Transform your whole house for next to nothing this Spring

Do you get to the beginning of Spring and have an overwhelming urge for change?

I do.

Whether that’s a change in lifestyle habits, clearing out my wardrobe or a new haircut, the steady increase of daylight hours allows me to see everything in a new light, and with that comes the urge to transform the whole house.

The issue?

At the moment, it’s cost.

Therefore, whilst we are happily trying to save save save for our next big house investment, we’ve been trying out a few little transformations that cost next to nothing, but can make a huge impact on how each room looks, and more importantly, how it makes you feel.

Spring Clean

First and foremost, this can make the world of difference, and I’m not just talking about whipping the hoover around the bits of floor you can reach. Spend the little bit of extra time to wipe down the skirting boards, rearrange the nicknacks and de-clutter. If you can’t find homes to hide away your stuff, you’ve got too much stuff! Doing a really thorough deep clean of every room will make you feel so fantastic once it’s done, it’s worth the effort.

Move the Furniture

This is something I’ve learnt from my mother. Change is good. What better feeling than changing around your room completely and then getting that little realisation that it’s all different and new each time you reenter it for a week or so. Is that just me that gets that? Surely not! Try the sofa or bed on a different wall, work out how the wardrobe will fit in a different place, shift your dining table to give you a new perspective at dinner time. If the new layout doesn’t work, you can always move it back, but for all you know you’d been wasting your usable space for years! For a whole house transformation each room’s feng shui is key!

Add some Life

One of the major things I noticed when we first moved in was that each of the rooms still felt flat, even after we’d moved all the furniture in and begun to make our stamp on the place. The solution? House plants! It makes such a difference having some leafy greenery in every room and so many house plants are super duper easy to care for. PLUS, if any of you watched the BBC programme the other day discussing how cleaning products are bad for us, the recommendation was for the addition of house plants, which not only look pretty, but also absorb the nasty chemicals.

Let in the Light

Every house has windows (unless you live in an underground hovel, in which case, none of these hints are probably aimed at you, and I’m sorry!) but making the most of them is where lots of people fall short. Most people find light and airy rooms more attractive than darker dingy ones, and there are some really simple ways to make rooms feel bigger and brighter. Choose lighter coloured walls and a white ceiling. This does NOT have to mean magnolia reminiscent of your school days, but a soft off white, duck egg blue, pale grey…etc will immediately brighten a smaller room and bounce the light around. Opt for curtains that open to the maximum window width and keep blinds up as high as they can during the day.

Make use of Mirrors

Leading on from the previous point, mirrors are a fantastic way of bouncing light around and can make a room or corridor feel so much bigger through their doubling of space. Choose your mirror as a means to accent your space – the style, shape, colour and size all make a different. Think about where the light is coming in, and don’t forget that they also give you a reflection of yourself, so consider whether it would look strange somewhere you walk past often. We’ve just added a lovely mirror to our hallway, and it’s made such an amazing difference to the feel of it.

Change up your Accessories

Have you ever wondered what it would look like buying a new piece of statement furniture? I’ve recently come across the idea of furniture rentals, which to me sounds like the perfect idea if you’ve recently moved in somewhere and want to try out something bold, without paying a huge upfront price in case you end up not very keen. Companies seem to do everything from beds to wardrobes and from rugs to mirrors, so before you splash the cash on an expensive item, why not rent it first as a trial? If that’s still not within your budget, even buying new accessories can make a world of difference. If you’re a fan of colour but want to utilise light painted walls, jazz up the rest of the room with fancy cushions, candles, floor lamps and artwork – a trick to easily transform your whole house for next to nothing!

*This is a collaborative post, but as ever, all content and home transformation ideas are my own*