When we think about drastic home reinvention, we think about home renovation. The two go hand in hand. But, reinventing your home does not need to include power tools and breaking down walls. There are so many ways that you can reinvent your space without renovating but there are
How to Reinvent Your Home without Renovating – Pre-Planning
Consider Your Limitations
What are your limitations in changing your home? Is this financial or do you rent and you’re not sure what you could get away with your Landlord? If you’d need to put everything back to how it was when you leave the home, then this would limit the changes you can make. In the next few tips, we’ll make it clear which are the easiest options for renters.
Define Your Concept
One of the best ways to reinvent your home, is to define or redefine your concept. Consider the following questions. What styles do you like in interior design? What don’t you like? The latter is often the easier question to answer!
How do you want your home to feel? What words would you like people to use when talking about your home?
Find 3-5 words that really define what you’re looking for. “Classic, Contemporary, Modern, Eclectic, Comfortable, Homey”. These are some concept words that we’re often told when asking people these same questions. These words will become your concept.
So, when shopping for anything new or making style decisions, ask yourself “does
this fit with my list of words”?
Define Your Space
Once we have our concept, we need to really think about our space and how we live in it. For many people, especially those in open plan homes, a lack of spatial definition is why the space doesn’t seem to quite ‘work’.
Draw up a floor plan and think about how you move through the spaces. Rearranging things on paper first can save a lot of time. When considering where to place furniture, make sure the flow works for you. Your home should not just be stylish, but functional and livable, too.
With open plan areas with various functions – living rooms with dining areas or offices – you can define the space with well-placed furniture, decorative screens or rugs. Don’t forget to make sure that you’re rug is the right size!
Testing Before Investing
There are two easy ways to check your home reinvention plan before going ahead. The first is to take a picture of your room, from every angle, and study it. In a photograph, it can be easier to spot things you don’t like or things you can rearrange that in real life you have learnt to ignore!
You can also create a Pinterest board and find pins for everything you’d like to bring together in your new space. Don’t forget colours, furniture, lighting, soft furnishings and decor. When everything is there, make sure that everything you like both fits in with your concept and works well together.
Follow The Home Stylish on Pinterest here.
How to Reinvent Your Home without Renovating – Taking Action
Rearrange Your Furniture
When you were a kid, did you love moving around your room?? Us too, and it works even better as an adult when you have a clue about how your home should look! Here are a few ways that you can make your furniture work better for you:
- Make sure your furniture is an inch or two away from the wall, which magically creates the feeling of more space
- Use your larger pieces of furniture to create defined spaces in an open plan room
- If you have a rug, at least the front two legs of your furniture should be on it
As long as you can move it back to its original position, this can easily be done in a rental property.
Rearrange Your Art
Art and decorations in your home should be moving and inspiring, but often they become ‘a part of the furniture’ and you forget they are there. Try moving your art around your home to make the piece stand out again. You can even move it to a different wall in the same room! If you do move the art to a different room, make sure that your soft furnishings in that space works with the art.
Invest in New Soft Furnishings
A great way to reinvent your home without renovating is to update your soft furnishings. This is the best way to reinvent a room with colour and pattern, without having to commit to painting or buying anything too expensive. For renters, these new soft furnishings can then form the basis of your next home!
Pick the colours of your pillows and throws from your art to really tie everything together.
Add Mood with Lighting
Just like soft furnishings, lighting with lamps is an easy way to change the mood of your room without changing anything permanently. This is something that takes some consideration and trial and error as you move lamps around to get the perfect atmosphere. Read up on how to get the perfect lighting in your home here.
Upgrade Your Walls
Finally, as we’ve recently mentioned in our predictions of style trends for 2019, wallpaper is very in right now. If you’re able to spruce up your home with some wallpaper, then go for something that works with your colour scheme and concept but don’t be afraid to go bold. And, if you are nervous about changing a whole room, then just wallpaper one wall, or even a section of
Of course, you can also paint. If you do, make sure to do a test patch and check it out at various times of the day to make sure it works with different lighting.
A less time-consuming and permanent option is to buy an oversized piece of art or a poster that can take up a large space on a blank wall.
Reinventing your home does not need to be about buying all new furniture or repainting the whole house.
In fact, it isn’t even about reinventing your style. Real change comes with changing the atmosphere and feel of your home. Changing the flow within and between rooms and spaces; creating dramatic and atmospheric lighting; defining your concept and creating a connection among your possessions through colour are all ways to reinvent your space so it is more stylish and livable.
