My Home and Interior goals for the summer

The time has finally come to really work through the snagging list in the house, the thing I have been wanting to do for a while now but when your in the mists of baby and toddlerhood your main focus is usually just trying to get through the day in one piece, let alone start thinking about house renovations. Of course it's possible with very young children - we did a lot of renovations when my eldest was in his early years but with two boys, working from home, school runs and everything else in between I wanted to wait until we got out of those initial stages of chaos. Now that my youngest is four things are getting much easier and finally more time and effort can be put towards getting the house to a place I am happy with. I thought I would share with you a few plans I have to get the house looking the best it can.

Paint, Paint Paint

Grubby fingers alert - while we repainted most of the interior of the house only three years ago, let's just say having two young boys has meant there are marks and stains on many parts of the wall, which is just a fact of life when you have kids, no matter how careful you're trying to be. With a baby learning to walk, then weaning and eating independently, crafting and deciding the wall is the perfect canvas, has meant our kitchen, lounge and hallway all need new coats of paint, along with the skirting boards and all our internal doors. The great thing about painting is how much of an immediate impact it can have on a room and is one of the most budget-friendly ways to improve a room. I have been eyeing up the vegan range of paints from Farrow and Ball and I am still trying to decide what to go with as there is such a fantastic range of shades and colours - dilemma!

New Carpet

When we moved in a few years back the first thing we did was replace the bedroom carpets with the view to redo the lounge and stairs. In a way, I am glad we didn't do all of it as the living spaces are where we spend most of our time and now that it's endured potty training and weaning I feel it's a good time to get some new carpet as we are out of those stages now. My dream would be to have real wood flooring but right now that's not an option so I know having a new carpet in the living room and stairway is going to make a huge difference to the space and I am very excited about getting this done in the next month.

Breath life in our decking and our garden

When we moved in the decking outside was in very good condition but after a few bad winters, despite our efforts to keep it looking good, it's now in desperate need of a professional clean. We have a Karcher K4 Full Control pressure washer that we are going to be putting to the test over the next week or so and I have high hopes that it's going to make a big difference to our outdoor space.  We are also doing a lot of work on our garden in general. We are lucky to have a decent size garden but of course, that takes longer to maintain and this year we are repainting the walls and shed, investing in a chiminea for those summer evenings as well as general landscaping.

Replace the front door

As they say, first impressions count and I have never been a fan of our front door, which was here when we moved in. I think some much can be said about making those small personalised changes to a house that then turn it into a home. I want my home to represent more of my own style and that should start from the moment you step in. I have been eyeing up a few from https://www.threecountiesltd.co.uk/ that I really love and are not only stylish but also safe, secure and high energy performance meaning less heat is lost and hopefully lower energy bills (which would be amazing)

Minimise and re-design the kids rooms

As my eldest is going to be 9 this year and my youngest is four it's time to update their bedrooms - while we have never done "themed" rooms as they thought, to be frank, makes me cringe a little, I do feel their spaces could be updated and decluttered. As we are trying to be more minimalist it's also time to pass on toys that are no longer being played with or they have outgrown. Every 6 months or so I do a Kids market which allows to me make a little bit of money from things they no longer use and this can then in term be used to perhaps get some prints done for there rooms.

Of course, there are a host of other smaller jobs I want to do such as a new fire surround, covers for the radiators, new toilet etc and while we cannot do it all right now I am planning to make a real start this summer.