Your home is a reflection of you, but sometimes time, budget, and know-how can keep you from fully realizing your ideal design. Whether you’re in the mood to shake things up, want to make some easy updates to make a house feel a little more like home, or just want to try something new without making permanent changes, these quick and easy ways to give your home a new look are just what you need.
Add Home Accent
Not quite as big a commitment as a paint job or new furniture, the decorative items you add to your home play an important role in the feel of your living spaces. The artwork you hang on the walls, the objects you use to decorate your shelves – they all combine to present a physical representation of your aesthetic.
The good news is these things are quick and easy to change if you ever feel the urge to give your home a new look. Pictures can be hung in a new combination, silk lampshades can take a room from rustic to elegant, and throw pillows can add pops of color without having to invest in new furniture.
These simple updates can be done in just a few hours – so long as you have a plan when you start. There’s nothing worse than spending time and money shopping for a new style and then realizing the things you bought just don’t work together, or fit the space you’re working in. For example, if you’re trying to modernize your space, be mindful of the ways your decorative choices can undermine or enhance that effect. Even the simplest things can have a big effect on the feel of a room. Take rectangular-shaped linen lampshades, for example. They’re a great way to add clean lines that enhance a modern flair, so they are perfect for living spaces. A drum-shaped lampshade of the same material, however, adds a softness and lessens the impact of any hard lines, making it great for bedrooms.
Swap Out Hardware
Is your kitchen or bathroom feeling a little outdated? It’s amazing just how much of an improvement new cabinet hinges and knobs can have on the look and feel of a room. You can take any space from antique to modern, (or vice versa,) with just a few pieces of hardware and some elbow grease.
When shopping for new hardware, be sure to take an old hinge and knob with you to ensure the knob threading matches. If not, your quick update could turn into a much more extensive project with new holes to be drilled, old holes to be patched, and suddenly your small project can turn into one that requires a massive time investment.
Move The Furniture
If you ever moved your bed to a new wall when you were younger and marveled at the new feel of the space, you know just how refreshing it can be to give rooms a new layout. Moving a few key pieces of furniture can help your room look like an entirely new space.
Encourage flow from room to room, create visual division in open floor plans. With the right placement of furniture you can even create a smooth transition from indoors to out with the right arrangement of chairs and area rugs. Best of all, moving furniture doesn’t require any massive renovation work, so you can get many of the visual benefits of changing the layout of your home without affecting the structure.
Updating your living spaces doesn’t have to be time and energy intensive. With a few mindful adjustments, you make some quick adjustments that feel like a total renovation.