Brighten up your home with these few tips

IF I were to live in my head, my house would be an insane jolt of colour bursting from every angle.

If you are brave enough to embrace vibrant wallpaper, loud accent walls or even colourful rugs then I salute you.

We have reached a silent agreement here that while the house stays relatively neutral, I can add as much colour as I want in terms of accessories and wall decor. I like it that way too because it makes it easy and cheap to change out and breath fresh life into a space by swapping out accessories or art.

Here are some of my favourite ways to add a pop of colour and a dash of personality around your house.

A BIT OF JAZZ

Applique is a technique of applying fabric shapes onto fabric using a material called Bondaweb (you can get it in Vibes and Scribes), and it is really easy way to jazz up pillows or cushions because there is no sewing involved.

I have some nice cushions in my sitting room, but I wanted to add pops of pattern to try and make the room a little less bland. I am currently in the grips of an addiction to Liberty fabrics and I got a beautiful floral print in a blue and in a yellow so I knew it had to appear somewhere in my sitting room. All you do is cut out your shape in both the fabric and the Bondaweb, iron the Bondaweb onto the back of the fabric, then remove the paper backing and iron it onto your cushion.

You could also cut out letters and make a personalised cushion for a child’s room. 

Bondaweb is handy to have for repairing clothes too. I use it to fix up little holes in the girls clothes before I sew them to add structure to it and it holds the shape without bunching.

PIMP IT WITH POMPOMS

I love wool. It always reminds me of my Nana who had a garage bursting with it and was always either knitting or crocheting. I also love the range of colours and textures it comes in and also the wide variety of ways you can use it around the house to inject a pop of colour.

I love a good pompom so I made a little ‘bouquet’ recently using a variety of different colours and sizes of pompom. I hot-glued to them to the top of compostable straws and popped them in a vase – a delightful, quirky pop of colour on the kitchen counter and best of all, these are flowers I can’t kill.

Other ways to use pompoms are in garlands, hang strings of pompoms from the end of curtain rails and you could even make a pompom wreath. It is a great activity to get the children involved in, my ten-year-old is currently making a pompom garland for her room to hang polaroid’s from.

Another great wool project I’ve been loving recently are wool covered wire shapes. This one requires a mini knitting mill which has four hooks so you turn a little handle and it knits a wool chord that you can pull over wire to create different shapes. I have a bright yellow ‘hello’ in my hall and the girls have their names in their rooms. 

There are also music notes, balloons, shooting stars and love hearts dotted around the house! 

This is also a great craft to be able to do because you can easily whip up a gift for a birthday party or a friend.

SEW EXCITING

I adore sewing and a great beginner project is sewing little fabric baskets you can never have enough for all the tiny figurines and random bits and pieces that end up everywhere.

Bunting is another easy sewing project and is a lovely way to add colour to a children’s room or playroom. 

You can personalise it by cutting out shapes and use the Bondaweb to adhere them to the fabric.

If you don’t like sewing but love a vibrant fabric, pop your fabric into a wooden embroidery hoop. It literally couldn’t be more simple and it adds colour, dimension and texture to your walls. I did a whole wall of different sized hoops and various Liberty prints and it gives me such joy to see it every day.

ADD SOME ARTWORK

Probably the most obvious way to add colour to walls is through artwork and prints and there are so many talented Irish artists now to suit everyone’s style and personality. One of my favourites, Sarah Patterson of Dotterson, creates the most vibrant prints all with a touch of the Irish language. From my ‘Ciúnas until Coffee’ print to the Bosco art which is hands down my favourite piece especially because it leaves my English husband utterly confused!

I also love painting picture frames – so many of them are either black or white which gets a little boring if you have lots up. 

Use spray paint to breath a pop of colour into boring frames, and voila - it’s bright, colourful and different to everyone else.