10 Interior Design Ideas to Make Your House Feel New
Elissa Morgante, AIA
Founding Partner at Award Winning Chicago Architects, Morgante Wilson
Feb 4, 2021 - 5 min read
With the holidays over, the skies gray, and the pandemic still around, I say now is the perfect time to start thinking about interior design projects to give your home a fresh new outlook. Here are ten ways the residential interior design team at Morgante Wilson likes to bring new attitude to tired spaces (or, spaces you’re just plain tired of!):
1. Cover up
Few changes are as immediate or as transformational as covering bare walls with wallpaper – ceilings, too! Wallpaper can add texture, color, drama, or charm, depending how far you decide to go with pattern and hue. It’s our go-to move for waking up a sleepy room.
2. Paint
If wallpaper seems too permanent – or too scary – you can achieve an equally riveting change just by painting your walls. We’ve been partial to blues for quite some time, including the increasingly popular peacock and teal tones that seem to be popping up everywhere these days, and for good reason. They’re simply gorgeous.
3. Climb the walls
A quick, easy, and inexpensive way to add visual interest – not to mention storage and display space – is to hang shelves on a bare wall. That might mean a narrow ledge to showcase a gallery-like arrangement of, say, family photos leaning back in crisp black frames. Or it could mean a series of shelves one atop the other to mimic a bookshelf. Whichever approach you take, the visual layering that results is a proven method of adding personality and warmth to a room.
4. Drop the curtain
New drapery is always a good idea. But an even cheaper, easier idea is no drapery at all! If you’ve got a nice view out your window and privacy isn’t an issue, try taking your drapery treatments down for a while to instantly lighten a room. (Bonus tip: you can do the same thing by rolling up a rug. See if the bare floor beneath doesn’t breathe some fresh air into the space.)
5. Accessorize
One of the easiest things you can do to change the mood of a room is to swap accessories out seasonally. I’m talking about pillows, throws, and table linens. Trade winter’s heavy velvets and plaids for breezy cottons and linen in spring, and bring them back again come fall. This is one of the simplest, least expensive moves you can make to totally change the feel of a room
6. Resurface
If you’ve got a bit more of a budget, you may want to consider updating and upgrading your kitchen countertops. The variety of beautiful materials on the market right now is truly stunning.
7. Trade hardware
An even easier kitchen upgrade is to purchase new hardware for your cabinet doors. Knobs and pulls may be relatively small in size, but they pack a huge punch when it comes to updating the look of a kitchen. Trust me on this one!
8. Consider tile
Whether as a backsplash in your kitchen or an “area rug” in your master bathroom, laying new tile is a game changer. Tile is practically synonymous with personality, and the options to express whatever decorative mood you may be in are vast. Best of all, a little goes a long way, so this is one relatively small investment that will pay outsize dividends in the impact department.
9. Think green
Bringing plants indoors is a sure-fire way to freshen things up. Not only will living things welcome mood-enhancing nature into your home, they’ll add a burst of easy-on-the-eye color. Try a potted fig tree in a lonely corner, or even just a row of succulents in earthy pots on a windowsill.
10. Open the windows
I’m not joking about this one! Pick a fairly mild winter day and fling open every window in the house for a good fifteen minutes. The breeze that blows through will instantly clear out stale air, lingering odors, and, I swear, bad moods. What could be easier than that?
Of course, if you’ve got thoughts about bigger changes, the residential architects and interior designers at MWA have plenty of ideas to share. To see what I mean, take a look at our website, and follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
Morgante Wilson Architects provides architectural and interior design services in Chicago, Deerfield, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Ravinia, Wilmette and Winnetka – along with Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin and the U.S. Virgin Islands.