Redesigning your home: a spring clean for your decor
If you’re in the mood to redesign your home, there’s no better time to do it than during the spring. Spring cleaning doesn’t have to be limited to scrubbing sinks and clearing out cupboards it can be extended to your decor, too, especially if you’re looking to make the most of the upcoming light and sunshine that the seasonal change will bring.
But a spring clean is not nearly as easy as DIY books and television programmes might make it seem. There are a lot of logistics involved in getting a DIY project off the ground – not least when it comes to design. This article will suggest some ideas for a spring clean.
Choose your aesthetic
Springtime is an inspiring time of year, and there are lots of ways in which the seasons can give you great ideas. Perhaps the most obvious aesthetic inspiration to be derived from the springtime is more daylight. After the Equinox, light begins to flood into the days for longer, and this can lead to thoughts of bright white walls and refreshed windows. For a proper springtime overhaul, why not consider extending the amount of light your windows can bring in by ditching heavy curtains and replacing them with shutters?
In terms of colour for other items, such as furniture or wallpaper, the hues of spring are great choices for decoration. Baby blue, pale yellow and pastel green are also examples of light yet natural colours which give off a great aesthetic – and the main advantage is they’ll also work well around the whole year, moving from being reflective in spring and summer to cosy in autumn and winter.
Storing your items
During the course of a spring DIY project, you’ll still need to protect the most valuable items in and around your home. That could mean covering your furnishings and upholstery with a dust sheet or tarpaulin, but that’s both fiddly and also non-foolproof. Removing them from the room is generally the best idea, especially if they’re valuable or very hard to replace.
One option might be a self-storage centre. This sort of unit is readily available, especially in big cities such as London – and can represent a cost-effective way to get your high-value furniture items such as sofas into a safe place where they won’t get splattered with paint or damaged in some other way by all the upheaval. While it may seem on the face of it like an added cost at a time when cost is not welcome thanks to all the other outlay required for the actual DIY, it’s worth seeing the use of a storage unit as an investment in the protection of your favourite furniture items.
Selecting soft furnishings
When it comes to soft furnishings, spring is a time of year that can pose some problems. That’s largely because it’s in between temperatures: spring is the season both of rainy April showers and of May bank holiday heatwaves, so it’s not easy to find the right soft furnishings. The key is to choose items which can be easily removed and stored away in the event of a sudden change in the temperature. Throws are ideal for this, as they can be whisked away and folded in a matter of seconds.
Windows and doors
And finally, it’s worth giving some thought to whether now is the right time to finally get that double glazing Bristol windows or to implement a long-overdue overhaul of your front and back doors. Now the howling gales of winter are hopefully over, your attention may – understandably – have wandered away from the question of fixing up those draughty windows and doors, however, now may be the best time of year to do it. The temperatures are picking up, so any downtime in between windows won’t be too damaging to the home – and you’ll be able to get them done just in time for the summer months, when your curtains will be flung wide open and both you and your guests will be able to see your fancy new frames.
Once the dark days of winter and the excesses of Christmas are behind you, your thoughts can easily turn to spring – and the opportunities it poses for a refresh of everything from your life to your home. And if you’ve got the resources to get your paintbrush out