Even when your home is a safe haven and a place you enjoy unwinding, sometimes spending time at home can make you unhappy with it. People are creatures of habit – but at the same time, habits can grow to be boring. The same goes with the environment. Spending every day at the exact same place, no matter the weather and your mood, can really make you want a change – but of course, no one can just change their furniture and wall colors whenever they please! (Maybe the Kardashians can, but we’re being real here – unless you’re Kendall, in which case we apologize and welcome to the website.) So here are some ways to liven up your space without spending a fortune.
Clean Your Windows
Sometimes this simple (and boring, we know!) task can make a lot of difference in how much light gets into the room. Because you see your windows every day, it’s easy to just fail to notice the dirt, dust, and splatters. You’ll notice the difference when you clean them! And that’s a lot easier and cheaper than installing more windows.
Hang Mirrors
This is an oldie, but a goodie: mirrors are responsible for the extra light because obviously, you have a finite number of windows. By hanging or placing mirrors opposite the windows, you’ll double the amount of sunlight in the room, and a lighter room means a brighter room as well!
Rearrange Your Furniture
One of the easiest ways to change a lot without any structural changes (and those affecting your wallet!) is to play around with the setup of the furniture in the living room, work studio or nursery. Can you remove a chair? Move the sofa to the other side of the room? Add a funky side table that spent years in the attic?
Add Lovely Accessories
If you ever accidentally matched the colors of your soap and towel in the bathroom, you know how put-together it looked all of the sudden, and how much of an impact it had in the whole bathroom! Same goes for the accessories you’re seeing every day in your living area that somehow never strike you like something that can add to the whole look. If you feel the room has become too predictable, change the pillows, cushions, candles, throws and wall art. Now is the time to be creative! If you keep a color scheme, add a cushion in a contrasting color. Add a bar cart or a fancy (but cheap) serving tray. Accessories for the living area are diverse and usually cheap – so think about what would suit best to the room, and go shopping!
Add a Plant
Again, a cheap and easy way to liven up space at home is to introduce a plant or a bouquet. Houseplants bring nature indoors, and they make even the most minimalistic place less sterile and more energetic. Even if you’re not the most skillful when it comes to caring about plants, here’s some good news: not all plants are equal and some are totally doable for everyone. Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) will grow under most light conditions, while Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum), English ivy (Hedera helix) and spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) are all attractive decorations that are also very difficult to kill, so Australian weather (and your care) have nothing on them.
Or a Bouquet!
Sometimes, though, it’s not the green you’re after, but the bright flowers that burst in colors! Anyone who has ever put a colorful bouquet on their desk knows how much difference it can make and how much it brightens the entire room. The choice is really abundant, you can match the colors with the colors already in your home, or make a splash of something contrasting, or mix it all together! If you don’t have the habit of stopping at a flower shop, take advantage of the digital world and opt for flower delivery in Perth right to your doorstep.
Freshen Your Fabrics
A bit more complicated than simply rearranging the furniture, but also with the bigger effect, is freshening the fabrics of a couch or an armchair. By reupholstering an old piece, you will get a whole new look. If you’re crafty, you can even do it yourself; for those less skillful, there’s always a repair shop. This can work not only on the sofa that you might have had for the past decade and are bored when you look at it, but also your grandparents’ armchairs that have a great design but awful fabrics and are thus wasting away in a garage.
Add Warmth
Summer is coming, but think in advance and get yourself a fireplace. While actually installing one can be costly, if it’s not your cup of tea, think of adding an electrical unit instead of a real one. Another option is to consider a salvaged mantel – it will create a new focal point in the room, and easily change its whole look.
Eliminate Clutter
The cleaner the room is, the brighter it will seem. With fewer things on the shelves, you’ll feel airy and as if it’s easier to breathe. If you have way too many trinkets that somehow always find their way onto the coffee table, buy several sturdy boxes that will act as cool accessories on your shelves, and store all the extra pens, lighters, coins and coasters inside.
Play with Your Bookshelves
If you don’t find it crucial that your books are grouped by alphabet or theme, you could play around and group them according to size, or just mix the big ones and small ones for some texture and variety. Or you could opt for arranging them by color, which was a popular interior trend a while ago. If you’re extra bold, you could actually invert them so they are showing just the pages. It won’t make it easy for your guests (or yourself) to reach for a certain book, but it will definitely stand out.
Make It Your Own
Maybe the most important of the advice – make your living area your own, make it look the way any friend of yours would recognize the owner even if they had never set their foot in the room before. Your living space should reflect your interests and passions and be a portrait of its owner. After all, you’re the one who’s spending the most time there.
These simple things can refresh your space in no time, and without breaking the bank. Decide on several and enjoy your new home!
