8 Tips to Add More Life to Your Home

The worst thing that can happen to your home in terms of interior design is for your house or apartment to become lifeless. Without a homely atmosphere, you cannot call your residence a home, as a home is more than walls, running water, and electricity. If you feel that the place where you live has lost its mojo, here are 8 tips to restore liveliness to your proud Aussie home.

Framing memories

If you like taking photos, then you know that only the special ones deserve to be framed. In this sense, framed wall art is the surest sign that the home is lively, because only caring individuals frame photos of their loved ones or their memories. Wooden or metal picture frames are inexpensive nowadays, so buy enough of them to frame as many pictures as possible, decorating every room from the living room to the bathroom.

Adding fresh plants

Another unambiguous sigh that owners of a house are present is fresh plant life. Not only do plants produce oxygen and look nice with flowers and all but they require constant care, the surest sign the homeowners are friendly folks.

When choosing the right houseplants for your home, go for species that produce colorful and fragrant flowers. Invest in vases and pots as well, because plant display is half the beauty. In the garden outside, herbs and vegetables are a better choice, as you can use their fruit as an organic supplement to your diet.

Repainting the front door

Apart from interior changes, you should do something about the house’s exterior as well. In most cases, the façade, the windows, and the front door fade away because of strong sunlight, typical for New South Wales with well over a 100 sunny days per year.

You don’t have to repaint the entire house from the outside, as a new coat of paint on the front door will revamp the whole structure. The new hue you select should be bright and intensive, such as navy blue, yellow, green, or orange. Once you’re done, the front door will appear to glow when seen from the driveway.

Painting the house from the inside

Speaking of colors, you can use them on the inside of the house as well to breathe a new life into your home. When you call house painters from Sydney tell them to use darker shades and more intensive colors. The reason for this is the aforementioned punishing sunlight that fades away furniture, as well as walls over time. As an alternative, you can use shutters to protect the interior of the house from strong sunlight.

The décor(ative) power of a single rug

In most homes, floors are left bare because the existing hardwood floors insulate the house just fine. However, the addition of a single fluffy rug can make a world of difference in terms of decor. To ease maintenance, place the rug away from areas with heavy traffic so you won’t have to clean it often.

Strategic lighting

If you want to reproduce the homely atmosphere of your grandparents’ house, you can play with lighting levels. Depending on the style you opt for, replace the old incandescent light with a modern LED light or a low-voltage Edison bulb. The latter is actually a halogen light made to mimic the 19th century light fixtures.

The next step is to lower the light a little bit. This quick décor fix will create a contrast of light and dark, ideal for the living room or the bedroom. The LED lights can be used to change colors and usher in a holiday atmosphere.

Swamp the sofa with pillows

We Australians sure love our wool (no wonder, we are the world's leading producer of wool), so why not use this passion to make the house more homely. No matter how comfortable your living room sofa or couch is, it should be swamped with pillows of all shapes and sizes.

If the sofa is all fluffy and soft, you will lounge in more often, turning any room into a lounge room. Furthermore, don’t think that this change will go unnoticed, as all the members of the family will want a piece of the fluffiness. If you have small kids, then consider throwing in bean bags for their pleasure.

Environmentally-friendly updates

All of the tips listed above are eco-friendly in nature (pun intended). For instance, the paint you use for the interior of your house and the front door can be a non-toxic, zero-VOC paint. Moreover, if you’re thinking about throwing out a piece of furniture, don’t call a skip bin to take it to the dump. Try to salvage it by repainting it and then donate it to a charity or hold a garage sale.

As you have seen from our 8 suggestions, adding life to your home is not that hard. You don’t even have to invest a lot of money; just your free time, hard work, a bit of creativeness. Don’t forget to add the final touch to the homely atmosphere: a happy family.