Welcome back to The Interior Scoop and happy almost spring! I don’t know about you but my favourite season is spring and I am looking forward to moving away from the gloomy weather and getting closer to the long sunny days of summer. In the theme of spring cleaning, this week I am going to give you some tips and tricks on how to make your home lighter and brighter. Also, make sure you read to the end to hear about my first-ever brand-trip experience!

📝 Tips & Tricks

How To Make Your Home Light and Bright

Are you ready to breathe some fresh air into your space? Looking to make your home look clean and beautiful? Well, today I’ve got some tips on how to make your room into a light and bright haven that you’ll never want to leave.

Now I know this is obvious but, it needs to be said. My first tip on making your home look light and bright is to tidy up. Quite literally clean your windows to let that light shine on in. BUT ALSO clean your home! Get rid of clutter, those items just lying around that make the room feel smaller and heavier. Not only will you clear floor space and wall space, but you will also be making emotional space by letting go of items that no longer serve you (Marie Kondo it up).

I know I shouldn’t HAVE to tell you to clean, but let’s be honest, it’s the cheapest refresh you can do for your home. So it really is the best place to start.

Next up is to emphasize the elements, and when I say the elements I mean light and air. Get to know your windows, doors, and skylights (if you have them), and at what time of day the light comes through. You want to emphasize and reflect the natural light that comes into your space, and any opportunity you get to let fresh air into your home, do it. Crack a window, open a door, let the breeze in! Consider positioning mirrors to reflect the natural light coming into the space, especially if you don’t get very good natural lighting in your home throughout the day. You can also try adding reflective surfaces near artificial (warm) lights to create a bright atmosphere.

Also, try to choose curtains and blinds that let light into the room, but still protect your privacy in your more public areas of the home. It’s okay to go with the blackout curtains in the bedroom, but when you wake up in the morning, open those bad boys up!

Materials matter here. Those old heavy, floral granny curtains will create a visual weight that is going to make your space feel darker and more drawn inward. Sub out those heavy-lined curtains from something soft and light like cotton or linen for an instant refresh. Or take the curtains away completely!

Okay and finally, aim to use lower furniture (if you can). This isn’t the most accessible option, but can also be done with normal-sized furniture if you keep your walls a little more empty. Oversized furniture will cast more shadows, leading to an even darker room, so try to set a maximum height for your furniture and make sure that each piece falls below the set height. Leaving lots of space between furniture pieces will allow the empty areas to offer themselves up to lighting opportunities. In other words, taking a minimalist “less is more” approach will benefit you here.

💁🏼‍♂️ Life Updates

This past weekend I got to go on my first-ever brand trip to Arizona to check out ZenniHome. If you didn’t keep up on my Instagram stories, ZenniHome is creating innovative manufactured housing that is 320 sq ft and 640 sq ft for about $90,000 USD and $125,000 USD respectively. They aren’t shipping container homes, but they are shipped in the same size as shipping containers for easier transportation.

I loved seeing the homes, but honestly, the highlight of the trip was riding in a helicopter, which was a first. I may have been afraid that I was going to die the entire time but the sights were worth it. Plus, unlike the hike we went on, all I had to do was sit, try not to panic, and enjoy the view.

ZenniHome is doing a lot of interesting things in the modular home space and I really enjoyed touring the factory and seeing their homes in person. Here’s the thing with this space you guys… there is A LOT of hype in the world of modular and prefab housing, but usually with very few homes actually ever being built. Usually how these companies work is that they talk about how they are changing the world, then they drum up millions of dollars in investment (as it takes millions to get these things off the ground) and then they see if they can actually do what they promised. Sometimes they build homes, sometimes they crash and burn.

What I liked about ZenniHome is they have actually built homes and are shipping in the next few weeks to customers. So the proof was right there and I saw the homes wrapped in plastic with my own eyes - very exciting stuff as we need to get more affordable homes in the hands of more people.

From a design perspective, they are very well laid out with lots of innovative tech like a bed that powers down from the ceiling.

The units are very small but they use the space very well. Personally, I would love to see some add-on packages in the future that use a more thoughtful interior design with some higher-end materials, but they are trying to make them affordable so it’s a great start. I would love to see some designer collaborations or something in the future. They are perfectly fine for most people, just a bit too IKEA showroom for me. They are definitely designed to work for the masses, which makes sense as they aim to manufacture thousands of homes a year from the facility I toured.

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