Here’s how you can freshen up your home in time for the summer season.
With summer just around the corner, it’s the perfect opportunity to take stock of your surroundings and freshen up your environment. And it doesn’t just have to be a spring (or summer) clean. Check out these tips to brighten up your home.
Lighten up the bedroom
In summer months, it’s important to keep your bedroom fresh — and one way to do so is by keeping it airy, and ultimately cooler. Kate Russell, interior designer at McCarthy Stone, suggests “changing window treatment to linen curtains’’ to allow the natural light to come through. “Using breathable and lightweight bedlinen will keep you cooler.”
Kate also recommends putting your thick rugs in storage: “Removing your floor rugs will allow the air to cross the space as much as possible.”
Refresh the kitchen
Before throwing out your utensils and starting afresh, start by looking at what’s behind your appliances. In the summer when it’s warmer outside, kitchen appliances tend to work extra hard, so degreasing your stove, scrubbing the mildew out of your dishwasher and (perhaps) hoovering behind the fridge not only keeps your kitchen fresh, but safer, too.
You can also take stock of what’s in your kitchen cabinets. Any unsealed, soon to be expired food or spillages in your cupboard can attract flies (which are abundant in the summer months). By giving the shelves a good wipe and throwing away anything that deserves to be dumped in the bin, it makes the kitchen a nicer place to cook in.
Consider moving your gadgets around. If you use the smoothie blender more in the summer and the pasta-maker less, consider putting the former in eye-view. Remember to clean away anything you decide to put in storage though, so there aren’t any unexpected surprises come winter.
Add decor to the bathroom
Adding more plants to your bathroom is an easy way to brighten the place up. Not only do they look pretty but they can help with clearing the air, too. Plants such as aloe vera work well or, if you’d rather, keep a fake plant for minimal fuss.
In time for summer, consider switching to lighter towels. If you want to replicate the desired ‘hotel bathroom’ look, white towels are the way to go. Towels in more neutral tones — whites, beiges and pastels — tend to complement the weather and make rooms feel cooler, especially as we move towards warmer nights, when a cool shower feels like bliss.
Incorporate colour into the living room
When it comes to redecorating, Kate suggests adding ‘pops’ of summer colours instead of repainting your whole living room. “Rather than committing to something bold and permanent, like wallpaper or
a feature wall, restyling a room can be done through other means,” she says. “A whole new ambience can be achieved by injecting seasonal colour schemes using accessories and soft furnishings like throws or cushions.”
Kate thinks people should “experiment with colour” while sticking to hues you see in nature. But don’t ignore texture, which Kate predicts is going to be big this summer: “You’ll see it everywhere, from boucle sofas to fringed lampshades. Even smooth walls will soon be a thing of the past with textural treatments through techniques such as lime-washing becoming increasingly popular.”
