Most of us cast a critical eye over our homes from time to time and compile a mental list of home improvements. I’m great at procrastinating but the relief once I’ve bitten the bullet and actually completed a job on the house is immense. It definitely helps your motivation levels when you feel like you’re making progress to make your home work better for you.
I am a massive fan of lists and was given ‘Mrs Hinch’s Life in Lists’ book for Christmas which I have been filling out with different sections and lists for all of the rooms in my house that I would like to modernise over the coming weeks, months and possibly even years! Having these things written down really helps as it almost means that I have given myself permission to accept that something needs to be done, but doesn’t necessarily need to be done ‘now now now’. With everything, we need to compromise and decide which updates to the home are a priority. With this in mind, here are my top four effective ways to modernise any home.
1. Think of the environment
At the forefront of our minds is definitely the impact humans are having on the environment. We are at a critical tipping point in Earth’s lifespan and we all have a duty to do our part to reduce the footprint we leave behind. So, by making some eco-conscious swaps and changes to our homes we can feel we are doing our part to make the world a better place. Whether it’s a new boiler installation or a charging point for your electric car these changes can reduce your bills and modernise your home while doing your bit for the environment.
2. Wonderful walls
Something as simple as a fresh coat of paint on the walls will modernise the home. Once you’ve done that there are other tweaks you can make to modernise the feel of your home such as renewing your photos and photo frames, purchasing some new pictures for the walls or creating a statement wall with a bold new wallpaper. For ideas Pinterest is perfect for creating online mood boards so you can pull together a cohesive look. I also follow certain hashtags on Instagram and have a folder for each of the rooms in my house. Then every time something comes up in my feed that I really like, I save it into the relevant folder and when the time comes to decorating or updating that specific room, I have lots of ideas to hand.
3. Focal point
Often a focal point in a room is the TV but how about making use of shelving to create a piece of modern art. Organising your books according to the colour of their spines will create a visual display that will be a talking point in a room. If you don’t have enough books to create this look it can also be done with CDs, DVDs or even vinyl. Some people even have TVs now that look like a framed picture when not in use. Alternatively, a media centre is a lovely way of modernising your home if you don’t have a traditional fireplace or woodburner. We don’t have either of these things in our house at the moment but we are thinking of adding a Media Wall into our sitting room at some point soon.
4. Modernise the facilities
The rooms which seem to require the most modernisation are often the kitchen and bathrooms. These are obviously expensive changes to make but they can also be the most dramatic to modernise your home. If you are thinking of making a change along these lines it is well worth trying to re-coup a little money by selling your existing kitchen or bathroom online. This links in to the reduce, reuse and recycle way of helping the planet too.
I hope you liked reading this blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it? Let’s dace it, thereare always ways of modernising your home, no matter hoe new if feels. But determining which steps you are going to take to do it is more important than anything. Modernise the house in the way you want to and not in the way that everyone might expect you to do it!
