Mood Makers: 5 Easy Ways to Put Your Home On Trend
You don't need a full renovation to modernize outdated interiors. These tips can help your home feel fresh and current without a ton of work
Sometimes it's good to look at your home with fresh eyes and consider a little strategic updating. It's easy to be blinded to the space you live in day after day, so it can be helpful to have a professional point out a few things that can make your house feel dated and suggest some ways to change those things for the better. Ready for your eyes to be opened? Here we go!
3. Mix up your furniture. Another way to make your room feel current is to mix up your furnishings. Nothing says staid and dated more than complete matching bedroom, dining room and living room sets. Try painting the side tables that match your bedroom suite a different color or replace them with a different set altogether.
Mixing it up doesn't mean throwing disparate furnishings together randomly. There should be some creative planning and purposeful placement. Use matching lamps, a pair of matching chairs or end tables and a few other symmetrical touches to keep things under control.
If all your pieces in a room match, try painting one of the pieces in a vivid color. Mixing wood and painted finishes is a current trend, as is mismatched dining room chairs.
4. Update your trim. Whether you have box trim, beadboard or plain old drywall beneath a chair rail, the most updated way to paint is in the same color and finish as the trim. If you choose to paint a real color below the chair rail, make sure you paint the wall above the chair rail a neutral color. Two contrasting real colors on the same wall looks dated.
5. Freshen up your ceiling. Tray and coffered ceilings with the banding painted in an accent color are no longer in vogue. When tray ceilings first became popular for dining rooms and bedrooms, multiple colors and contrasting banding were used to make people take notice of the trayed effect. This photo illustrates an updated way to draw attention to the tray: Paint the uppermost, flat portion of the ceiling in a color but leave the lower portion trim neutral.
More Mood Makers:
Luxurious Looks on a Budget
Create a Peaceful Place
More Mood Makers:
Luxurious Looks on a Budget
Create a Peaceful Place
The kitchen above was previously a dated, 1970s wooden cave. We painted everything in this space — the cabinets, the wood paneling and the oak hutch on the left. Forty years were shaved off this kitchen with a few gallons of paint. Just make sure you hire a pro or do your homework when tackling this kind of labor-intensive project.