Regular maintenance is essential if you want to preserve, and even increase, the value of your home. When the seasons change, take the time to spruce up the outside and inside of your home and make all necessary updates. With summer in full swing and people decorating or re-doing their homes, nothing like getting your home ready for the season. We have Abhinayah S, the co-founder of popular (their Instagram handle is decor-inspo through and through) Bangalore-based home furnishing brand The Yellow Dwelling, telling us how to get your home summer-ready.
7 Ways To Get Your Home Summer-Friendly And Ready
Deep Clean
With the change of the season, use this opportunity to deep clean your closets, windows, mattresses and home appliances. Cleaning them out gives them a new lease of life and makes your home feel anew for the summer. It doesn’t hurt that a clean space leads to a clear mind.
LBB Tip: Check out brands such as Born Good which does plant-based eco-friendly home cleaning products. Another brand to check out is The Better Home for its eco-friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable home cleaning products.
Let The Sunshine In
With cleaned glass windows and doors take down your heavy drapes and replace them with lightweight curtains in bright coloured fabrics. Adding fabric softens your space and the bright colours will instantly lift your mood.
Pro-Tip: Find LBB approved curtain picks under INR 1,000 here and read more about the different types of curtain designs that will transform your living room here.
Clean & Change Out Your Soft Furnishings
A budget-friendly hack to change out the décor of your home without spending a small fortune would be to look at replacing your soft furnishings like cushions, throws and table linen. Pick fabrics which are summer-friendly and breathable such as cotton and linen. Cosy throws, overstuffed cushions, long drape curtains, and other soft furnishings can make a house feel like home. So, use a rug to warm up rigid tiled floors, and add a couple of quilts to keep your couch extra comfortable.
Light Colours For The Win
Switch out your room’s colour palette to a lighter one. Light colours make the room feel larger and in turn spacious. This can be introduced by a new coat of paint on the wall or by choosing to style your space with light-coloured soft furnishings. For instance, if you have a dark coloured couch consider light cushions to minimize the darkness in your living room.
Pro-Tip: Check out this list on how to make your home look more colourful
Bring The Outdoors In
On top of providing great health benefits, plants are a simple and relatively inexpensive way to beautify your home. Consider displaying a vase of fresh-cut flowers. To go the extra mile, try finding plants and flowers that are native to where you live. If flowers are too big a burden look at investing in indoor potted plants, as they're a great way to add greenery into your home and also an opportunity to try your hand at gardening. Choose greenery that’s meant to thrive in low-light conditions for your indoor spaces. But if you question your green thumb, opt for realistic artificial plants.
Pro-Tip: Check out this list of must-have indoor planters to buy online and easy-to-maintain indoor plants here.
Use Natural Materials
Make use of cotton, linen, wicker, wood and so on. You can incorporate these materials in the form of wicker woven baskets, macramé planters and linen curtains and/or cushions. These materials lend texture as well as lend to a casual lived-in feeling.
Pro-Tip: Check out this list of brands that work with cane, wicker, and rattan and expert guide on maintaining your cane and wicker furniture here.
Make An Accent Wall
Add a punch of colour to your space by painting an accent wall. Look for either a niche or a large unobstructed wall that will get noticed. Pick a bold colour that matches a fabric colour in your space. Wallpapers are also a great option to design an accent wall. You can pick a bold and printed wallpaper for one of your walls, while the other walls can be white or of a solid colour that goes with your accent wall! For example, for summer it makes sense to use refreshing and light colours like greens and yellows. We've picked a designer wallpaper from the brand Space Of Joy, which goes beautifully with the mint and bottle green coloured walls.