My five top tips for improving your home
Fingers crossed that in the next few months we will be moving into a house. Moving out of flat and into a house where we will have more space, more bedrooms and more storage for our daughter’s toys. One of the things about this move that I am most looking forward to are the home improvements, and I am already creating Pinterest boards for our dream kitchen, a beautiful living room and stylish bedrooms. With this in mind here are my top tips for improving your home.
Windows
In Victorian houses windows are such an important feature, currently we have huge single pane sash windows that are gorgeous but not the best at keeping any heat in. It’s important to choose windows that match the style of the house, and the decor that you are going for. Currently I love the dark grey aluminium windows I am seeing all over the place, which look great against a white rendered house. Windows will be top of agenda when we move as I’m determined to make our home as warm as possible.
Decor
I am a huge fan of grey interiors with crisp white woodwork, and our current home reflects just that, and I can’t wait to put my stamp on another property. There are so many different shades of grey, or grey muted blue tones to create cosy living rooms and bedrooms, and this colour looks timeless set against white alcove shelving, high ceilings and Victorian fireplaces. I recently read somewhere that you should have five core colours and materials that run through your entire home, tying each room in your home together. I love this philosophy and I think it will be something that I strive to achieve.
The kitchen
For me this is the heart of the home, and is something that is top of my to-do-list once we’ve moved in. It’s the place where we will spend the majority of our time, and I dream of a big open plan kitchen / diner / informal living room that opens out onto the garden. One of design aspects that we may consider as part of our kitchen extension is a slim roof lantern, they look beautiful and will allow so much light to enter the room. The kitchen itself will be practical, stylish and affordable, and you can see what I’m after on my inspirational Pinterest board.
Flooring
There is nothing better than a quality wood floor or quality carpet running throughout the home, and that doesn’t just apply to the living areas. Having a solid wood floor or herringbone floor is something that I really would like throughout the living space. This type of flooring looks super stylish and will last for years. In the bedrooms I love having a soft (almost velvety feel) carpet under foot, which looks amazing, but is probably not the best choice when you have a toddler running around.
The garden
This is an area of the home that is often improved last as our efforts are focused on the inside of the home. Having said that we will try to create a garden that we want to spend time in, and that our daughter will enjoy playing in. I am a fan of gardens that have different areas, those that have a defined patio area and play area. Trees and plants are a great way to help break up large gardens, and will act as good hiding places for toddlers playing hide and seek. I’ve also learnt that it’s good to live with your garden for a while before deciding where to place plants and outdoor garden furniture, so you can see where the sun goes.
So those are my five top tips for improving your home. These could all be applied to your current home, or if you’re like me these are a dream for our future home.
Have you recently made any changes to your home to make it work for you?
Claire x
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3 Comments
Kayleigh Watkins
Beautiful ideas, we have just moved from a two bedroom maisonette into a 3 bedroom house, with gardens for our children, we have just laid flooring in the living room and painted our feature wall, we need to get paint for the other three walls now, with Christmas around the corner and three children we are doing it slowly room by room, it’s not to bad as it’s painted magnolia right through so looks fresh, but we want to put our own stamp on it, I didn’t think to use pinterest, good luck with your house move, moving is such a stressful time xxx
Barnaby
We have wood flooring through out our home on the ground floor, easy to keep clean with younger children. Painted walls also so easy to change when you would like a fresh new look.
Suppliers Planet
Nice Tips on Home Renovation and Kitchen designs.