HOME SPECIAL... A Quick Facelift for Your Home

A Quick Facelift for Your Home 
 

Bored of the same stale look of your house? Go ahead and give it a makeover in the New Year. Draw up a plan & use simple tricks to get a smart new home on a shoestring budget

    We all look forward to the New Year for new hope, new joys, new cheer. A time to forget the old and look forward to the new. It is also the perfect time to give your house a fresh new look. But, you don’t need to spend all your energy and fortune on this. With a little bit of planning and creativity, rearranging and refurbishing, imaginative lighting, and adding a few knickknacks here and there, you can give your home a complete makeover even on a tight budget. Here are a few simple tricks to redesign your pad without spending loads of money:
Clean Up & Polish
To start with, throw out or give away things that you haven’t used in the last two years and are unlikely to use in future — old clothes, shoes, bags, racks, fixtures, crockery, tacky gifts, what have you. This will not only make your house look tidier but also create much-needed space. Hire a local carpenter or painter to fix up and polish your ageing furniture and wardrobes. Add a fresh coat of paint to doors and windows that look tired and dirty. Give your kitchen cabinets & bathrooms a facelift by replacing a few taps, knobs and pulls, or even asking your society plumber to add a nickel coating to rusting faucets and other bath fittings. You will have gleaming new bathrooms and kitchen for just a few hundred bucks!
Rearrange, Refurbish
The easiest and quickest way to give your room a new look is to reposition furniture. Swap the seating arrangements, coffee table, side tables and armchairs. If you have a 2-3 piece L-shaped sofa set, separate the pieces and place them in a conversational manner. You can also move around furniture in different rooms. If you have an old armchair or rocking chair in the bedroom, polish it up and bring it out in the living room for that vintage look. Re-upholster furniture to give them a bright new look. Use durable, stain-resistant fabric in darker shades if you have kids at home and don’t plan to change your sofa or chairs for a few years to come.
The Knick-Knacks
While working on a new look for your house, don’t just focus on the big things. Even small, simple changes can do wonders. Get new cushion covers, replace old flower pots with new ones or just give them a fresh coat of paint. Put up a collection of family photos, or create a moodboard with your favourite pictures, posters, poems and drawings. Lighting can also make a world of difference to your room decor. Add a new accent lamp in the corner or simply change the shade to give your old tired lamp a new life. Replace old switchboards and switches with a variety of stylish ones available in the market today. If you don’t want to spend too much on getting new lights, get dimmer switches to soften the lighting when you have guests at home, or simply use pretty candles and affordable wall sconces.
Work on a Theme
Decorating a room to a theme is great fun and a great way to give it a fresh lease of life. One way of doing this is to make it a seasonal affair. Keep two sets of curtains — heavy, bright drapes for the winters and cool, light ones for the summers. Bring in the greens into your living room in the hot summer months. Plants not only keep the room cool but also give it a cool look. Use light, colourful floor mats and cushions during summers and save the heavy rugs or carpets for winters. You can also choose an overall decor theme for the room that transcends time and season. It can be rustic Indian, contemporary Western or even Oriental. And, you don’t have to spend a fortune on designer stuff; there are lots of cheap but unique options available in flea markets. You may also want to go for a collection of Ganesha or Buddha statues and paintings, dolls from different corners of the country or picked up on a holiday abroad.

Joymitra Rai ET121229