With Spring at our front door, it’s a great time to launch a decorating and style refresh for your home. In this blog post, we wanted to share with you some ideas for your refresh that may seem small, but can create a big impact.
The key to this style of refresh is focusing on eye-level décor. By changing up décor at eye-level, you can create an immediate impact. You can also focus your guests on new key themes in your home and personal style. This design approach is similar to how grocery stores and other shops will place items at eye-level that they hope to promote. What style do you want to promote for your home?
Let’s start with your curb appeal. If you have a few steps up to your porch, eye-level will be at the door sill or door itself. Plants, flowers and other décor that frame your door are a popular way to give your guests a new seasonally themed welcome. But don’t stop there. A front door refresh can make an enormous difference to curb appeal. Often your front door is the same one that was there when you purchased your home. While inside the home, you may have infused your style with furniture, appliances, and fixtures, your front door says nothing about who you are today.
There are a number of options for how to breathe new life into your front door. If the style is you but the color isn’t, try a fresh coat or paint. Your door color can be on trend even if the door is a classic style. Or make your color uniquely you. Just because all the home floor plans in your community are similar doesn’t mean you can’t stand out. How fun will it be to say, “Look for the house with the bright blue door”? You can refinish a wood door to remove paint or change the stain to create an entry that speaks more to your style. A rich wood door can feel warm and inviting. Or you can change your door out altogether to make a statement about your personal style. You can put a farmhouse or modern twist on your transitional style home. Even a hardware refresh can give your door a new look.
Another trend we’re loving is painting interior doors. A bold and dramatic black door against crisp white walls and trim are very on trend at the moment. This style can break up a long hallway with doors and create more visual interest to the space. But don’t be afraid to experiment with a color that speaks to your personality, like a bright yellow, or one that works with the overall color scheme of the room it holds. One of the fun aspects of painting interior doors is that each side can be a different color. You can make the walls, doors, and trim one color to create a deeply saturated room in jewel tones, while in the hallway, the doors and walls can be all white to brighten a narrow space or highlight colorful artwork.
As long as you’ve got the paint out, a fresh coat for the walls is a great idea too. Nearly every color is on trend right now. It is more about the way you use color to tell a story. We’re seeing fewer accent walls. Instead, entire rooms feature bold colors on their walls. And we do mean colors, plural. Deep saturated colors are offset with similar colors and tones to create subtle accent features like doors and fireplaces. Alternatively, use a muted color on the walls and use a vibrant color in a nook or on the inside of cabinets to draw the eye in. Pale pastels and vivid hues are covering walls and spaces in unique graphic styles. Don’t be afraid to play. It’s only paint!
The last eye-catching way to refresh your home’s style that we’d like to highlight in this blog is with the use of new light fixtures. Light fixtures are another often neglected decorating cornerstone. One reason is that homeowner’s fear having to change all of their light fixtures to the match one another. But a dramatic change can be made by swapping out a single fixture without creating a decorating disaster. One of our favorite fixtures to refresh is a stairwell chandelier. Today’s chandeliers come in every shape. And LED options ensure you won’t have to risk your life changing bulbs and stairwells will always be well-lit. Foyers and entryways share the characteristics that make it easy to switch out a stairwell fixture. They are a specific space which while not always defined with walls, are defined by us.
Another fixture that can update a space is the one in your dining area. While homeowner’s love open concept, they miss feeling like there is a dining space. Hanging a fixture above your table can help define the space and give it a personality unique from the area it shares. Don’t be afraid to really show your personality in the style you choose. A new trend we and our clients are embracing is mixed metals. This trend can help pull together multiple design themes and help even the most eclectic room feel intentional. We think this trend is here to stay.
For more eye-catching ways to refresh your home’s style, follow us on Instagram and Facebook where we post what we’re seeing and doing on a weekly basis. And if you want to try taking on some of these projects yourself, subscribe to our YouTube channel, Remodeling America, to watch videos of how we create amazing spaces for our clients.