At last, the gloom and chill of winter are finally giving way to spring. As the soil warms, spring bulbs blossom with the trees and shrubs awakening from their winter hiatus with delicate new buds. The birds serenade us with their morning chorus and all seems right in the world now that the sun is shining once again.
For the interior of our homes, that means clearing away winter bits and bobs so that spring can flood in. Here are seven ways to let spring bounce into your home.
1. Bring out the vases
Adding fresh flowers to your home will always change the scent and appearance of a room and so with spring on the doorstep and warm sunshine pouring through the window, add colour and gentle scent with bunches of fresh flowers, placing them on your oak side table and rustic TV stand. Choose spring-like flowers such as freesias, as well as generous bunches of roses in pretty pastel shades.
2. Get rid of winter clutter
The way we live in our homes changes with the seasons. We spend winter cocooned in the warm embrace of the living room but now is the time to cast off some of these layers, so spend time decluttering the living room. A coffee table with storage is perfect for storing away the thick wood blankets, whilst keeping them close by for cooler evenings, this is spring after all.
3. Spruce up the display unit and bookcases
Again, this is about creating an aesthetic appeal that sits with the warmer months of spring and summer. Switching up ideas will always give a room new life so that the living room has a chance to 'breathe' again. It could be something as simple as arranging books on the reclaimed wood shelves in pockets of colour, putting away accessories and replacing with different ones for the coming months. Replace those rich and warming candles that kept you cosy all winter and replace them with lighter and brighter scents.
4. Create new displays
They say a change is as good as a rest, and so with the change of seasons why not give your home a new look simply by having a change around. You may still light a fire of an evening but you may no longer need the sofa and armchairs placed so close to the fire so why not move your reclaimed wood furniture around so that you have a fresh new layout to the room?
5. Tone down the fireplace
Staying with the area around the fire, because we use it daily during winter, the area becomes cluttered with essential items from firewood, coal buckets and utensils for keeping the fire burning in the grate. In spring and summer, confine these to a cupboard or storage area where they can be hidden away and streamline and de-clutter the fire and mantelpiece. It will always be a feature of the living room but in spring it doesn’t have to be the main or only feature.
6. Clean the windows and freshen up the drapes
Again, heavy bundles of curtains at the windows over winter give your living room a warm and cosy feel and helps keep out the cold. But in spring, it can feel like overload. Maximise the first few rays of spring sunshine by cleaning the windows and washing or dry cleaning the curtains. And clean any mirrors in the living room too to bounce that spring light around the room.
7. Change over the cushions and rugs too
As well as freshening up all the linen in the living room, you may also want to consider changing the cushions covers and even the living room rugs for ones that are lighter in both colour and pattern. Replacing cushion covers are a great way to update a living room or old sofa. Spring tends to be the season of pastel colours, so why embrace this new lightness into your home?
Are you ready to embrace spring? We know we are!
