Give Your Home a Look of Elegance and Cleanliness
After a long dreary winter, it’s the perfect time to think about how to give your home a lift. We loved these ideas from our guest blogger Lee Flynn.
Maintaining an elegant home can be difficult, especially if your budget is limited. But overall cleanliness, along with a few minor changes and useful tips, can help give your home a more refined aesthetic. Here are a few ways to give your home a look of elegance.
Uncluttered housekeeping
One of the cheapest – if not the easiest – ways to keep your home looking elegant is to get rid of the clutter. Removing all the useless clutter often leads to the discovery that you have more storage space than you thought, while it makes it easier to clean up around the home.
A great example of clean elegance is in Artisan Home #24 by Michels Homes.
Cleanliness is important. Unless you can afford a cleaning service, it’s a good idea to go through once a week with a dust mop and vacuum. It gets easier if there’s less dirt. It’s also a good idea to invest in a squeegee and keep the windows clean. Not only is it more attractive, but it lets in natural light to give surroundings a healthy glow.
Less clutter and more clean allows everything else to stand out – the furniture, drapes, carpeting, and the few showpieces you want to keep because they really do look good or have real sentimental value.
A clean, open look really does add a little more elegance to your home.
Delicate Fibers
A nice Oriental-type rug adds a touch of elegance to any room. Your average store-bought vacuum is safe to use on carpet and hard floors, but those spinning brushes and especially harsh oriental rug cleaning solutions can ruin an expensive rug and the delicate fibers of an antique. Find a professional carpet company in your area that specializes in rug cleaning. Many of them can repair rugs as well as clean them, ensuring that your prized possessions last a lot longer and look much better.
You might want to buy or occasionally rent a professional steam cleaner to use on your carpets and upholstery. It helps improve odors as well as remove stains, and a good cleaning can bring the life back to old furniture. If yours is too far gone, consider having it reupholstered, which is generally much cheaper than buying new furniture. If that’s still outside your budget, buy some attractive fabric throws or slip covers to hide the stains or tears.
Wood is both clean and elegant, especially with amazing design like the closet, floor and bench in Artisan Remodeled Home #30 by Revolution Design and Build.
Types of Wood
Carpet can be as colorful and comfortable as you like, but face it, it doesn’t last forever. Most rugs wear out from regular family traffic in 10 to 15 years. You might consider replacing it with hardwood floors. While they are more expensive, hardwood floors add classic elegance. They are also easy to maintain and last a lifetime. Hardwood floors increase your homes valuewhen the time comes to sell. Darker woods like cherry tend to be more expensive, but look more luxurious. Laminate is a cheaper alternative, but laminate doesn’t last nearly as long or look as good. [Editors Note: use our search for wood floor suppliers.]
If you’ve got wooden furniture, keep it dusted, but also keep it polished. A good waxy sheen not only improves the look of wooden furniture, but helps to protect and preserve the surface.
Wood looks elegant everywhere, including the kitchen and bath. Even if yours are simply painted, they can be replaced, or, as a cheaper alternative, you should look into cabinet refinishing to give your home a whole new look without the fuss and expensive of new installation.
Color matters
Warm, neutral tones are what most people expect in a home, but that’s hardly elegant. A few gallons of paint can transform your walls from drab to chic. You may want to avoid bright or dark colors and focus more on a color scheme. Painting in patterns instead of a flat coat can add more glamour to a room. Paint trim or sections in subtly contrasting or complementary tones. Use your imagination, but remember the idea is elegance, not bold statements.