Give Yourself a Spring Break

Making a plan for spring break at home doesn’t have to be as difficult as trying to get to the Bahamas during a pandemic. We can create our own calm, relaxed place to take a break right at home. We can update our home for spring in the same process, because of trending colors that will check both of the boxes this springtime.

You can give your home a spring update using beachy aesthetics that work just as well in a waterfront home as it would in a home found in downtown Vancouver. The feeling you are creating is one with a sense of being transported to a vacation-like spot which happens to be in your home. This works whether you are staging to sell or simply want to enjoy spring break at home, because people need to see home for all it can be. It’s all the rage for spring-time updates at home.

To start, think about a neutral color palette that you might compliment with blues and warm tans. Benjamin Moore offers a soothing blue-green color, Aegean Teal, that it named as its 2021 Color of the Year. Researchers at Benjamin Moore pointed out that staring at the ocean actually does calm the brain.

Behr’s Color choice of the Year is a terra-cotta color that brings earthy tones inside the home. This neutral shade also lends itself to coordinating livable color accents with it that will bring that beach feeling inside. The idea is that while you may be walking into one particular room in a home, it should feel like you are going somewhere that feels like an escape from the outside world. It is about creating a feeling of outside on the inside.

After choosing either background color as your neutral palette base, add a layer of timeless materials like smoothed driftwood or feathery sea grass. This gives texture and character to the room. It’s a sand, sky and ocean mindset. You will want to keep décor simple. Avoid beach kitsch like seashells or dolphins. Keep it luxurious by choosing natural materials such as sisal or jute. If you choose the Behr terracotta color, consider adding navy accents.

White and blue give you another option as your main color selections because those colors also offer the feeling of calmness even though they are not Colors of the Year. Peacefulness and simplicity are the elements we are trying to mimic from the beach in spring updates. Whitewashed accents, linen fabrics and woven items can create a casual and warm feeling while being inside even though there is still a little rain outside.

Slipcovers can help transform furniture in need of an update without committing to the larger expenditures of new furniture. White linens on the windows allow light to enter the home. An outside view should be allowed inside the home for achieving that lighter sense of space.

It is okay to contrast controlled elements such as the structure of furniture that is already located in the existing room with some natural forms that might be found in nature. Some hard lines found in sculptures or art pieces can complement the quietude. Natural forms might be added in the form of plants.

By placing taller wispy plants near a sitting place, you’ll create a feeling of being protected from the outside world. Could you add something with an open-weave to it like a wicker piece  that offsets the rigidity of any synthetic materials? There is life in these earthy materials. We become connected to the natural environment that allows us to transport ourselves to a place that feels more like you are on vacation every day while inside the home.

Give yourself a break, a spring break!

Spring gives new opportunities and inspirations as we enter our second spring of the pandemic.  Call me at 360.635.1121 to come take a look at how you can to best prepare to list your home. You can also email me at DianneMorrisHomes@gmail.com