Helpful hints if you're doing up your home

JANUARY is usually the month of the big declutter.

I suspect it is to do with the headspace we are in after Christmas - once the decorations have been put away, we find ourselves under the lovely illusion that the house somehow feels more spacious after the twinkling lights and festive greenery has found its way back to the attic.

In my experience, that illusion is usually shattered by the first drawer I pull open, and I am usually greeted by a wall of chaos and confusion.

I don’t have the mental headspace nor the physical time for decluttering much this year, so I tempered my attacks on various kitchen drawers and under-the-stairs storage spots.

If you are time poor this month, a great way to whet your appetite for decluttering is to focus on a space that you use all the time but that just doesn’t work for you.

Many mornings, I am shocked into a state of alertness when, bleary-eyed, I reach for a cup to be met by a cacophony of trembling delph, all threatening to remove themselves from the stacks they are precariously placed in.

It is so often the case that we go along with a way of living because we don’t have the time or headspace to change it.

I finally looked deep into the cupboard of cups, past the three, maybe four, that we use on constant rotation, and got rid of any old ones that no longer ‘spark joy’.

I am always a fan of a simple reuse, so the previously unloved cups are now playing host to pencils in the playroom and soaking sweet pea seeds in the utility room.

One of my favourite ways to liven up a space in the home is to refresh the artwork on the walls. You can download prints on Etsy, print them off at home using glossy photo paper, and it’s a quick and simple way to add colour or interest to a wall.

I love keeping an eye out for prints to buy when I am away, so that when I pass by those prints at home I am reminded of places we have visited.

My latest revolutionary discovery is fabric- covered frames. Almost every frame you buy in the shops will be one of about five colours - black, white, gold, silver or grey - which is fine, but I have a lot of frames on our walls so I often take a can of spray paint to frames for the quickest refresh.

I saw a frame recently online that completely grabbed my attention and I had to recreate it. Using a beautiful, old-fashioned fabric from William Morris, I glued the fabric to a basic Ikea frame and the insert, that I already had, and it is by far one of the most eye-catching and beautiful pieces on the walls. I love the sense of texture it brings to the space.

Personally, I think the winter is a good time to pick a paint colour, especially if you are leaning towards bolder colours, if they look good in winter, they will look good in summer.

When we moved into our home more than six years ago, there were a lot of strong colours on the walls. In our haste to get moved in, we painted every wall white to give us a clean blank canvas to start with.

It goes without saying that many of those walls are still white, including our bedroom, so I have booked a painter to come this month to finally give our bedroom some TLC.

I wanted to go for a warm green tone, and it’s honestly fascinating to see the shade you pick in the shop compared with the colour it looks on the walls in your home - especially during these darker months. I thought I had gone for some samples in a light green, but when I painted a few splodges on the walls at home, the green looked darker than a deciduous forest canopy.

Another easy way to spruce up a part of your home that needs a boost is to add some greenery. I love plants around the house and, despite the neglect they get, I have some of them for years.

Monstera, or cheese plant, is a particularly resilient type, and a really easy one to propagate too, so you might start with one plant but over time you get more and more free.

I have a peace lily that is thriving too, and if it survives in my house, it’ll survive in yours!

Moving furniture is a really simple way to refresh a room too without much effort and zero expense. I have done this with the girls’ bedrooms over the years and it makes the space feel completely new. Often times, you will find that a repositioning of furniture can actually make the room function far better for the different ages and stages.