Often times our home design choices can eventually misalign with our family's needs; it can feel daunting to redesign our entire home. Fortunately a few steps can be taken for a simple home ‘refresh’. You can confidently elevate your home with little effort and without breaking the bank.
Here are our top 10 design hacks to bring new life to your home.
Declutter and remove items you don’t use
We all have those items that we are keeping for a ‘rainy day’ but how likely is it that you will ever use them? Take some time to go through your possessions, furniture, artwork, and homewares and consider if they are really an asset you want to keep, or are they simply gathering dust? A good purge is therapeutic!
This is also one of the most budget-friendly options on the list! It can be great fun and nostalgic, looking over old keepsakes. You’ll be surprised what a difference it makes. Having fewer items makes a room feel more expansive. Consider a garage sale or charity donation, so that someone can enjoy those things you no longer need.
Having trouble getting into the “purging” groove? Consider hiring an organizer to help you!
Bring the outside in and go green
A great way to freshen up a space is to add plants and flowers around the home. It makes a big difference in how a room looks and feels. Add splashes of color, such as fresh yellows, pinks, and greens, to create a sense of vitality, or perhaps tranquility is your thing?! Some plants can even aid in improving the air quality of your home. It’s a great option for anyone living in congested city areas. Refresh both your home and your mind/body with some house plants.
The Bee’s love using houseplants to help add comfort. Kylie has quite the green thumb - although she didn’t use to! It took a pandemic to learn about the care of houseplants! Check out this blog for starting with houseplants and easy care plants!
Create a focal point
Creating a focal point in a room can be a really fun venture. It is a simple and cost-effective way to transform a room. Focal points can help draw attention away from less desirable areas. This can be accomplished via plush furnishings, art, floral displays, furniture - the possibilities really are endless! If you have a fireplace, you’ve already got an easy starting point- hang a big beautiful piece of art over it and voila!
Add a splash of color
Adding color is one of the most effective and transformative strategies when looking to change your interior design. Paint a wall, change the color of your upholstered furnishings, add a statement piece of bold artwork, or furniture. Add a bright chair or new cushions to your living space, statement tableware in your dining room, or consider introducing wallpaper, to create a colorful/interesting accent wall. The Bee’s love wallpaper!
Too daunting?! How about some fresh new pillows, to add a pop of color and pattern/texture?
Deep clean
The quickest way to change the energy of a room is a deep clean (OMG Kylie needs one right now….grubby little fingers aren’t helping….) Scrub down areas you don’t normally clean. Deep clean, get under the bed, behind the furniture, and inside your cupboards, it will lighten and brighten your room and your mood. Look into cleaning upholstery, there are professionals who will aid you, and don’t forget about your windows, let all that sun shine in!
Lighten it up
Bringing more light to a space is one of the oldest interior design tricks in the book. Focus on natural light first, is there any way you can let more light in? Remove anything that blocks light from entering a room, such as heavy curtains and furniture. Consider adding glass panels to doors, to aid in light traveling through your home. Natural light creates a wholesome, healthy feel, and the illusion of space.
If you can’t bring in more natural light, there are other strategies you can implement. Use lighter colored paints, wallpapers, and furnishings. Install recessed lighting to brighten up dark areas, add table lamps, and floor lamps.
Make sure you always have dimmable lighting whether it’s lamps or overhead lighting. It allows you to adjust the ambience! And please, oh please, stick with “warm” white lighting. Don’t do the fluorescent white - it’s too sterile!
Re-vamp your cabinets
Older cabinets in your kitchen and other living spaces will age with your home, but they can be updated and modernized with some simple tricks. Give them a fresh coat of paint. Consider spray painting to get the best finish. Or even stripping back previously painted cabinets to their wood base. Hire a professional to get the most durable finishes!
You can play around with different colors to suit your taste. You can even consider changing the handles, or for a complete refresh, purchasing new doors. No matter your budget and timeframe, there are so many options.
Re-dress your shelves and/or move your furniture
A little can go a long way, especially when you’re talking about simple décor changes such as rethinking furniture layouts. Where we choose to place furniture and accessories, determines the feel and function of a room. So by merely changing things up, we can totally transform a room.
Change things up seasonally, it can really boost both your mood and environment! Spring is just around the corner, move your conversation area from your internal hearth to an outdoor fire/sitting area, almost, think spring!
Here’s a great blog article that we did about shelf styling - check it out here.
Divide a room
A great way to mix things up is to literally mix things up. Change the function and feel of a room by dividing it. For open-plan living, this is a great way to refresh your space. For example, you can create a clearly demarcated living area by placing your sofa in the center of the room facing in the opposite direction. Nowadays with “open floor plans” we need to be able to still define a space. In Kylie’s house, one giant rooms serves as the dining and living area. So she used two chairs to separate the living from the dining space. No walls, no problem, use your imagination to create a “divider.”
Re-think rugs
Switching rugs from room to room creates an instant mini makeover. You can even change the positioning of them within a room.
The best thing about small and simple interior design changes is that they don’t upend your life. You get a feel of what change is like and you can play with minimal repercussion. If you don’t like it, switch it back, be bold and experiment!