Amazing ways to make your home feel like new again without moving

“I’m bored with my home but can’t afford to move. What can I do to give it a new lease of life?”

Don’t underestimate the power of paint! More than 50% of homeowners interviewed in a Dulux survey agreed that a lick of paint is the best way to bring the thrill of the new to a familiar space. Better still, it’s a budget-friendly option with easy-to-achieve, instant results.

Whether you decide to redecorate one room at a time or make a grand plan to tackle the entire property at once, here’s how paint can reignite your passion for your home.

1. Think about function

Before you reach for the paint charts, go through each room in your home and ask yourself, firstly, what you use the room for and, secondly, whether the room’s current colour fits that function. If not, think carefully about the atmosphere and function you would like that room to have, and choose your colours accordingly.

For example, if your kitchen has dark brown walls but what you actually want is an airy family kitchen, why not switch the brown for a bright, sunny yellow?

Which paints? Yarborough Yellow, Scroll Beige

2. Swap things around

Why not take things a step further and consider swapping the function of two different rooms?

For example, if your dining room gets the best sun in the house, why not switch it with your living room? This will give you a lovely light-filled living room, while the dining room, which generally gets used in the evening, will sit quite happily in a darker part of the house.

Make sure you paint the rooms to suit both their function and the amount of light they get. Apple green is a cheerful shade for a sunny living room, while dusky pink is an inviting, opulent choice for a dining room.

Which paints? Hollyhock, Light Lime

3. Dare to be bold

Muted tones are eternally popular, but bold colours are a sure-fire way to inject some oomph into a tired-looking decorating scheme.

If you’d like to brighten up your home but are wary of going all-out in one go, give bold tones a trial run in a room that doesn’t get much use – cloakrooms are great for this, as they’re small and are only used for a few minutes at a time.

If you don’t have a small room to experiment in, try painting a single feature wall, or the wall behind built-in shelves for a more subtly vibrant look.

Which paints? Brendon Bay

4. Tie everything together

When you’ve lived somewhere for a long time, it’s easy to accumulate things that don’t necessarily go together. Take stock of what you’ve got, pick out the items you really love and then use these as the basis for your new decorating scheme.

If you have a pretty blue vase, for example, why not use it as the starting point for a sophisticated tonal scheme, with pale blue on the walls and punches of blue in a variety of shades in your soft furnishings and accessories?

5. Create new features

Worried that your home doesn’t have any interesting architectural features to show off? Fake them using paint.

For a traditional dado rail look without the dado rail, paint the lower portion of your walls in a deep shade, with a lighter shade on top. Don’t have skirting or coving? Paint a stripe around the bottom and top of your walls, framing them to create a smart, defined look. Go for deep, dark tones to give the scheme a classic feel.

Which paints? Krimson Lake, Light's Out

Top Tip

Want a sneak preview of how your home will look in its fresh new colours? Get an instant digital impression of your scheme using the Dulux Visualizer app.

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