How to Add Green to Your Home This Spring

By Mark Spain Real Estate

The spring season offers great potential to give your home a fresh makeover with bright colors and prints, clean spaces and “green” home improvement projects. To help you transition your home from the winter season, we’ve gathered our favorite ways to add green to your home this spring.

Adding touches of green to your home is the perfect way to welcome the new season. Green is especially popular this year as Pantone named the light green shade, “Greenery”, 2017’s Color of the Year! 

 

Add Freshness with Foliage and Florals

While houseplants are great year round, terrariums, potted plants, mosses, and succulents are simple accessories that can subtly bring green into your home this spring. Use big statement leaves – like palms, banana leaves or papyrus – in colorful vases to freshen up any room. If you regularly refresh the water and trim the bottom of the stems, the leaves can live for months.

Flower arrangements are another great way to pull green into your home this spring. Florals give an instant revival to any space! Create your own fresh flower arrangement to add personality to your home decor. Different flowers within the same color palette look chic and elegant, creating a sense of unity and harmony in your spring home decorating.

 

Switch Out Your Decor Accessories

The decor in your home during the colder months will not give off the lighter feel that the warmer days of spring bring. Channel the new season in your living spaces by adding pops of green and other bright spring colors. You can do this in a number of ways from switching out your throw pillows, place settings, or bedsheets.

• Update your pillows and throws. During the fall and winter months, you most likely opted for cozy throws, plush fur cushions, and darker tones. While fabrics such as velvet and silk are beautiful, they can feel a bit too heavy for spring. Change out your winter pillow and throw accessories by choosing pastel linens and bright cotton fabrics to lighten things up. Soft green hues in your pillows, rugs, or throws can infuse a living space with vitality.
• Pull out your colorful place settings and dishes. Your table setting is an ideal place to experiment with color and bring touches of green into your home. On a dining table, you can go bolder or trendier with your design than you might when revamping an entire room. If you stick with traditional white dishes, bring in green pops of color through your chargers, napkin rings, placemats, or centerpieces. You do not necessarily have to set your whole table either. You can go as simple as pulling out a colorful container for displaying fresh fruit on your table.
• Get a new chic set of linens. welcome spring by treating yourself. Pick out a new duvet, pillow shams, or sheets to brighten up your bedroom. This easy fix can bring color to your room but also help motivate you to make your bed every day!

 

Spruce Up Your Walls

There is nothing like a new coat of paint to freshen up your home. Throughout the course of a year, it is likely your home’s walls have seen scratches or imperfections to the paintwork – from moving furniture to hanging wall decor to general wear and tear from the kids. Spring provides a great time to fix these blemishes and add a pop of color to your walls.

• Consider a fresh coat of green paint or feature wall – If you are looking for a bold look, paint your walls a delicate shade of green! If you are nervous about going too bold, paint only the upper half of the wall green and add white chair rail to the other half. Or choose a feature wall to coat the green color with. Gentle green walls function as a neutral backdrop for a variety of soft patterns and bold colors found in other decor pieces in your home. If you aren’t ready to commit to a fully green wall, bright and updated neutrals are great for spring as well!
• Wall art – update your wall decor and art to compliment the new spring season. Revamp an old mirror by painting its trim an inviting shade of green. Compliment your walls with a large chalkboard or oversized map. Add radiant green wall decals if you’re looking for an accessory that is simple and temporary. Purchase a new art piece that features bright, enticing colors. Your options are endless!

Practice Smart Spring Cleaning

The best starting place to prepare your home for spring is to clean it. You can also add green to your home by practicing smart spring-cleaning tasks! Do this by considering less-toxic and more environmentally-friendly cleaning products. Look for the supplies that have the Green Seal Certification which can generally be purchased at your local stores.

Save trees and money by giving items you no longer need around your home a new life. Use old t-shirts, sheets, or other clothing items as dusting and cleaning rags or sponges. This will decrease not only the amount of paper towels you use but also your carbon footprint. Best of all, you can wash and reuse these items several times.

Try Green Home Improvement Projects

Going green has been a trending topic over the last decade and will continue to be one of the real estate industry’s most talked about subjects! While many homeowners feel that improving the environmental friendliness of their home is too expensive, green improvements actually save you money in the long run.

• Purchase LED Light Bulbs – The cost of LED bulbs has drastically fallen since they were first introduced. LED bulbs long life and significantly lower energy use give you the potential to save a significant amount of money over the course of their lifespan. They also are known to tremendously reduce the overall amount of greenhouse emissions.
• Seal Your Ducts – According to Energy Star, air leakage from home air ducts can reduce heating and cooling efficiency by 20-30%. Sealing ducts is an inexpensive solution that can save you up to $100 per year in energy bills as well as decrease the burning of fossil fuels in your home. This is a simple DIY project for anyone willing to put a little sweat equity into their home. For less than $40 and a few hours of elbow grease, you can make your home more efficient and save money on cooling costs during the warm months to follow.
• Implement Water-Saving Techniques When Updating Landscaping – Make your yard more environmentally friendly by conserving water this spring! Use drip systems to water your garden or flower beds rather than over the top irrigation systems. Swap out some grass areas for bark or plants to conserve water while still supplying curb appeal. These changes can save tens of thousands of gallons of water yearly and help you add green to your home!

There are three big ways you can add green to your home this spring: interior design updates, spring-cleaning, and home improvement projects. After being indoors all winter, introduce the bright color green to welcome the warmer months. Use eco-friendly cleaning practices and you’ll save money while revitalizing your home. Try “green” home improvement updates to make your home more energy efficient. Go green and you will definitely usher in spring and bring new life to your home!

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Mark Spain Real Estate is grateful to serve all of Metro Atlanta and Athens in Georgia, Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina, Orlando and Tampa in Florida, and Nashville in Tennessee!