When it comes to decorating your home this spring, stay far away from the nude, white, and earthy tones seen in our dreary homes throughout the winter. Throw in something exciting – the brighter, bolder, and livelier the better!

The trend this season still features the grey pallet but with a twist! Use strong colours like Yellowcake (a bright yellow), Charlotte’s Locks (a deep orange hue) and Pelt (a luxurious matte purple) to give a zing of colour to your space.

To achieve this lively, trendy, yet subtle look, make sure you get the balance right. Simply add a small splash of colour to your home but don’t overuse it. Introducing too much color can overpower the neutral tones and create a completely new vibe within the house.

HGTV

Pick your main wall within the room and start introducing your color here first. This could be something in your space that has an eye-catching feature on it like the fireplace, flat screen TV, or the wall right behind your bed’s headboard. Hang up an exciting, colorful work of art, paint one wall your fave color, or reupholster your headboard to make sure everything stays on balance with your new feature wall.

Experiment with textures like vinyl matt, silk, and sheen like from Kent Blaxill’s range at Dulux Trade paints to make sure you get the perfect texture, feel, and ambience in your room. Whichever color you decide to choose, whether it is a pastel or a dark earth tone, make sure you get the correct shade and style for you. Choosing the exact color can be tough, so make sure to use a colour matching service, to mix the correct paints together to create your ideal color.

Of course, there are other ways of incorporating color into your home without getting out your painting equipment and masking tape. By simply adding a few accessories like rolling out a new rug, tossing some gorgeous pillows, or whipping out an psychedelic tablecloth, you’ll have the right flow of color into your home in no time.

Peonies

These pink flowers are outrageously beautiful when in bloom and will stay as lush flowers all summer long. Plant them once, and they will bloom every summer – some are known to thrive for well over 100 years. To give your back a break, they require little maintenance and make the perfect borders for lining your walkway, driveway, or garden.

French Tulips

Tulips bloom in the spring and grow from bulbs that form beautiful flowers in a wide variety of colors except for blue. These are one of the first flowers marking that spring has official arrived – what a way to greet the season! They thrive in long, cool springs and dry summers. Plant them in the late summer, or autumn for best results.

Sweet Pea

These tiny flowers are native to Silicy in Italy and form fragile; seductive little flowers with an alluring fragrance. They make great bouquets and grow in a wide range of colors suitable for a garden border, fence, or arch.

Spray Roses

Cheryl from lamour et fleurs gave me the wonderful idea about planting miniature roses. They aren’t like your regular roses, these miniature roses are typically smaller and produce lush, rich flowers. Unlike larger roses, these flowers produce more blooms and can be easily transplanted and used for decorations in pots or for bouquets. You can also plant these if you are looking for a rich cluster of flowers to cover a large area with minimal planting required – these roses bloom like crazy and are a great wonder to have in the garden.

Ranunculus

If you’ve never heard of Ranunculus, it’s time you plant them in your flowerbed. They have incredible colors, straight long stems, and are great for bouquets since they have a long vase life and long-lasting blooms. The leaves look like lace and are perfect to incorporate in your garden landscape design as borders or even for fresh flower arrangements throughout your home costing you pennies!

Photos via Pinterest and Houzz

While there may seem to be no end to the winter weather, believe it or not the summer will be here before we know it! That leaves us just a few short months to get our gardens and patios in tip-top shape, ready for all the fun barbeques and parties to come!

Transforming your outdoor space isn’t as hard as it looks. Follow these easy steps to help you on your way:

Start From the Bottom: Retile Your Patio

Our patios have to withstand some harsh conditions and, as a result, they can start to look a little tired with time. If you have dirty, cracked or smashed patio stones, it’s time to replace them.

Instead of replacing only the damaged ones, create a seamless look to your patio and revamp the whole garden with new tiles. Companies like TactTiles have great patio tiles that are durable and also look beautiful. I personally love the look of a darker tile as it seems to last longer and doesn’t show off stains and dirt that easily.

JGS Designs

Play with Colors: Repaint Your Shed and Fence

Fences and sheds are one of the worst areas of the garden for looking tired and untidy. A simple way of rejuvenating them is by painting them. Red and brown are the most popular hues, but try experimenting with something different like a nice deep violet color like Cuprinol Summer Damson from B&Q. This is the perfect way to implement Pantone’s color of the year, vibrant violet.

Harmony Design Group

Be Your own Handyman: Repair and Clean Up

Rickety furniture, falling down fences and smashed plant pots will have your garden looking more like a dumping ground than an enviable sun trap. Clear your garden of all junk and litter, before finally getting around to those essential garden repairs.

Design Scapes Colorado

Spruce Up: Purchase New Blooms

Unfortunately, colder temperatures can damage and even kill our plants. When the spring rolls around, you’ll need to invest in some new plants to set your garden flourishing again. Choose colours that will complement each other make sure to check out a garden guide to when you should be planting.

Casa Smith Designs

Get Cleaning: Give Furniture a Good Scrub

The weather can be unpredictable so make sure you’re ready for any unforeseen sunny spells and clean your furniture now. Using a gentle detergent, remove any dirt and debris from your furniture and store it away in a shed or outbuilding. If you have outdoor wicker patio furniture, a good spray with the power wash will get rid of any dirt, dust, and leaves trapped in the furniture. If you don’t have an outdoor storage space, invest in some plastic covers. This way, you can keep your furniture clean and when the summer sun arrives, give them a quick wipe down and you’re good to go!

Historical Concepts