How to create a brighter home for those long, summer days
We welcome daylight savings with open arms around the country as the smell of barbecues throughout the neighbourhood become an unofficial induction into the summer months ahead.
The moody tones of winter in our interiors make us feel cosy and safe but now is the time to shake off those sultry tones and brighten your interior to match the extra hour we gain in the evenings.
The easiest way to brighten up our interiors is through the use of soft furnishings.
We recommend most clients to have a summer and a winter set so every time a season changes you don’t have to go out and buy all new decor, perhaps just a top up of a cushion cover or two if a new trend catches your eye.
To create your summery and nourished palette, look for lighter and brighter tones to the base scheme you have.
This means if a deep forest green has captivated your lounge in the last few months, you can keep a few pieces in that colour and slide up the monochrome scale to choose pastel versions of green, like mint.
This is a cost effective way to get an updated look in no time.
Another quick trick is also to swap your rugs around.
Rugs take up quite a large amount of real estate on your floor print, so makes a massive difference swapping out a darker rug for a lighter tone or natural fibre rug for the summer.
I generally have my lounge and dining rugs on rotation twice a year and it completely changes the look.
Mirrors are a fantastic way to bounce light around the room.
By placing them in areas with low natural light like hallways, it will help to brighten the overall space, or if there is a great outdoor view it could reflect into the interior such as bush or a seascape to become a piece of art and lighten the interior scheme.
If you are up for it, paint is a satisfying way to update your interior over the weekend, you can even order paint samples online to help you decide.
The 50 shades of white available to you is a sure winner to brighten up your rooms, with lighter colours opening up a space to seem larger than what it is.
But if white walls aren’t your cup of tea and you want a slightly more zesty scheme, you can take a page out of the interior designers playbook for 2022 and embrace the retro brights and pastels.
Think of sherbet citrus hues, candy land pinks, energising greens and bubblegum blues.
The new season is heavily inspired by Covid-19 internationally, with a huge departure from the doom and gloom of subtle sultry tones that we have seen in the past few seasons.
The thought of freedom and a brighter future through playful and vibrant colours is the largest shift in the interiors we have seen in a while.
So go for it and try your hand with something a bit bolder, and a bit brighter, transforming one of your spaces to enhance your wellbeing for the summer months ahead.