Lighten Up: 4 Ways to Brighten Up Your Home Without Running Up Your Electric Bill

During the winter months, shorter days can lead to darkened homes. Achieving a bright, well-lit home doesn't mean that you have to turn on all of the lights and run up your electric bill. Try these tips to light up your house and improve your mood immediately.

Repaint Your Walls

If your home is painted in dark colors, this can make your whole home feel darker. Try painting your walls in a light color, like an off-white or cream. This helps reflect the light that is in the room, which brightens it up immediately. If your walls are already painted in a neutral color, you may try painting the ceiling a shade lighter. This will help bounce the light around the room.

Add Some Mirrors

Mirrors are a great way to instantly brighten up your home. When you hang a mirror, it doubles the amount of sunshine that streams in through your windows as it bounces off the reflective surface. For best results, hang a large mirror or a collage of smaller mirrors directly across from your window.

Consider Installing New Windows

Windows are the best way to bring natural sunlight from the outside world to the inside of your home. If your home is older, your windows may not be energy efficient or as clear as you would like. Having new windows installed can brighten up a room and make it appear larger. If your home doesn't have enough windows, you can utilize new window installation to help brighten up a dark room.

New styles of windows can also help you save on your heating or cooling bills. When the windows are installed, any leaks in the exterior of the window can be resolved. Modern styles of windows are also insulated and designed to keep cold air outdoors and warm air indoors.

Rethink Your Curtains

If you have heavy curtains, you may want to rethink them. Try swapping out your heavy curtains for a sheer variety. This will allow more sunlight to flow into the room. If you need to purchase light or sound blocking curtains for sleeping purposes, make sure to start your day by opening and typing back your curtains to allow as much sunlight in as possible.

If your home is dark, you don't need to feel like the only solution to brighten it is by acquiring more lights. Try these simple tips to make your home feel brighter, and enjoy your home all winter long.

Author Bio: Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn't writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.

How to Decorate your Home for Christmas

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s once again time to decorate your home in accordance with the holiday spirit. However, with all the cooking and preparing of presents in the way, it can be a bit difficult to focus on decorating. Therefore, we’ve created this Christmas home decoration guide to give you a helping hand.

Below you will find tips on how to decorate all of the rooms inside your home and achieve that beloved Christmas aesthetic.

Choose your desired color scheme

Choosing the right decoration color scheme for your home can be a bit frustrating especially when there are so many great options to choose from.  And considering that there are many who decorate each room in a different color to evoke a different mood, choosing color combinations becomes even harder.

The classic color schemes that look good in almost any household they’re used are white gold, silver and white, red and green. 

However as of recently, black and cashmere brown have become quite popular as well. When going for a black decor it’s best the ornaments are of the glossy kind so that they can reflect light off them. 

Cashmere brown on the other hand goes well very with other colors such as dull matte gold and pearl creams. 

Picking the right Christmas tree

When picking a real Christmas tree for you home, there are certain details you must be on the lookout for.

First, make sure the tree is healthy and will last longer. To do this simply run your finger through its branches. If no needles fall straight away, this is an indication that the tree will last longer. Avoid buying Christmas trees which are thin and dry and have falling needles.

If you’re wondering which species of Christmas trees to choose, we recommend going with either a Fraser fir or a Nordmann fir. These two types of trees can handle heavy decorations and also tend to last longer than other species when looked after at home.

Decorating the living room

The living room is usually the heart of each home, especially during the holidays. A great way of decorating your living space for Christmas is to give it a botanical aesthetic.

Buy some hyacinth vases and populate them with white hyacinths. These will give the room a nice fragrant scent and will also work as great eye candy. Also, consider decorating your walls with eucalyptus to really make them pop out.

Since the living room is the area where the Christmas tree goes, you will have to deal with its decorations as well. You can decorate the tree in the color scheme of your liking. Just make sure it matches that of the rest of the room. 

If you have a fireplace in your living room avoid real plants and instead opt for faux ones. And try to keep your Christmas tree as far away from the fireplace as possible.

Decorating the dining room

The main focal point of the dining room decoration should be the table. First, choose the tablecloth, we recommend going with white. Then start decorating the table, place some greenery in the middle like flowers and berries. And last but not least put up some fancy candles.

If you want to put the candles near the greenery, firstly, place them in jars to prevent any spontaneous fires.

As for the color scheme, go with gold. This way the with the help of the candles, your dining room will shine in a gold color.

Decorating the hallway

Since the hallway is the first room your guests will see once they go inside your home, it should be decorated in a way to set the stage.

A great way to do this is to first place garlands around the inside and outside of the front door.

Then, wrap your stairs’ banisters with faux green decor and hang some red baubles on them.

Decorating the bedroom

When it comes to the bedroom, go with a lighter decoration.

Perhaps add a chain of twinkling fairy lights and a small faux Christmas tree.

You can always go the extra mile and hang paper stars and snowflakes over the bed as well, giving the room a whimsical feel.

Decorating your outdoor area

The outside of your house will be what everyone passing by will see, so make it count. You have two options here, either go guns blazing and completely embrace the festive spirit or take a more subtle approach.

If you’re planning to go all out, hang white paper star lights from your windows or scatter icicle string lights throughout the exterior of your home. For the icicle string lights, you can charge them using a plug point you put inside your garage.

Conclusion

It’s always best to start decorating your home for Christmas at least a month in advance. Because the longer you wait the harder it will be. After all, the Christmas holiday is that time of year when most people spend their time with their friends and family and free time is scarce. So take some time off around the end of November and if you need any tips on how to decorate your home, simply follow this guide.

Author Bio: Desiree Thomson is a gardening and landscaping expert working at Fantastic Gardeners. When she’s not running around in her back garden, she can be seen blogging for various online outlets or fixated on decluttering her house.

Eco-Friendly Additions to Incorporate When Building a New Home

When you are working on a new home and looking to be environmentally conscious, you need to figure out what eco-friendly additions you can add to your home. There are many things that you can incorporate in a home to be good to the planet. You should talk with your contractor to come up with options that might work for you and your home.

Look for Ways to Repurpose Items and Use Them in the Home

There are items out there that are looking to be repurposed, such as barn boards and other pieces of wood that are no longer needed. You can take those items and repurpose them as shelving or decor in their new home in order to eliminate some of the waste that is on the planet. There are also options for investing in insulation that is made of recycled materials and furniture that has been repurposed.

Consider the Lighting Situation and Use Natural Light as Much as Possible

There are certain types of light bulbs that are more eco-friendly than others, and you should figure out how to incorporate those bulbs in your new home. You should also find smart ways of letting natural light into your new home so that you won’t have to use electricity as much when trying to keep the place lit. You might look for lights that you can install in your home that come with a dimmer so that you can adjust them to let off just as much light as you need.

Consider Different Types of Power Options

When you’re setting up a new home, you need to figure out how you are going to power everything in that home. You might look into some of the solar options that are available and find ways of creating your own power at your home. You might also look into wind power and other energy options that are available so that you do not feel guilty when using electricity.

When you’re building a new home, you have the opportunity to create a home that is eco-friendly and beautiful. You have the chance to put together a home that is responsible and that will be a good place to live. The earth is valuable, and each person should figure out how they are going to make their home eco-friendly and sustainable.

Top Tips for Choosing the Right Curtains for the Bedroom

We do it every day. By the time we reach the age of 25, we will have spent 10 years doing it, in fact, an average human will spend over 26 years doing it across their lifetime!! 😲 What is it?  Wonderful, glorious, magical sleep! Of course. 

For a great sleep, we need a great bedroom – somewhere restful and relaxing, but also somewhere for romance, entertainment, study, mindfulness and more – it’s somewhere we spend a lot of time.  

Dream Big!

If we want sweet dreams, environmental light, heat and noise control play a vital role. An oft-overlooked consideration is what curtains should we choose in order to achieve the most functional and form-fitting solution.  

What Works for You? 

When it comes to it, you want a curtain that is both beautiful and practical. Think about these questions, their answers will go a long way to you getting the perfect window coverings for your bedroom. 

The look 

Do you want a traditional, contemporary, minimal or floral look? Do they need to match or accentuate other parts of the room? What size is the window and where is it compared to your bed and external influences? 

The feel 

Are you a very light sleeper?  Do you like natural light to wake you up?  Is your house or bedroom cold overnight? Do your windows let in a lot of drafts? 

Practically, window size and shape can dictate your curtain choice. Standard size windows can fit standard curtains with minimal cost and fuss.  

Benefits of Readymade Curtains

• Cheaper 

• Ready to use 

• Wide range of colors and fabrics.  

Disadvantages of Readymade Curtains

• They can’t accommodate specific styles, fabrics or requirements  

• Difficulty finding a match to existing fabrics and soft furnishings 

• Cheaper fabrics and materials generally so less luxurious finish 

• No ability to lengthen curtain length if required (might as well use bespoke if essential) 

If your windows are not standard, or you want particular effect, fabric or finish, then bespoke curtains are the only way to go.  

Advantages of Made-to-Measure Curtains

• They can match to existing soft furnishings 

• Perfect fit (if measured correctly). 

• You can choose handmade and high-quality fabrics and linings and unique fixtures and fittings  

• They offer an opportunity for bespoke solutions to aide sleep or other problems.  

Bespoke solutions include: 

• Use of a thicker or additional fabric - curtains with thermal lining - to prevent heat loss. Long curtains can also act to retain heat if they drape across the floor. 

• Use of dark, black or opaque lining or fabric to create blackout curtains if you are sensitive to light, if you work nights and sleep during the day or if your bedroom is overlooked by strong artificial light. 

Why Bother Getting out of Bed? 

A slightly indulgent but less common option is the use of automated curtains and/or blinds. These carry similar positives and negatives when you choose between bespoke or ready-to-use, but they can offer a stunning blackout solution and could be set with a timer for easy use in different seasons.  

Top tips! 

Finally, if you do choose bespoke curtains, consider how to measure window frames correctly and what length and width you want your curtains to have. These choices are vital! 

Here are some tips to remember:

• Floor-length curtains must actually touch the floor by at least a 2-4cm 

• Don’t hang the curtains too low 

• Don’t go too narrow, it will frame the window all wrong. To calculate curtain width, measure the width of the window and multiply this by at least 1.5. 

• Make sure the curtain rod exceeds the length of the window frame or recess by at least 10cm either side to ensure privacy or blackout. 

• Make your windows appear higher and add drama to the room by hanging curtains as high as possible – as little as just 5cm from the ceiling.