Tag: decorating

How to plan your existing kitchen

How to plan your existing kitchen

Ask most people and they’ll tell you that the kitchen is the heart of the house. It’s where people stand to chat while sharing a hot drink. It’s where there’s a dining table that can double up as a place to use a laptop in the evening, either for paying the bills or doing homework and everything in between. It’s also where we spend time each evening cooking our meals – and who among us doesn’t love food?

A home without a kitchen that we enjoy being in is a home that fails us on multiple levels. It may sound like a big statement to make, but if you get the kitchen right, the rest will follow (that’s why you may wish to research things like ‘what are the best temperature settings for my refrigerator/freezer?‘). Now let’s look at how to plan your existing kitchen, because ripping everything out and starting again can cost a small fortune when minor tweaks might be sufficient.

Clearing kitchen cluttercredit

Declutter – if you don’t use it, consider throwing it out

Kitchens accumulate all sorts of oddities. From gifts like aprons and ladles brought back by travelling friends and relatives, to old mismatched cutlery and a machine that cooks eggs that you never use, there are things lurking in just about every corner of your kitchen that aren’t essential.

Now, the general rule about what to keep in your home is to get rid of anything you do not find to be beautiful nor has any practical use – apply that principle. Do you need the big green ugly apple peeler you bought on a whim? Is it really necessary to keep that old second microwave when you haven’t used it since inheriting your mother’s bigger and better one when she upgraded?

There’s also probably a notice board you occasionally pin things to then leave it there for months before looking at it again then binning it. If you stripped your kitchen and looked at it with fresh eyes, you might find that there’s a lot to be said for the old bare design.

Kitchen with blue cabinet doors

Add finishing touches – even if it’s unfinished

If you’re looking to upgrade an old kitchen, we’re not going to suggest things like considering what the kitchen is used for and buying a new 12-foot peninsula breakfast bar to sort you out. That would be tantamount to redesigning the whole thing. No. Instead, follow step one above and clear the space, then paint the walls and/or cupboard doors a new colour (relatively inexpensive) and add fixings that match. This means cupboard door handles and taps. Get a new matching kettle and toaster too, and you’re done for your instant kitchen face lift.

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Top tips when painting a room

Top tips when painting a room | H is for Home

Adding a new splash of colour to a room is a fantastic way of improving the design. It also happens to be one of the simplest ideas out there. It won’t cost a fortune, it doesn’t take long, and you can do it all yourself.

If you’re thinking about painting a room and switching up the colour scheme, then here are some pro tips to make the whole experience go smoothly:

Tins of white paint

Choose quality paint

Firstly, arm yourself with good-quality paint. This ensures that your paint actually sticks to the walls and doesn’t peel off after a few weeks. Look for top brands like Dulux, then choose whatever colours are to your taste. There are lots of Dulux paint deals out there, so you can still get amazing quality paint products without paying loads for them. So, there’s your first step: be sure to have some long-lasting and top-tier paint.

Brushes dipped in different coloured paint

Make sure the colours match

The worst mistake you can make is to paint your entire room only to realise the colours don’t go with one another. As such, spend time making sure that you pick a colour scheme that actually works. To make your life easier, We’ve already published a post on successful colour combos for the home. Check it out, and buy your paint accordingly.

Cleaning a wall with a sponge

Clean the walls

Before you apply any paint, you need to clean the walls. This ensures that you have a fresh surface for the paint to stick to. If it’s dirty or dusty, then the paint simply won’t adhere to the surface very well at all.

Roller with white paint

Strain the paint

Even if you have a brand new bucket of paint, it could have a few gloopy bits in it. These are basically little balls where the paint has congealed slightly. To avoid getting these on your walls and messing up the finish, simply put your paint through a strainer. This is basically like a sieve, but for paint! Anything that’s not liquid will be caught in the strainer, leaving you with lovely smooth paint to apply to your walls.

It’s also worth adding that you should cover your paint while you are painting. This will prevent one of the biggest painting problems of a skin forming on the top surface. If this does happen, you’ll have to strain your paint again.

Tin of purple paint

Use a brush on the outside edges

Get a brush and use it to start painting around the edges of your wall. It’s a good idea to put some tape down on the adjacent walls to prevent paint from going over an edge onto that wall. The purpose of a brush is to make it easier to get the paint roller out. When you have a few inches of paint around the edges, you can then use a roller without worrying about going over the lines onto the other walls.

Following all of this, you can use a roller and go up and down the wall to cover it really quickly. Then, you’ll have a freshly painted wall that needs to dry. Once dry, you can move any furniture back into place and bask in the new colour scheme.

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Innovative ideas being put into homes for 2020

Innovative ideas being put into homes for 2020 | H is for Home

It’s important to make the design and décor of your home attractive, comfortable and unique. It can take a little effort and research to find the most agreeable concepts and innovative ideas for your home. In this post, some of the most popular innovative ideas for your home design & decoration in 2020 will be considered and discussed.

Cane lounger and solid wood side table

Using natural materials

A growing trend is to furnish homes with objects that are natural and that make less of an impact environmentally. Solid wood is being used more regularly as it’s hard-wearing and can enhance the look of any living area. Installing double barn doors built from solid wood is a practical option if space it at a premium. If you want to give your home a modern look with green credentials, furnish your house with items made using sustainable materials. Seagrass, sisal and coir are sustainable, natural materials that are used to create very attractive and durable flooring. Cork, bamboo, linoleum and rubber are other renewables that should also be considered.

Vintage chair and mis-matched vintage armchairs

Vintage furniture & accessories

Buying vintage is growing in popularity and now is a good time for you to consider pre-owned goods. Compared to much of today’s ‘fast fashion’ furnishings, vintage and antique furniture & fittings were built to last and constructed using substantial, quality materials with excellent workmanship. It also means that less stuff ends up in landfill unnecessarily.

Wooden shelf with jars of pasta and Google smart speaker

Smart kitchens

Thanks to the ‘Internet of Things’, the kitchen has become an intelligent space; many tasks have now become automated. Washing machines, dryers and dishwashers are fitted with sensors to determine the most economical cycle to use. Fridge freezers can observe when you’ve run out of a product and add it to your virtual shopping list automatically. Or it can alert you if something has reached its ‘best before’ date. Central heating thermostats can adjust the temperature of the room… or you can do it yourself remotely! This all equates to saved time and energy and less waste.

Plastic water bottles netted for recycling

Cutting-edge elements

In 2020, materials made using recycled components is a growing trend. Single use plastics are being recovered and used to create products as varied as furniture, flooring and bedding. Other scrap materials such as sugar cane waste and recycled leather are to create items such as flooring, wall coverings and lamp shades. In addition, new technology such as 3D printing is already being used to design and produce textiles for use in upholstery.

Close up view of a spider plant

Greenery

Indoor and outdoor plants can make your home more environmental-friendly. The spider plant, bamboo palm and peace lily have been proven to remove some airborne toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde. As well as purifying the air, plants are attractive interior elements that enhance any style of décor.

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Does your home need reviving?

Does your home need reviving? | H is for Home

There are few things more discouraging that realising that your home isn’t really that pleasant a place to be. Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, the place where you can feel safe, secure and comfortable. So when your home feels dull, drab and lifeless, it can have a serious impact on your entire life. You need that space where you can let the stress of life melt away. The last thing you want is for your home to become yet another source of stress. That begs the question: Does your home need reviving, is there anything that you can do? Fortunately, the answer to that questions is a resounding YES! There are plenty of things that you can do to bring your home back to life and make it a pleasant place to be again.

Bare lightbulb hanging from a wound up flex

Look up

Lighting might be the biggest culprit in creating a home environment that feels dreary and unpleasant. Poor lighting can turn even the most spacious home into somewhere that feels cramped, dingy and small. When trying to bring more light into your home, see if you can arrange rooms to get the most natural light during the day. Then, in the evenings, use lamps to bring some warmth and ambiance to a room. Nothing ruins the feeling of a room than the sole source of light being a single, cold bulb hanging from the ceiling.

Small dog sitting on a shaggy cream carpet

Look down

In completely the opposite direction, ask yourself this: when was the last time you really looked at your floors? Of course, everyone looks down at their floors now and then, especially when you’re cleaning. But when was the last time you really looked at your flooring and thought about how it affects the way that a room feels? If you have carpet, then perhaps it’s time to have it very thoroughly cleaned. After all, there’s only so much vacuuming can manage. If you have solid wood flooring, then look around the room and ask yourself if the colour of the floor is complementing the room or detracting from it. Keeping your floor well maintained can make a huge difference to the entire space.

Paintbrushes leaning against a pale wall

Look all around

So you’ve changed up your lighting and you’ve fixed up your floors. What about what comes in between? The walls of your home can have an enormous impact on the way you feel when you’re inside them. When was the last time that the walls were touched up? Are there areas where the paint is chipping away, or the wallpaper is peeling off? Perhaps it’s not even as obvious as that. Look at the colour or the pattern. Ask yourself if the walls really create the kind of atmosphere you want in your home.

Whatever feeling you want your home to create, you’ve got to make sure that every part of it is working in the same way. If you’ve got different parts of your home all conflicting with each other, then it’s only a matter of time before the place starts to feel uncomfortable. Think carefully about what you really want your home to be, and then use that as your inspiration for every part of it.

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