Is Your Home Ready for Summer? Easy Changes That Make a Big Difference

Lifestyle

oi-Oneindia Staff

You don’t necessarily have to tear down the entire house to make your home a tropical oasis. Sometimes, you only need to make some small changes to drastically transform the appearance, atmosphere and even your home’s breathing depending on the season.

Start with what you feel first – the air

A summer home begins with breathing in a space. Remove that thick black curtain hanging in your windows and replace it with a linen or cotton curtain that filters sunlight. And if you’re one of the lucky ones out there who already has a fan installed in your home, turn it counterclockwise. It’s a five-second fix that most people don’t even think of.

Refresh your palette without repainting

There’s more than one way to update your color palette aside from repainting. Renovating a room by changing its color through painting is not the only way to refresh its looks. Summer colors, while exposing heat, also spread a sense of calmness. To infuse your home with the summer vibe, you could easily use colors such as terracotta beige, sage green or white that also work naturally and can truly brighten up your living spaces. You can start your use of these colors in your room with something as simple as throw pillows, a table runner, or a vase that has these colors. Furthermore, one of the best ideas that you can consider is thinking about how great it would be to do away with your old heavy dark curtains and replace them with light ones that are made of natural materials. Thus, changing the color scheme in the living room is a very powerful sign that the space is open to the change of the seasons and that the look of the space in the living room will not be the same all year round.

Bring in Something Living

Living plants close to the sunlight, like herb pots on the window sill, a fiddle leaf fig next to the wall, or a climbing pothos plant on the shelf may add vitality, movement, and nature to the interiors. If you totally hate plants, pampas grass, dried eucalyptus, dried flower palms could give you the same result without the burden of maintaining plants. One big plant in a big vase may have a greater impact on a room than many little decorative items.

Rethink your scent and light

If you are unhappy with the appearance and atmosphere of your place, a very quick method of transforming the look and feel of your place is by changing its scent. Get rid of the overpowering fragrances you pumped in your winter months, like oud and amber. As Ridhima Kansal, director of Rosemoore says, introducing new lively scents, white flowers, coconut, and/or greens is a great idea. You could do this mainly in two ways: using scented candles or a bowl of fresh fruits on the kitchen counter. In addition, you can also change the lighting of your home. Daytime light is at its best when it is natural light. However, at night, if you don’t want to use harsh lighting, you may include warm-hued table lamps in your rooms. Moreover, if you decorate the balcony or place one corner of your garden with string lights, you will be able to give your rooms the appearance and the atmosphere of summer which no other light could give you.

Outdoor spaces deserve the same attention

If a balcony, terrace, or even a little front step are parts of your home, then one of the first and foremost ideas you might have is to consider them as extensions of your indoor living area. Indeed, it is incredible how a simple outdoor rug, two outdoor chairs, and a small table might help you to turn that tiny corner into a genuine outdoor living space. Weather the space at night with a lantern and bring life by a couple of plants; and the once a forgotten corner becomes your most favourite spot of the house. Summer is very short so utilizing even a small outdoor area is always worth it.