Jazz up your home for the festive season

Putting a little sparkle into your tired looking home need not cost you the earth, writes Kya deLongchamps

IT’S a demanding time of year, Christmas. We are visited or all but invaded by friends, family and even complete strangers, and no one’s shy about saying “can I have a look around?” If you’re jaded with your home and want to ring a few inexpensive, no-fuss changes, let’s refresh, accentuate the positive, shake up what we all ready have in accessories and furnishings and throw a polite veil over the worst of it.

THE COMMANDO DE-CLUTTER

Alright so you’re not about to do a life-altering purge of your domestic over-flow so close to Christmas, but this is a great time to have a try at the Six Month Rule. Look around for things you ‘might’ be able to live without. Box them up neatly and shift them to the shed or garage. First of all, this clears the decks and, secondly, in six months, if you haven’t had to dig anything out, the whole lot can be recycled, donated or dumped.

SIMPLY CLEAN

There’s nothing as uplifting as clean surroundings, so it’s time to get those public rooms sparkling from skirting to ceiling. Roll dryer sheets over those fabric shades and woven curtains. Plane a synthetic duster over the walls and poke the vacuum pole up into those hard to reach corners. Wipe down the architectural woodwork with something like Pledge Soapy Cleaner for Wood (€3 for 750ml). If you have dirt-caked windows, start with a wash with hot water and washing up liquid (a drop only). Rinse and apply a 1:3 mixture of white vinegar and water. Spray on and buff off with scrunched up newspaper.

OCCASIONAL SPACES

Every house and apartment has some secret forgotten space, a lonely corner or generous transition area that languishes either completely unused or unappreciated for its full multi-task potential. Every metre counts. Here are two fast ideas:

lStand a full length mirror on the floor one side of a corner, and throw a cosy rug into the corner area. Stage a low ottoman intimately close to the mirror. Use the mirror corners or hang a number of hooks (a rail unit is ideal) for outfits you intend to wear later in the day for that Christmas party or for work. Use the free wall space to place a couple of pictures you’ve never hung, and you have a diminutive dressing room.

lEven a narrow hall can accommodate a slender side table. Hang a pier-style mirror with a vertical thrust politely close to the table and put a small vase of fresh flowers doubling its show in the reflection of the mirror. An ideal spot for placing keys and gloves as you come inside, and the mirror will amplify available light.

FURNITURE RESHUFFLES

Before hysterically throwing money at your dump, explore the possibilities of simply lifting and shifting what you already own. Most rooms can be re-arranged in several different ways using either the pieces you already have or by borrowing items from adjoining rooms. Stark centrifuged arrangements with furniture whip-lashed in orderly lines against the walls are formal and uninviting. Angle pieces for interest and create relationships between chairs, tables, paintings and rugs to suggest independent groups. If the traffic areas flow well into seating areas and so on, you’re getting there. Clear the view to your home’s architectural strengths — a view to the garden, an attractive fireplace. Don’t obstruct their charms with orphaned furnishings.

SOME SENSE OF ORDERIf your storage is under strain even after the Six Month Rule has been cracked in every room — box, shelve and gather using decorative storage elements. For smaller items around the house (the bathroom is generally the issue here), wrangle things more diminutive than your palm into attractive baskets or open boxes. For shoes grab some sexy shoe-boxes from Penneys for just €5 a piece. It’s amazing how just putting the spines of books in neat parallel alignment and grouping ornaments into multi-level arrangements can do. Use the cleaning stage of your re-do to replace objects in order. Shelving is cheap, and pine shelving ridiculously cheap. A light sand and paint to the wall colour and you have a receding, gentlemanly support. Woodie’s DIY offer pre-sanded timber from 585mm lengths with supports at €2.99 and three tier storage units from €14.99, so there’s no excuse.

DISGUISE THE WORST OFFENDERS

If you’re renting and stuck with a heaving 1970s patterned carpet or simply trying to hide something you can’t afford to replace — rug it over. A plain pale rug taking a colour note from the underlying offender will take the groove out of a nauseating pattern and be infinitely useful elsewhere if you change the floor cover in the New Year. Equally, if the colour scheme is a fainting neutral with no character, a rug adds instant character and texture, and defines a function area. We love the handmade, deep pile Flora Rug from Argos, in pure new wool. W120cm X180cm. €109.

DRAPE Throwing large bolts of material over furnishings is an age old cheat and it has survived because it works. Large cotton bedspreads (tuck them well to prevent slipping), vintage curtains, and inexpensive pound shops throws can cover up and deliver a colour block in a flash. If you’re using throws in the living room, consider layering a variety of textures for luxury. A fleece meant for the floor can lie on a chair back. In the bedroom, a stunning old quilt or any material with presence can be deposited over an open frame or fabric headboard to transform the headboard.

REFRESH WITH INEXPENSIVE CLASSICS

Cheap doesn’t have to mean tatty, and there are plenty of iconic pieces, sumptuous materials and inspired knock-offs in the two figure mark. Consider the space before you buy, gathering predetermined items like you would a wardrobe of complimentary clothes rather than haphazardly adding. Look at the catwalk of great design online or in magazines, noting designs and colours that appeal, then trawl the less financially demanding outlets. It’s impossible not to mention IKEA who reinterpret antique favourites such as the Middle Eastern tray table in their Trollsta tables in a sophisticated black at €49. If your bathroom towels are shot and in disparate colours, buy some thick white bales, roll and stage in your immaculate bathroom. Argos does an Everyday Egyptian cotton Bale (4) for €26.99.