Five tips to give your home a new look

This period of confinement could be a good time to change the interior of your home, finding a new use and meaning for each decorative element or piece of furniture.

Changing the lighting in the main rooms, painting the walls in another colour or restoring old furniture left in storage can give your home a completely different feel.

During this period of confinement, our home has become our safe haven to protect us from COVID-19 and much of the activity that previously occurred outside now takes place indoors. As we have more free time, this could be the ideal moment to redecorate your home, finding a new use and meaning for every item of furniture.

Rearranging the furniture, painting the walls of your home in bright or neutral colours, choosing light textiles for the living room and making better use of natural light according to Feng Shui principles are just some of our suggestions.

1. Organize the house according to the Marie Kondo method

The Japanese consultant has established herself as the guru of order and her approach has revolutionised half the world’s homes. For Marie Kondo, the arrangement of objects directly influences people’s mood. Her KonMari method aims to eliminate all superfluous elements, leaving only those that are necessary and useful in day-to-day living.

To achieve this, Kondo recommends ordering the komono (objects) in the house according to the joy they spark. Organise your belongings according to your priorities and this should help you get rid of anything that does not increase your personal well-being.

Clothing, for example, according to Kondo, comprises the following categories: shirts, sweaters, trousers, jackets, socks, clothes to be hung, handbags and shoes. The best thing to do is to organise these garments in groups and fold each garment vertically. You can then see everything in your wardrobe straight away, without disturbing the order you have established.

2. Find harmony with Feng Shui

Another eastern practice that advocates redistributing the use of objects according to the energy they transmit is Feng Shui. This philosophy is based on the following principles: Chi (the positive force that objects in the home must have), light (rooms should be open to the exterior and you should avoid dark areas by using hanging lamps), nature (plants and flowers should be placed in flat points of the house), order (balance flooring and wall coverings to gain space, balance mirrors and choose textiles such as linen), tidiness (throw away everything that has no use or is broken), pure colour (warm, lively colours such as pink, salmon, orange, mustard or red) and the Bagua map (each item or piece of furniture or object must follow the order of eight cardinal points so as not to hinder movement or block out natural light).

3. Put up pictures

During confinement, you can frame that photograph you took on your last trip and make it the focal point of the bedroom or hang up that picture you liked so much and left stored “for the time being” in your living room. With a little imagination, you can turn your home into a gallery.

4. Paint walls in bright colours

Spending large amounts of time at home can become tedious; why not update your home without changing its original structure? To do this, you can paint the main rooms in bright, neutral colours such as broken white, beige or mint green.

If you have children, you can choose more bold, livelier colours such as orange, electric blue, pink or yellow for their rooms. Another attractive option is to wallpaper the rooms with ethnic floral, geometrical or animal patterns, so that each corner has a lively, original feel.

5. Rearrange your furniture

Another idea is to simply paint that old dresser in the attic, replace the curtains with roller blinds or rearrange the furniture. Try to gain space and extend the continuity of the layout within a room using elements you already have in your home.

To achieve this style, we recommend using furniture with straight lines in natural wood, light textiles, combining light colours with soft textures and removing objects that prevent natural light from entering.