How to fall in love with your home again

A lot of people are using this lockdown period to take care of all those domestic jobs they don’t usually have time for. Gardens have never looked so good, and DIY to do lists are all complete. So, what next?

The love we have for our homes is going to grow more for some time to come. Not just because we’re spending more time in them, but moving home might be less of a viable option for many due to economic reasons.

Below are three ways to invest some more love into your home.

1. Give your home a makeover

Tired of that wall colour? Curtains looking a bit worn? Fancy a new floor?

Like clothing, interior design fashions develop and change: often without knowing it, our tastes change with them. It is easy to stick with an outdated home that doesn’t give us pleasure, but don’t settle for that. For a small outlay, you can refresh your home and rekindle your love of where you live.

Use of colour can make a striking difference to any room. Think beyond the walls: furniture, floors, lighting, curtains and blinds, and soft furnishings. Or, simply moving things around can give your interior a new lease of life. Furniture plays a big part in transforming an ordinary room into one you love.

When redesigning your interior, it pays to have a style in mind. This will help you in choosing the colours, materials, furnishings and fittings that will give you the look you desire. Find inspiration from magazines and Pinterest.

2. Extend it

Summer is the ideal time for home extensions, which means now is the time to begin planning. Adding space to your home can be done in the following ways: converting the loft, adding an extension or building an outbuilding. Adding space in any of these ways will increase the value of your property and is usually a much more cost-effective way of gaining living space than moving home.

Any alteration should blend with the existing building, both in external appearance and the way it flows internally. Also plan how you intend to use this space, as well as any additional space which will be free in other parts of the house.

3. Bring back the shine

If you want to keep your renovations low-key, then just a spring clean can brighten the place up. A few hours spent polishing, cleaning, de-fluffing and sprucing will give you greater pleasure in your home.

(MORE: Cost-effective home improvements to plan during lockdown)