How to cheer up a rainy day

I woke full of the joys of spring today so decided to take a brisk early morning walk along the seafront...only to be blasted by what felt like gale force winds and soaked by what I would describe as bucket loads of rainwater. Ugh. So I thought I'd cheer up this grey, rainy day by quickly creating a bright and sunny looking centrepiece for my dining table.

This then inspired me to have a look around for some new and beautiful ideas for ways to inject some happiness into the home without spending much money. Here you go...

This cute idea comes from my favourite German website Living at Home. Such a simple idea; cut out some shapes of flowers, hearts or birds...from sample pieces of wallpaper, brush the rear side with a thin layer of wallpaper paste and stick them to your wall. If you go to your local DIY store, you can easily get free sample of wallpaper, so for the cost of a little bit of paste, you have a pretty wall decoration that is unique to you and your home.

Another way to add an individual look to your home is to stick 3D cut outs onto your lampshades, shelves or picture frames. Use either wallpaper or other pretty paper like Prairie Rose from Paperchase or Portobello Road paper from Hobbycraft to cut out any shape you like and stick them with a dab of glue or a few small stitches onto your chosen item. Lovely!

Get creative with coloured masking tape. There are so many things you can with this fab stuff, it's brilliant because it's removable and doesn't mark so you can literaly put it anywhere. This pile of beautiful tape is from A Pencil Full of Lead, a lovely website selling reworked furniture, handmade home accessories and textiles, prints and stationery. Do check it out!

Ideas for getting masking tape crazy;

• Wrap it around empty jam jars and to make pretty tea light holders
• Get creative & wrap various colours and lenghts of it around presents. I did this at Christmas and the gifts looked so pretty and unique

 

• Did you ever cover your notebooks at school to try and make them a bit more interesting? You could do the same again now, but with receipe folders, address books, notebooks...cover the book in funky wrapping paper, then stick lengths of tape over it
• Adorn lampshades and vases with co-ordinating coloured tape, to add a splash of colour to your living room or bedroom
• Instead of using picture frames, stick your photos directly onto the wall and 'frame' them with coloured tape. How fab does this look?!

  

 

See, there are loads of things you can do for practically nothing and in just a few minutes, which will add a splash of colour and happiness into your home, whatever the weather!

www.homerestyler.co.uk