12 Unmissable Tips to Turn Your Garden Into a Small Summer Paradise

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Summer is here and the prospect of this year’s holiday has changed for many families. While you might have booked a 10-day holiday to Spain or Mexico, this summer might be more of a “staycation” than anything else. However, every situation has its own silver lining, and you can still enjoy the good season from the comfort of your home. Turning your garden or lawn around, and making the most out of the space that is available to you is essential. Of course, this project might require a little effort on your part, but it will be rewarding!

Take Up Gardening

Turning your garden, lawn, or patio around without learning the basics of gardening is almost impossible! Even if you don’t wish to fill your space with fruit plants, flowers, and trees, learning a little about landscaping can help you create a stylish environment that you can enjoy all year round. Any homeowner who is lucky enough to have a garden or patio at their disposal should consider adding flowers and houseplants to their outside area. Simple additions like flower beds, a lemon plant, or spices like rosemary can make your garden smell amazing and look beautiful. Of course, these plants can supply you with fresh herbs and ingredients anytime you need them!

Lastly, the benefits of gardening on our physical and mental wellbeing are undeniable. This activity can help you relax, keep stress at bay, and spend time outdoors or bathing in the sunshine. All this combined can help strengthen your bones, tone your muscles, clean your skin, and improve your mood!

Pick Up the Leaves

Step two of your “garden makeover” project is to pick up all the leaves and debris that winter has left behind. While you might not have noticed the details that have been ruining the look of your garden, leaves, as well as fallen branches and weeds, can make your outdoor area unlivable. Luckily, there is an easy solution to the issue – borrow a leaf blower from your neighbor! Especially if you don’t have many trees in your garden, you might only need this type of equipment occasionally. Therefore, borrowing it from a neighbor can help you save money while achieving the same level of garden cleanliness you had been hoping for.

Cut the Grass

Cutting the lawn of your lawn is an essential step to reinstate your outdoor area’s beauty and potential. Even in the case that you only have a couple of green patches in your garden, don’t underestimate the difference that a cared-for area can make. Moreover, cleaning and cutting the grass in those sections can give you the chance to plant some more flowers or locate a houseplant in need of a house.

Cutting the grass might not be among the most enjoyable activities to do when rethinking the look of your garden. Yet, it is also one of those regular tasks that you will have to dedicate yourself to several times a year. Therefore, investing in the right type of equipment might be essential to ensure you can complete all your work quickly and efficiently.

Flowers and Houseplants

Flowers and houseplants are the necessary additions to turn your garden into a livable and enjoyable environment. However, picking the right ones for your preferences and taste is essential to achieve the garden look you wanted. If you are not among the most experienced gardeners and you are looking for easy-to-grow varieties that can give you endless satisfaction, here are the best plants for your first garden.

  • Tomatoes
  • Pansies
  • Basil
  • Mint
  • Sunflower
  • Marigold
  • Sweet peas
  • Aquilegia
  • Nigella
  • Nasturtium
  • Eschscholzia (Californian Poppy)
  • Geraniums
  • Fuchsia

The ones you will pick entirely depend on your personal taste, the climate conditions of the area, and the amount of time you can dedicate to your plants’ care. If you are unsure what flower or plant will do best in your garden, speak to an expert gardener or head to a nearby garden tool shop. Here you can find all the species and varieties that work best in your area and in the climate conditions you are in.

Redo Your Driveway

Driveways and paths in your garden are always the last things homeowners think about. Of course, this is only the area where you drive your car in the mornings and evenings, nothing more. However, the driveway is also the first aspect of your house that a visitor or guest will see when coming to see you. Redoing a driveway or path does not have to be a difficult task to undertake, and often everything you need is new tiles and cement. Of course, you can get in touch with a professional company to achieve even better results in limited timeframes.

However, another exciting option to consider is to design a pathway in wood, which is something you can do at home. You might need to buy wood planks, but you can set them up directly on the grass, so you can also move them as you see fit in the future.

Substitute Old Sewer Covers

If you have been living in the same home or area for a while, the chances are that you have become blind to the sewer covers around you. In some cases, you might also have one within your garden and never pay attention to it. However, sewer covers are essential, especially when it comes down to creating a safe and stylish environment in your garden.

Swap your old covers for new ones that can comfortably hold your car’s weight – if they are located on the driveway – and fit with the furniture and details you have introduced in your garden. Lastly, new covers can increase the level of safety of the environment, preventing falls and failures. While thy might not be the detail you think about the most, it is definitely one to keep in mind when redoing your garden!

Invest in Outdoor Furniture

Now that your new, stylish garden is coming to life, it is time to buy adequate furniture pieces to go with it. Some homeowners prefer to purchase designer or futuristic pieces of furniture, such as deck chairs, tables, and handcrafted details. However, if you are trying to remodel your garden cheaply and sustainably, you could also undertake a series of DIY projects to converse the items you already have into weatherproof furniture.

If you are low on items that you can spare and modify, head to the nearest factory and check whether you can use some of their planks and pellets. These are highly versatile materials that can turn into tables, chairs, and sofas when nailed together.

In this case, don’t forget to paint them to get them to blend with the decor. Lastly, add pillows and blankets to increase the level of comfort and get ready to spend most of your summer evenings on your handmade furniture items.

Install a Gazebo

Gazebos, teepees, and tents are other additions that we always consider appropriate in a luxury setting. However, if you look into the price of these items, you will find out that some models are highly affordable. Despite the low price, these simple additions can turn your garden around and increase your comfort while there – especially during hot, humid, and still summer days.

.. Or Opt for an Umbrella

Another alternative to a gazebo is an umbrella. You can buy umbrellas attached to a movable arm that can help you create an adequate shade on your furniture independently on the time of the day. Umbrellas are inexpensive additions that work best if you don’t have a fixed station for dining al fresco. For example, if you prefer to move your furniture around depending on the season, weather, and hour of the day, a fixed tent or gazebo might not be suitable… but an umbrella will be!

Buy BBQ Facilities

Spending money on outdoor furniture and BBQ facilities might not be your idea of a cheap remodel. However, homeowners should also consider that a garden with new furniture and facilities could massively increase your home’s value, especially when you decide to rent it or sell it. Investing in redoing a garden is one of the smartest choices you could make before putting your house on the market!

Decorate With Fairy Lights and Torches

There is nothing better to create the perfect atmosphere for your summer nights than decorating your gardens with fairy lights and torches. You can wrap these around railings or flower pots, and even invest in solar-powered ones. These lights are ideal if you are looking for a weather-resistant solution that you can leave out throughout the season, but only switch them on at nighttime. However, if you have decided to spend a whole evening outdoors with your friends or family, it is recommendable to invest in other lighting systems for your gardens that can better illuminate the area.

Throw Your First Party!

Now that your garden is ready, it is time to test out all the new pieces of furniture, additions, and details by throwing a party! You will soon find out that some aspects don’t work perfectly just yet, but this can just be an occasion to fix it for the best. Embrace the change, and have fun at your next BBQ party!

Taking The Long View On How To Enhance Your Home’s Setting

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Striking views and stunning landscapes are, in many ways, the golden ticket of housing. Forget looking out at parking lots and city streets; we’re talking ocean vistas, riverside settings, and even countryside as far as the eye can see.

It’s a reality that can make any home for sale more appealing, as is evidenced by the fact that fantastic views, particularly of water, can enhance value by 15-80%. And yet, as is often the case when we take things for granted, those of us who have access to such views often neglect them. It’s all too easy to shut the doors on the outside and entirely forget about location. Before you know, you may have gone months without even glancing up at those rolling hills or lapping waves.

As well as being a crying shame, this is a significant waste of money. Remember, you’re likely paying for that view, and you should get the most for your buck by taking the time to enjoy it in the following ways.

The more windows, the better

A view has the undeniable ability to take your house to the next level, but you first need to make sure that you can see it. Otherwise, there’s nothing giving your property an edge over any other on your street. Unsurprisingly, then, we’re starting this list with mention of windows. Look at getting custom windows for your home.

Large bay windows that look directly out onto whatever view you have access to are guaranteed to make a massive difference to your property. As simple as that, you make it impossible to ignore the fact that you live in such a fantastic vista. Instead, those windows will act much like a feature wall in truly drawing the eye, and adding a touch of interest that you’d struggle to achieve any other way.

Even better, these windows in themselves will add a modernist and futuristic aspect to your home that’s guaranteed to go down well with any looking to improve interior and exterior style in one hit.

Reflections can enhance a space

As much as you want to open that view up, you also want to make sure that you’re bringing it into your home as much as possible. And, mirrors offer a fantastic opportunity to do that. According to Phillip Thomas of Phillip Thomas Inc, “Not only do they [mirrors] help to push natural light into a space, but they also help to amplify the landscape/view outside the house by allowing you to see straight ahead and from the sides.”

You don’t have to go mad with this, but incorporating mirrors on the opposite wall to your windows, for instance, is guaranteed to enhance the natural beauty outside. Even better, this addition means that you needn’t look directly at those new feature windows to get the most from this benefit.

Let your view inform your home style

Even if you’re keen to bring a view firmly to the forefront at home, you might not consider it in relation to decor. Yet, this can often be the best place to truly tie things together in a way that works. And, when you remember that a well-framed waterfront view, for instance, can add up to 80% value, that’s a quest well worth undertaking.

Something as simple as tying color schemes together with your outside vista could work wonders here. Or, you may want to go all out with a full-on sea theme for your waterside location. You could even use wallpaper or painting styles that mimic the landscape your view centers around. Or, you could simply highlight a countryside setting with natural wood furniture and accessories. The world is your oyster, so have fun playing around. Then, sit back and enjoy a room that’s guaranteed to enhance even the best view.

A shifting furniture focus

Often, we arrange furniture towards key features such as a fireplace or television. But, if you want to make your house great, then you could benefit from shifting that focus with your view in mind. After all, a lakeside setting is guaranteed to beat even the most elaborate fireplace or TV you could think of.

As such, you should focus your pieces towards those new, view-worthy windows instead. By merely turning seats to face this way, you can finally draw the eye here as soon as you enter the room. That’s going to make a huge difference, not only for adding a sense of space to the area but also for ensuring that your view gets the attention it deserves at last.

Create a Retro Home with Modern Touches

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Adding vintage items to your home can be expensive. Sourcing what you want and getting something authentic might take up a lot of your time, as well as proving to be costly. Not to mention, older items aren’t always in the best state to use. If you want to have a retro or antique home, you don’t have to rely on genuine antiques and vintage items. Choosing to buy modern products with a vintage feel is a great idea too. You get functional and up-to-date things for your home but they can still offer the charm of older features.

Buy the Latest Record Player Tech

Record players have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. Vinyl has become more popular again as people have started to think that the sound is enjoyable and that record players make stylish items for their homes. Modern record players still work in the same way that older ones do in a number of ways. However, they can also have more modern features, such as Bluetooth or recording to digital formats such as MP3. You can choose a record player that has a retro look but offers modern technology. Paired with a some retro-style speakers, your record player can look great.

Get a Retro Game

Retro arcade games are some of the most sought-after features for homes with a vintage style. They make excellent discussion points and offer something fun to do, and they can brighten up any room. However, they can be difficult to find, and hard to maintain. If you’re looking for something that reminds you of the games you used to play but with a modern twist, you can buy a pinball machine with a touch screen and immersive gameplay. You get all the feel of a retro game but the virtual nature of it means that you also get to choose different games.

Hang Vintage-inspired Art

Art is always a good way to add a retro touch to your home. While buying vintage art doesn’t have to be expensive, you can often get something better if you look at new art instead. Find something that is inspired by your favorite styles but that is in brand new condition so that it looks smart hanging on your wall. If you have any favorite art from the past, you could buy a print if you can find one, which is often an affordable way to have your favorite art.

Add Vintage-style Furniture

You can always find vintage-inspired furniture that has been designed to resemble that styles from different periods. For example, you can find plenty of new furniture that has been inspired by the mid-century modern style of mid-20th century. Buying new furniture is usually more affordable than purchasing older items, and it also ensure you have furniture that’s in good condition. You can find many different styles, whether you want something that looks like it’s from 50 years ago or 200 years ago.

You can turn your home into a retro paradise but still enjoy modern touches by choosing the right items to add to your interiors.

Make Your House a Home

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Moving into a new property gives you a great opportunity to create the environment and ambiance you desire. With these cost-effective tips, you can transform your apartment, townhouse, cottage or estate into a welcoming and inviting home…

Do something unexpected

Nothing is set in stone when it comes to interior design, so don’t just follow the crowd. When you’re buying a home, you have the chance to renovate it in any way you choose. Instead of sticking with the status quo and using the existing layout, consider how your property could be adapted, modified or revamped to make it unique and personal.

Trust your instincts

Incorporate the latest design trends into your property can certainly help you create a stylish environment, but listen to what your gut is telling you. Choose décor you love and not what’s currently on trend. You can enhance any room with up-to-the-minute pieces and colors but your staple design should be something you adore, regardless of the latest fashion.

Make on-going changes

People often move into a new property, redecorate and then get on with living their lives, perhaps not considering their décor for a number of years. However, your home is a changing environment and updating and modifying the designs within should be a continual process. Enjoy adding, changing or switching pieces in your home to reflect your changing lifestyle.

Make your home functional

Although your home should be comforting, inspiring and relaxing, it also needs to be functional. If you have young children or pets, a light-colored carpeted floor may not be the easiest option! Rooms, particularly kitchens and bathrooms, need to be designed for family life, so easy-to-clean surfaces and forgiving high gloss paints are a must.

Fill your walls

What you hang on your walls helps to create your home environment. Whether you opt for inspiring artwork, though-provoking pieces, kitsch designs or homemade pictures, artwork allows you to put your stamp on the property and immediately creates a sense of ownership. Furthermore, artwork can be rotated or changed regularly, so you can update each area of your home easily and without the need for costly or time-consuming redecoration.

Try something new

Buying a new home is the perfect time to start afresh. If you’ve always stuck with safe colors and straightforward designs, now might be the ideal time to try something different. If you love bold colors, use them. If you want patterned wallpaper or statement prints, hang them. If you want to create a theme for every room in the house, you can! Don’t do what’s expected, do what you love.

De-clutter your life

Moving house can be a stressful and exhausting job, particularly if you have a lot of belongings to move from one property to another. When you move into a new home, however, you can take the opportunity to get rid of items you don’t want, need or love. Take things you don’t need to local charity shops or give them away, but don’t keep things which aren’t going to enhance your home or life in one way or another.

Spend money on everyday items

All too often we save our hard-earned cash for special occasions and items, but this means we don’t enjoy them very often. An expensive crockery set may be a luxurious treat, but if you only use it once or twice a year, who gets the benefit? Everyday items are things you’re looking at and engaging with regularly, so spend a little more on things like bed sheets, throws, drying racks and bins, and enjoy luxury every day.

Grow something

Whether you’ve got a garden, courtyard or any outdoor space, growing something indoors can bring nature inside and create a nourishing feel inside your home. Choose plants with bright, bold petals, luscious greens or tasty herbs and enjoy them as they flourish in your home.

Display your must-read books

Books can bring comfort, escapism, and relaxation to any environment, and the books you love say so much about you as a person. Bring your dog-eared novels, antique hardbacks, and arty anthologies into the open. Whether it’s an inconspicuous stack of books in your living room or a bookcase filled with adventures, let your inner bibliophile out.

Reuse what you can

There’s no need to spend a fortune on new furniture when you buy a new home. Re-purpose and reuse the items you have instead. As well as saving you cash, this gives you the chance to put a unique stamp on items which aren’t being used and helps you to look at the items you already have in a whole new way.

Frame things that matter

When you hang framed artwork or pictures on your wall, it doesn’t have to be by a famous artist. Frame things that matter to you and display them for all to see. A must-loved picture of your family, movie tickets from your first date or a map of your first vacation destination together are great mementos to frame and display.

Admit when things aren’t working

Interior design is all about trying something new and enjoying your environment. If something isn’t working, don’t sweat it. You can make low-cost changes to cover any mistakes or modify a room into something you’re happy with.

Use your home

Once you’ve decorated your home, don’t be afraid to use it! Stunning décor shouldn’t prevent you from making full use of each room and enjoying the time you spend at home. Make sure your family lives fully in every room, and that certain areas aren’t out of bounds because of expensive furniture or fragile artworks.

Bring your family and friends in

To really make your new property feel like home, invite your family and friends over as much as you can. Eating, drinking and spending time with loved ones is the quickest way to feel at home, so open the doors and welcome them in.

Your Home Deserves A Glam Up!

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Every so often, many things in our life undergo a glow up. Ourselves, our technology, our car, our place of work… it’s just impossible for things to stay the same way for this amount of time, so every so often things move forward a little bit. Now, one of the best places that we think this happens, is within your home. There will no doubt be daily occasions where you notice things that you would like to change. Perhaps there are stains dotted on your carpet that have been getting on your nerves for the longest amount of time now. Or perhaps you’ve had the same decor that you’ve got for too long. Or perhaps the outside of your home is flagging a little, and although it won’t annoy you as much as the inside does, you still know that something definitely needs to be changed. But knowing how to glam up your home without spending a ton of money, or without thinking that you’re going to make it look 10x worse, is something that’s hard to do. A home is hard to maintain as it is, so doing it cheaper is something you definitely need to find your feet with. So, here are our top ways that we think your home can go through the glam up that it deserves!

Let’s Start With The Outside

The outside of your home is just as important as the inside. You might think that the inside of your home takes a bit of a battering, especially if you have children or pets running around, but think about what the outside of your home has to put up with. It has to put up with so many batterings from the weather and what not, it can easily become a little run down over the years. One of the first things that you’ll notice that wears down a little, will be your windows. You might start to notice that the integrity of them starts to go, and you might even notice a little bit of a draft coming through from the inside. A new window or two could work wonders for both the inside, and the outside of your home. From the outside, it would look far more aesthetically pleasing for you to have some new ones installed, and from the inside, you’d notice that your home is far more toasty and warm compared to what it has been. You might even notice that your energy bills start to drop a little! But other than getting new windows, you should just focus on the general upkeep on the front and back of your home. At the front you could have lovely hanging flower baskets, and fresh cut lawn. At the back you could have the same, but you can get a little more adventurous with the garden accessories and bushes and trees that you put down!

Crucial Interior Glam Ups

So, enough about the outside, this is the one that most of you will probably be interested in. Interior glam ups are so easy to sort, you just have to know what your style is, and what your home is missing at the minute. Simply getting some new carpets and changing the wallpaper could be all the glam up that you need. Not only does the new carpet smell keep your home feeling new and fresh for weeks, but it really does help to bring a lifeless room back to life. We know getting carpets installed can be expensive, but it’s not exactly a purchase you’re making every single year, so it will be worth the investment you put in. Nothing screams glam up like getting to know the accessories that are on trend at the minute. From furniture accessories to tiny cute items that add a little bit of character to your home, they are all they. At the minute, we’re really loving wicker furniture. It doesn’t suit every home, so if you know it won’t suit you, glass alternatives are also really in at the minute, and help to make a home look super sophisticated. Indoor plants are also staying for good it would seem, with so many people using them as a form of decor now. Whilst this is what they’re good for in the home, they’re also great for keeping your mind calm, and adding a little bit of colour to your room where you might not have been able to before! But think about your sense of style as well. If you’re someone who hates the idea of colour in your home, there are so many neutral trends shining through at the minute, much of which can be seen on Instagram. But if you’re someone who loves the vibrance of colour, you need to be careful that you’re not making your home look too crazy, so adding subtle colour in each room is advised, perhaps through things such as paintings.

Save Yourself Some Money

In this day and age, people are always looking for ways to save money, and we can totally understand why. Saving money is so important, especially when your home is already going to be costing you so much. So to save money when your home is going through a glam up, you should try and keep things being done yourself, as much as possible. Some people spend fortune on jobs that could be done by themselves, such as changing the wallpaper. But if you’re worried about buying new furniture etc. because of money, you could always think about upcycling. This is the next best thing. It really can help transform your home, without you having to hardly spend a penny!

An Instagrammable Home

Even though that might not be a word, pretty much everyone knows what it means. Having an Instagrammable home is one that’s so picture perfect, you just can’t help but take pictures of it. There are so many Instagram pages that will show you exactly what an Instagrammable home is, and it’s so easy to make little changes to your own to get it the way you want it to look!

3 Ways To Make Your Home Completely Yours

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When you buy a home, it can be the case that there is a lingering feeling that it isn’t really yours. If you are finding yourself in that situation at the moment, then you might be looking for some advice on how you can get rid of this feeling. If so, you have come to the right place because we are going to be looking at some ideas to help you in this article. Let’s take a look at three of the ways that you can make your home completely yours!

Your Own Space

The first thing that you need to realize is that your home is your space, but even though this is true, if you live with others, this might not feel like it is. In that case, you need to make sure that you have your own space in the house. To do this, all you need to do is find a spare room in the house and make it into yours! Add the things you love in there so that you really feel like you are at home the second you walk in there. If you are a fan of art, make sure that your room is filled with art and craft equipment. Likewise, if you are into games then do the same for this theme!

There are no rules when it comes to what you can have in here as long as it makes you feel happy whenever you see it. You might not think it now, but this is going to go a long way to ensuring that you make your home completely yours.

Something New

Or, you might just feel as though the entire home belongs to something else because you have largely the same home now as when you bought it. This could be things such as wallpaper, any furniture that they left behind and so on. If this is the case, then the solution is simple! You need to get some new stuff. For some people, this isn’t as easy as going to the store and picking up some things that they like. Money comes into play here, and when you have just bought a house, you might not have any to spare, but you need to make this change, or you could find yourself feeling like an outsider in your own home. You can always use a service such as Snappy Loans to get yourself the cash until you get paid, but do be sure to check the full terms and conditions before you go through with this agreement.

Personal Items

The final thing that we are going to talk to you about is having personal items in your home. Images of your friends and family are a must if you want to feel as though you are in your own home. The same thing applies to things such as art pictures that you like, decorations and so on. If you want to feel like you are in your own space, then it needs to be decorated with the things that you love!

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and will use the advice above to make your home completely yours!

Is Your Home Fit For Purpose?

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Many of us dream of being able to find our perfect home. That one place that just ticks all of our boxes and we can see ourselves finally settling down in. The home that you can see your kids and your grandkids running around in and where you can see yourself building a life. But, as nice as that image is, it’s often pretty far from the reality that most of us are living in. The truth is that a lot of the time the homes that we end up in are ones where we’ve had to compromise because of time or money or any one of a host of reasons. However, just because your home doesn’t quite tick all of your boxes doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that you can do in order to bring it just a little bit closer to your perfect home.

Clear out the clutter

One of the most common reasons that a lot of people find themselves feeling unhappy in their homes is that they are simply surrounded by clutter and junk that they just don’t need. Most of us are naturally prone to hoarding things and sure, some stuff is going to be genuinely meaningful or have value. However, a lot of it is little more than rubbish that you just don’t need. By being brutally honest about what you do and don’t need, you’re going to be able to make your home into a far more open and comfortable space.

Rearrange

Rearranging your home can make a far bigger difference than you might initially expect. We tend to assume that there’s only really one “right” way to arrange a room but that’s not the case. Being willing to experiment with the way your home is laid out can often result in some great results that you never would have considered otherwise. And the best part is that if you don’t like how things have ended up, there’s nothing stopping you from just putting everything back the way that it was.

Make more space

One of the biggest complaints that a lot of people have about their home is that they simply don’t have enough space. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to solve that problem. From simple things like being more creative with your storage options to move elaborate methods like creating extensions or taking down dividing walls. Of course, those can often be a little expensive so a home improvement loan might be useful there. Adding extra space to your home can make it feel like an entirely new place.

A lot of the time it can feel like you’re stuck between the choice to make changes in your home or to start over somewhere new. This can often be an incredibly difficult decision and the truth is that it’s not one that anyone can make for you. Sure, you should do your research and consider it carefully. But the truth is that, in the end, it’s all just going to come down to what you and your family want.