Warmer weather, longer days, flowers coming into bloom – spring is a time of new beginnings. Spring is also a good time to improve your home. If you don’t have time to tackle major improvements, make a series of quick, easy, and inexpensive changes instead. Here are ten ways to refresh your home in the spring.
1. Let Fresh Air In
Your home can start to smell stale over the winter due to inadequate ventilation. On the first warm day of spring, open all your windows and let the fresh air flood in.
2. Make Your Windows Gleam
Clean your windows inside and outside, removing the grime that has accumulated during the winter months. Then, let the spring sunshine shine through your sparkling windows and warm your home.
3. Add Cheerful Fresh Flowers
Brighten up your hallway, living room, dining room, bedrooms and conservatory with vases of fresh flowers. Spring flowers, such as daffodils, tulips or hyacinths, look pretty in simple glass vases.
If you don’t have many vases, upcycle jam jars or milk bottles by washing them thoroughly and decorating them with Washi tape. For a more rustic look, display flowers in jugs.
4. Make Your Home Smell Wonderful
Buy some scented candles in fragrances that evoke spring, such as cherry blossom, bluebell or mint. Light the candles as soon as darkness falls and let the wonderful fragrances permeate your home.
5. Spruce Up Your Yard
Go outside on a sunny spring day and tidy up your front and back yards. Sweep the porch, driveway and paths. Remove dead leaves and trash, cut back bushes, and mow the lawn for the first time, so that you can clearly see the fresh shoots of spring leaves, flowers, and grass when they emerge.
6. Change Your Bed Linen
Replace heavy winter quilt covers with lighter-weight cotton or linen quilt covers in spring-inspired designs, such as plain pastel shades or bold botanical prints. Leave a throw on your bed to keep you warm on chillier nights.
7. Brighten Up Your Kitchen
Brighten up your kitchen with some new dish towels in colorful designs. Give your kitchen a new look by investing in some small appliances such as toasters, blenders, and kettles in retro pastel shades or bold cheerful colors.
8. Grow Herbs on a Windowsill
Start growing herbs in pots in a sunny spot on a windowsill. Mint grows quickly and easily, while chives, basil and rosemary also grow well indoors. Pick freshly grown herbs and add extra flavor to each dish you cook.
9. Make a New Wall Display
Paint some wooden frames in sunshine yellow, pastel pink, mint green or any other colors that fit in with your décor and use them to display photos, postcards, wrapping paper, fabric or anything else that catches your eye. Nature-inspired prints of birds, butterflies and animals will add to the spring-like atmosphere in your home.
10. Paint a Wall or Furniture
You don’t have to decorate an entire room to give it a fresh new look for spring. Just painting one wall can transform any room. If possible, choose a wall that incorporates an architectural feature such as a mantelpiece so that the wall becomes the focal point of the room.
Alternatively, take a piece of old, unloved furniture and transform it by covering it with a few coats of chalk paint. Dining chairs can be upcycled in this way or you could paint a set of side tables or a bedside chest.
Refreshing your home for spring doesn’t have to take much time, effort or money. With a few tweaks here and there, you can renew your rooms so that they are in tune with the season.