Five ways you can refresh your living room for summer on a budget

As the long summer days stretch ahead, you might be looking around your living room and thinking that it is looking a bit on the ragged side and could do with some sprucing up. This might particularly be the case if you are welcoming more people into your home with post-lockdown get-togethers with friends and family. However, how can you update your home with limited time and on a limited budget? Here are five ways you can refresh your living room to make the most of the summer months.

 1.Rearrange the furniture

One of the easiest ways of refreshing your living room is to rearrange the furniture you already have. This is even easier if you have freestanding modular furniture: simply reconfigure your layout or add additional units. Instead of keeping a traditional living room layout of sofas set around a coffee table, you could try something more interesting, like using a piece of artwork as the focal point rather than the TV or simply decluttering the space.

 2.House plants

House plants are a great way of bringing nature into your living room. A collection of house plants can provide the relaxing greenery that gives your space an air of tranquility and help to clean the air in an otherwise stuffy room. It’s best to look for a selection of houseplants of different heights and textures to add design interest to your room, for instance, cacti amongst leafy ferns and majestic dragon trees. You can buy indoor plants online if you are unable to get to a well-stocked garden centre.

3.Repaint the walls

A fresh coat of paint is a quick and relatively cheap way to update and refresh your living room, quickly erasing grubby patches and faded colours. Choose a neutral tone, such as cream or pale grey, for pared-back minimalism. Alternatively, you might decide that you want to go for statement walls in a bright and cheerful colour, such as yellow or orange. 

4.Update soft furnishings

Soft furnishings are the home accessories that really help to make a space cosy and comfortable, such as cushions and throws. They are relatively cheap to replace and, by doing, so it quickly updates the look of your living room. Look for soft furnishings that complement each other and match the overall colour scheme of your living room for a cohesive interior design. Different textures add design interest and tactility to your soft furnishings, such as a mixture of velvet and faux fur cushions.

 5.Update wall ornamentation

Adding new artwork or photographs is a quick and easy way to update your wall ornamentation. To tie it all into a cohesive design, use picture frames with the same colour or design. You could even create a gallery wall as an easy way to add decoration to an otherwise blank wall and to display all of your much-loved family photographs and specially-purchased artwork, such as album covers of your favourite record.