As you hoover the pine needle carpet and pack away the sparkly tinsel, homes can look a little drab.  Don’t despair! Swap those bright baubles for fresh flowers and enjoy our easy tips to refresh interiors after the festivities, and make your home happy before planning the bigger New Year projects.

Magic Rugs

Kate with her rug Zebo, Make Me A Rug, Alternative Flooring (with Enid the cat)

Let’s kick off with our favourite rug trick. A bespoke rug brings colour, pattern and texture to a room and has the power to create a mood. Creativity cheers us all and making your own rug is one of the easiest ways to refresh not just floors but a whole room. Take a peek at the fun Make Me A Rug demo with interiors stylist, Kate Watson-Smyth. She shares the five easy steps to creating your rug in the comfort of her own home.

As Kate says, we change our clothes with the weather so it’s time to change some of our accessories too.

Kate’s rug in her son’s room is a Wool Pebble Stade with a thick stripe grey border

Interior Designer and one of our Rug Stars, Sophie Robinson shows how to brighten up a room and goes wild with our Leopard rug.

Sophie’s Leopard Java rug in her holiday cottage

“My home style is a mash up, a colour explosion and all my favourite things in the same place. I ‘m quite a maximalist!”

Stair Art

Ella Doran Waterlake Black, Alternative Stair Art

And what about a little stair refresh. Don’t want to change all the floors so a runner is an easy way to make a great impact. Take a look at our runners and Stair Art collection.

Changing Shades

Pooky lampshades

Lamp love. It’s amazing what a difference it makes to change your lampshades – just like a new rug transforms everything.  Changing your shades is easy and a great place to start is Pooky. Like Alternative Flooring they love a bit of quirkiness in the home. There have great lamps bases and shades galore. You can mix and match – pattern with plain, traditional with modern. Sneaking an accent pattern or twinkles of colour into a room is great fun – which is where rugs and lamps can be your friend.

Straight Empire block fern printed shade, Pooky

The general rule of thumb for getting the right size lampshade is that the height of the shade should be about three-quarters the height of the base.  Have a play on the Pooky website and head on over to Lampshade Buying Guide.

Wall Art

Ovals, Posters by Neisha Crosland

Artwork is a simple way to give your home a collector’s look.  Paintings are expensive investments so follow the instant poster route.

Doyenne of surface pattern Neisha Crosland has a Posters Collection designed to make walls happy. There are over twenty prints of her iconic designs that make instant art wall and refresh interiors with colour and pattern.

Posters by Neisha Crosland

Cushions Galore

Cushions and fabrics by Margo Selby

Cushions stamp personality and brighten up your home. Just adding a few to a tired sofa is an easy way to upgrade its look. Vibrant cushions inject bold colour to a neutral room. Don’t be afraid to mix pattern and combine different textures. Have a play with shapes too. And they say the best things comes in threes, so when you think cushions think sisters not twins.

Margo Selby is a fabulous source for vibrant pattered cushions and why not swap your plain towels for some of her pretty designs for your new year projects.

 Botany patterned towels by Margo Selby

 As we move towards not just a New Year but a new decade, why not also consider ways to reinvigorate and recover pieces of furniture such as your favourite armchair or headboard. Slipcovered sofas make swapping colours easy and fun.

Follow us on Instagram for inspiration for your New Year projects.

Find more flooring and interior design inspiration on our Alternative blog.