Smart Interiors South Africa: February 2017

As beautiful as you have made your home over the last few years, it probably presents a few problems. Most of these little flaws are easy to look over, and don’t necessarily drag your home’s appeal down. But still, the teeniest attention to detail really ties the beauty of your home together finely.

Here are a 4 quick, easy and inexpensive DIY projects that will make your home look newer, cleaner and beautifully refined.

Seal your laminate counter tops and worktops edges properly

Small chips and scratches are easily overlooked, but it’s impossible not to notice a fresh and shiny looking worktop finish. So get started on re-edging flaky counter tops for a brand new feel!

After you strip the old edging off, make sure that you have the correct measurements to cut your new edging.
Before resealing your counter top, make sure that all dust and grime is completely cleaned up. If old dirt and lines of grease are still visible, it could cause the new varnish to look bumpy and uneven.
You want to make sure that your renovation job lasts long, so it’s best to put two coats over the edges. This will also prevent moisture that causes swelling from seeping into your wooden counter tops.
Use a dabbing motion to apply the varnish. Sometimes if you use only strokes, the varnish sealant does not reach deeper grooves in the wood.
Apply acrylic sealer along the edges of the counter top, where it meets the wall and wait for it to dry.
Apply contact adhesive to both the edging strip as well as the counter top edge’s surface. Pay careful attention to sticking the new edging on straight and firm, pressing each section flat as you lay it down to ensure that it has full contact with the edge.

· Sand away rough edges until you have a new, smooth finish.

A step by step guide on how to install Formica LifeSeal Worktops offers further detail and will also give a lot of great advice on how to keep your countertops in top condition after renovations.

Transform one wall space

It’s amazing how just one little corner in your home can change the face of the room completely. Repainting and redecorating an entire living space is a lot of effort and we don’t always have the time and the budget for it. But one wall on the other hand, can work wonders.

Choose a wall with decent surface area, i.e. not one where windows take up too much space
Decide what you want to turn this new nook into- a small tea station, a centre of attraction, showered with a range of your finest items? Or perhaps, you want to ditch the home office and turn that little corner into a cosy study nook? Either way, envision what you want the space to look like and start brain storming.
Paint that one wall a different colour to the rest of the room, so that it can stand out as a space of its own entirely. According to highly qualified paint professionals, soft pastel pinks and urban coppers and greens are the leading colours in home interior design for 2017. It’s so easy to accomplish a rustic, industrial yet classy look and feel with these colours!

Make your windows stand out

If your windows become the focal point, it will brighten a room up instantly and make the space around it feel more expanded.

Rid of all the dust and grime along your window frames and make sure that your windows, and windowsills are sparkling clean.

Inspect the state of your curtains and curtain rods - is it time to give them a good soak and scrub? Or, if you have the budget for it, consider getting a fresh set of curtains to wake the room up again. Stylish new blinds will also give the room a good lift, especially if you are going for a sleek, minimalist look.

Or for a unique, Mediterranean feel, you can create a mosaic design style for the windowsills and window frames. Incorporate your colours wisely and you will have a living space cut straight out of a magazine!

Consider your lighting

Lighting is so much more important than what people give it credit for. The brightness and hue of the lights in your house can even be affecting your mood!

Experts in the field of light therapy say that ideally, you'll want to use only high-quality full-spectrum light bulbs in your home and workspace. They also say that that blue light strengthens and stimulates connections between areas of your brain that process emotion and language, while incandescent light is not a high-quality light, nor one that is recommended if you suffer from depression.

So, consider which areas in your room can do with some lighting improvement, and get started in transforming your house into the most vibrant, happiest and most comfortable version of itself!