Easy Ways to Freshen up your Home for Spring & Summer
#collaborative post
I absolutely love the Spring and Summer months. I love nothing more than sitting out in the sunshine, eating dinner alfresco, opening the doors to create a fresh cooling breeze, and sitting on the patio watching the birds flit around the sun setting when the girls have finally gone to bed. However, as lovely as the sunshine can be, it does have a somewhat annoying way of highlighting all the things in the house that the Winter months manage to hide.
Every year, without fail, I tend to go into a bit of a spring / summer cleaning mode, attempting to brighten up the house and give it a freshen up to mirror the outdoor climate! 🙂 Here are my 10 tips for creating a brighter and fresher home on a budget! 🙂
- A simple lick of paint – it’s amazing how much of an impact a quick lick of paint can be, particularly in the rooms that have regular foot flow and as such are subjected to dirty fingers, scuff marks and in my case, food splatter (Neve is a rejecter!!!). We tend to stick to light and subtle colours such as magnolia, lemon and light grey, and if you are willing to spend a little more, the wipe down paints are ideal with little hands at home, enabling you to simply wipe away dirt and grime without removing the colour as you clean. We used the colour match service in Neve’s bedroom to create our perfect shade, and I love how easy it is to clean with a straight forward wipe down with a cloth.
- Curtains & Blinds – You can have the cleanest and brightest windows in the world, but if your blinds or curtains are dark and dingy, it can really bring down the overall look of the room. To keep rooms fresh, stick to light or white coloured curtains or use slanted blinds that let in daylight whilst maintaining flexibility of sun shade during day and night. Whilst leaving curtains drawn during the day can leave rooms cooler, remember that temporary stick up black out blinds in darker colours can attract the heat so you may wish to take them down during the day!
- Don’t forget your smaller details – it is only when you have a room reshuffle that you realise just how dirty your skirting boards can become, especially if they are hidden behind wardrobes, sofas or larger pieces of furniture. Giving your skirting board a wipe down to remove dust and grime, or a lick of gloss paint can really have an immediate impact. The door architrave is also prone to dirty finger prints, marks and dust, and although easily forgotten, can be an ideal spot for spiders to make their home if left unloved. Another reason to give it a clean!
- Carpet Cleaning – If you have young children and light carpets you are either a) mad like me or b) are fairly likely to have the odd unwanted stain or two. Investing a bit of time in a carpet clean, whether that be DIY or bringing in a professional can have a huge impact on the look and feel of the room. Alternatively, for stains that just won’t budge, a bright summery rug or floor covering in the center of the room can look like an international accessory to your room whilst hiding a multitude of sins! 🙂
- Declutter – this may sound obvious – but the perfect way to give the illusion of more space, is to clear out some of the unnecessary ‘stuff’ that is hanging around. Now the girls are a little older we have a one in one out policy, where they donate older toys to charity for every new toy that comes in (other than birthdays and Christmas). We also have lots of toy storage to ensure that where possible, the majority of toys are stashed away out of sight once the girls have gone to bed.
- Mirrors – Mirrors are are a fab way of creating the illusion of space, as well as reflecting light around the room – the perfect way of bringing the sunshine in. Don’t forget to dust the surfaces regularly or the dust will be reflected too!
- Flowers – I love bringing a little bit of the outside in, and in the summer, a bunch of bright flowers on the mantelpiece or in the centre of the dining table can really help bring an injection of colour into the room. Sunflowers are my absolute favourite, and always raise a smile.
- Fresh air / Scents – we all love the smell of fresh washing hanging on the line, and using plugins or room sprays, we can replicate that scent inside too. There is nothing like a clean fresh smelling home to make you feel calm and comfortable.
- Clean – probably my least favourite (I am no housewife!) is to have a good old clean and tidy. Ensure the windows are cleaned from the inside (to remove all those little handprints that will inevitably be back before you’ve finished the entire room), dust surfaces (especially the black ones!) and run over the vaccuum. We use our handheld Dyson V8 between big cleans – perfect for gathering up discarded rice krispies after breakfast!
- Finally, and a motto which I like to live by – remember that you don’t live in a show home. I am a big lover of the quote ‘Excuse the mess, we’ve been busy making memories‘.
How do you brighten up your home for spring and summer?
*This is a collaborative post*
