New year, new ideas: style hacks for your home

If your home needs a refresh, rather than a renovation, try one of these easy style hacks to get maximum impact with minimum effort

Stick it on

Japanese washi tape – used as wall decoration, rather than gift wrap – has taken the interiors world by storm over the past year. It’s cheap, easy to use, and can be peeled off without marking the paintwork if you change your mind. Haru, which launched in the UK last spring, sells tapes of varying widths in a huge range of colours and patterns (from £11 for 10 metres, nittoonlineshop.eu). A strip of tape along a wall is a quick and chic way to add a dash of colour – or get creative and make your own piece of wall art. 

Window dressing

When putting up curtains or blinds, think about adding a coloured lining. Abigail Ahern’s recent collection for Hillary’s includes bold, punchy fabrics with linings in a choice of contrasting colours, from pink and beige to rich browns and greys, which, as she points out, look far more interesting from outside than plain white, and look good on the inside when the curtains are pulled back.

While we’re on the subject of windows, film has had a style update of late. The Window Film Company collaborates with designers to produce artistic styles, which range  from modern florals and geometrics to terrazzo prints and cityscapes, providing privacy and a decorative touch. Finally, painting the insides  of your window frames in a contrasting colour to what’s  on the wall is a good way to add drama to a room.

Glam up your furniture

If you’re fed up with an old wooden or painted chest  of drawers, table or chair, give it a makeover with  a metallic finish. Annie Sloan’s gilding wax (£6.95, anniesloan.com) can be applied with a brush or your fingers, and gives a subtle effect of aged gold, silver or copper. Rust-Oleum’s metallic finishes come in a spray can (£10, homebase.com) and couldn’t be quicker to use. Creating a ‘dipped’ effect – spraying  a strip of paint around the bottoms of the legs of a chair or table – is a good way to use metallics without going overboard (make sure you cover the parts of the legs you don’t want to spray with masking tape).

Hanging gardens

The trend for house plants – whether real or fake – isn’t going anywhere, but if floor or shelf space is an issue, try hanging them from the ceiling. Hurn & Hurn stocks metal and cement pots that can be hung from a simple hook, or fix a length of wood or metal piping on the ceiling and hang plants from that – a striking effect in the bathroom or above a dining table. 

On the tiles 

Tile stickers may seem a bit  naff  – but there are some stylish designs out there that will quickly perk up tired tiles.  Look on Etsy or Not on the High Street for marble-effect decals with metal detailing, or traditional Spanish-style designs in blue and white, all made to cope with water and steam. 

Surface appeal

Wherever there is a piece of  Ikea furniture, there’s a whole host of ideas for how to customise it. Custom Fronts sells pieces specifically designed for Ikea kitchens (and other budget brands) in birch plywood, hardwood or glam brass, which give you the expensive look of  a bespoke design at a fraction of the cost (from £1,000 per kitchen) – and without having to rip out any cabinets. If you don’t want to change your doors, you could just update your handles. Superfront, which specialises in patterned doors for Ikea cabinets and wardrobes, also sells handles and drawer pulls in brass, copper, matt black, leather and a choice of marbles (from £9). customfronts.co.uk;  superfront.com

Artistic effects

A new coat of paint is the  easiest way to dramatically change the tone of a room – but rather than sticking to one colour, consider a decorative paint effect. An ombré design is easier to achieve than it might look: paint strips of colour on a wall and then blur them where they join. 

New scents

Fragrance fans wanting to try something new should take note of Scent (scentfrom.us),  a new home-fragrance subscription service. Sign up to receive a scented candle every one, two or three months and you’ll get one from a different company each time – both big names such as Bella Freud and Joya, and emerging brands from around the world – selected according to your ‘scent profile’.