Decorating and Cleaning Tips for Spring

Story behind the blog:

Spring cleaning is a great time to overhaul a room while you clean!

For me recent thinking about renovations and spring cleaning has led to much investigation into these topics and undecided on where to start?

Tasks:

1. Cleaning the house
2. Painting the walls and ceilings in the upstairs.

I divided this huge task into lists from room to room. Then in each room I include everything on a check list that I have to accomplish. My list for the kitchen looks like this:

1. Clear out Cupboards
2. Wash inside and out of cupboards
3. clear out refrigerator
4. properly dispose of food, compost and recycle containers
5. wash inside and out of refrigerator
6. wash inside and out of all appliances
7. wash windows and ‘gutters’ of windows
8. wash floor boards
9. sweep and scrub floors ‘moving appliances to sweep and wash behind’
10. scrub down counters
11. scrub and shine sinks

*I’ve left out washing the walls as I want to re-paint*

I use spring as the ‘big clean’ and then its easier to up-keep throughout the year. Now that the kitchen is clean, I want to re-paint!

Inspiration:

I’ve looked for colors that exist in the kitchen and that would be present throughout the house, as the kitchen walls progress into the hallways.

I’m looking at creme, brown and neutral colors.

I’m going to use a photo I took of a butterfly to pull from, as they match the floor and the cupboard color scheme.

I choose to go with a lighter brown/creme, as this will keep the light reflecting and add a warmth to the house. I will use the darker brown for curtain color.

As a finishing touch, new hardware for the kitchen cupboards. As an accent color I can pull in a nice green (taken from the photo) vase for the table, and bottles on the counter. Adding a bit of color here and there.

Conclusion:

Lists make cleaning easier and help to stay on task and organized.

When painting, look at your surroundings and find a palette that will work for you.

Find favourite photos, magazines or gadgets to pull colors from for inspiration.

Have fun!