Summer means longer evenings, endless hours on the beach, and making your home a bright beacon for the season. Now as we can’t all contract an interior designer with every change of temperature, what changes are easy to do but will make a huge impact on the brightness of your home?
Follow these 6 steps to achieving the brightest Summer home.
1. Lighting
Light makes a space brighter… yes, you’d probably figured that one out for yourself. However, you may not have thought of which light is best for your home, and where you want the light to come from. Natural light, as always, trumps any man made light, but finding a way for that natural light to fall over a large space is the struggle.
Adding solatube skylights to your home will have an incredible effect; brightening large spaces, saving on electricity and it becomes an enviable design feature. Windows, lamps, and any other measure, can only do so much, but skylights cast a light over your entire space.
2. Experiment with Colour
Put down the bucket of Electric Sherbert Orange! No one is suggesting you give your home an all-over lick of fluro paint, but splashes of colour here and there will bring Summer to life in your home and highlight the brightness.
Place the colours against neutral tones to really make an impact, like a palm print cushion on a beige couch. You don’t get points for more colour, so remember to treat the splashes as accents and not your entire palette.
3. Bring Nature In
What will make your room brighter than natural light hitting a leafy plant on your window sill and coffee table? Plants don’t just give you clean oxygen, they quite literally symbolise life and those green splashes go a long way to lift the room.
Placing a crawling plant on a window sill, bookshelf or mantly will allow the wines to drop and will bring a wild vibe to your space. Before you hit the nursery, make sure you research which indoor plants will survive the Summer weather where you live.
4. All White Everything
White makes a room seem larger and brighter. You’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it one thousand times! But it rings true, and a white furnished home is the best backdrop for those pops of colour to do their magic. A white space, with the right lighting, can be an energising environment and no better setting for Summer fun.
5. Window Dressings
Most curtains are detachable so they can be cleaned, but they can also be detached to make way for lighter fabrics that open up the room. Those deep red blinds or brown drapes look great year round, but if it’s brightness you are chasing - then it’s time to replace with a brighter option. Choose something pale or neutral that highlights the window-size and will make way for those early morning rays.
6. Remove the Heavy
It’s no sense gutting your home entirely for a mere three months of the year. With that said, there is sense in removing a few elements that bring a heaviness to the room and work against brightening the room.
If you have a few rugs, throws or event chair covers, take them to the dry cleaners for the season and let that polished hardwood, soft couch and stylish chairs have some breathing time! These small changes will have a huge difference on you home, and the bareness will life the room to be an airy and bright space.
Build it and they will come. Who says your place can’t be Summer HQ this season? Transform your home into a Summer paradise with only a few slight tweaks, and start enjoying the best of the year from the comfort of your own home.
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