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10 simple and completely free ways to spruce up your home during lockdown
With minimal effort and no cost, you can make your lockdown accommodation feel brand new
The coronavirus has changed daily life for all of us, and one of the many consequences of the virus’s spread is that we’re all spending far more time at home than we normally would.
Whether you’re working from home, unable to work at all, or simply missing the freedom of meeting up with friends and exploring your favourite spots, we’ve all had to get used to being indoors more than we would like.
And this has probably caused you to get sick of your surroundings pretty quickly. The living room décor which once brought you so much joy and pride probably goes unnoticed because you spend most of your time surrounded by it.
However, there are things you can do to change this. Of course, a whole design overhaul with fresh paint, new wallpaper and luxury furniture items is one way, but even if you don’t have the means or the motivation to fully redecorate, you can still make your home feel like new during this period.
And we’re here to help. Below you’ll find our top 10 tips for transforming your living space with minimal effort – and without spending a penny! Here are our favourite simply and free ways to spruce up your home during lockdown.
Switch up your pictures for a fresh outlook
This is a must for anybody who has had pictures hanging up for so long that you don’t even look at them anymore. Play around with which pictures go where in order to reignite your love and appreciation for them.
Remember, you chose your artwork for a reason, and finding a new home for them will help give them back their original power and appeal. You could even cluster a few pieces together for an eye-catching gallery wall.
Even better, rearranging your pictures also provides the perfect opportunity to give them a good clean, helping them shine even brighter.
Give a new lease of life to old favourites
Just because an item was made for a particular purpose, that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you can use it for. A bedside table can become a great living room side table, and a storage chest can work wonders as a quirky coffee table. Try repurposing some of your favourite items to help you fall in love with them all over again.
Rearrange your furniture for a new perspective
Once we’ve decided on the layout of our furniture, it’s almost as if it becomes set in stone. Never again do we think about what the space would look like if that chair was over there, or whether the room would benefit from that coffee table being positioned at a different angle.
This is a mistake, because rearranging your furniture is one of the most liberating and effective ways of giving your living room a fresh perspective. Whether it’s moving your favourite occasional chair or reworking smaller accent items, these changes can bring some excitement to the living space you’ve grown all too used to.
And don’t just rearrange room by room. Think about that side table in your bedroom or that houseplant in the hallway, how would they look in your living room? Let your imagination run wild.
Divide and conquer
Dividing your living room – especially if its open plan – can create illusion of increased space and structure. For an open plan living and dining room, placing your dining table at one end of the room will help you organise the space into sophisticated zones.
You can then clearly demarcate your living area by placing your sofa in the middle of the room facing the opposite direction. Simple measures like this can help to create two clear zones within a single space, giving you the sense of moving from room to room as you make your way around. This will give you more variety to enjoy while housebound.
Switch up your cushions for a pop of new colour
In the past we’ve suggested swapping old cushions for new cushions as a great way to refresh your living space with minimal effort and obligation. However, cushion shopping isn’t exactly considered essential right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from this effect.
Pool together all the soft furnishings from around your home and try mixing and matching where they fit best. You might find new homes for old cushions that bring a whole new energy to both the soft furnishings and the space as a whole.
Prepare to be floored by playing with rug positions
Just like you did with cushions, you can also move rugs from room to room to see what impact they have. Even changing the position of them – from central to the side, or from horizontal to vertical – can help to create an instant mini-makeover.
Feel centred by moving furniture away from the walls
We’ve already mentioned how repositioning your furniture can provide a fresh feel, but one thing to consider while doing this is whether or not you should be pushing your sofas and chairs against the wall.
We all tend to do this without thinking, in order to provide more central floorspace, but having your seating pushed to the furthest point of the room isn’t always the best idea when it comes to design.
Sometimes, pulling sofas and larger items slightly away from the walls can make your home feel far more spacious, as it creates new routes for navigation and gives your living room more space to breathe.
Switch up your lamps for a lightbulb moment
We tend to think of lighting as a purely practical factor in our homes, but in fact it can have a powerful impact on our home design. Changing the lighting in your living space can help to alter the ambience and create distinct zones to enjoy, such as a reading nook or a home office.
Use table lamps and floor lamps to give concentrations of soft light. Don’t be afraid to move lamps from around your home and try them out in new settings, seeing what new and exciting effects they create.
Get creative by restyling your shelves
Changing up your bookshelves both simple and oddly satisfying, and it can have a powerful impact on the look and feel of your living space overall. Clear your shelves, give everything a good dusting and then start playing around with how things are displayed.
There are numerous options here. You can stack both horizontally and vertically; you can break up your books with knick-knacks, ornaments and framed photos; you can even go for something really eye-catching like organising your books by colour to create a stunning rainbow effect.
Move your TV for a brand new focus
As much as we tell ourselves it’s not, for most of us the TV is undeniably the main focal point of our living rooms. And because televisions have so much power when it comes to anchoring a room, changing its position can have an immediate and significant effect.
Try moving your TV to see how your room looks with a fresh perspective, or you could even challenge yourself to rearrange the room so that the television is no longer the main focus.
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