5 Easy Tricks & Tips to Make Your Home More Vibrant During Isolation

How To 3rd April 2020

If you’re feeling cooped up or like you need to bring a little joy to your day, interior design projects don’t have to be grand or hard work to be worthwhile. Here we share a few tips and tricks on how to bring a touch of creativity to your day to day pursuits…

1. Make Mealtimes Special

Even if you’re having a simple cheese sandwich or a solo dinner, a lovely way to add structure to your day is to set the table as if it’s for a special occasion. Dress the table with your favourite linen, including a tablecloth and napkins. A beautiful old piece of fabric would do just fine to brighten up the table and bring it to life.

Why stop there? Why not get out your very best cutlery and crockery for this grand occasion, anything that makes you feel good! Make a point of putting the jam for your toast in a lovely little dish or serving your supper in a beautiful much loved charger plate.

Flowers will always bring a touch of joy to the table. A flower arrangement doesn’t need to be complicated; perhaps just a sprig or two with flowers from the garden. It’s that little touch, which makes all the difference, just like a contrast stitch or piping might on an upholstered chair in a room.

Afternoon Tea might as well be an occasion in itself during this time. If you have a favourite tea service or lots of lovely vintage tea cups, milk jugs and sugar bowls, get them out to bring your afternoon cuppa to life.

2. Floral Arrangements

Speaking of sprigs of flowers, why not brighten up every room in the house with a mini arrangement that brings a little joy to each space. We love the idea of making creative little bouquets from a larger arrangement – if you don’t have lots of vases, old jam jars or glass bottles work just as well.

Here I have collected roses from the garden and arranged them at different heights in glass vases I recently found at Petersham Nurseries. These charming glass vases reflect the light and enable me to vary the heights of roses to add interest. They are also not too high, so won’t obscure the diner’s view. The roses smell gorgeous and fresh as well.

Now is the perfect time to bring out your treasures from your travels, colour code your books, or start to rejig your crockery to create beautiful shelf-scapes.

3. The Beauty in Organising

There is never a better time to get organising but why not make a design feature. We’ve spoken before about the beauty of shelf design in our ‘Dos and Don’ts for Dressing Shelves’ post.

4. Make a Space to Create

If you don’t already have a little creative retreat, now is the time to make one. This needn’t be a room in itself, perhaps it’s just a corner of your kitchen table, maybe there is a desk space that needs bringing back to life, perhaps it’s time to put the garden shed to good use, or you can finally create that little potting shed you always wanted.

5. Prepare your Workstation

Having a home office and working remotely is something we are all settling into. The importance of tea breaks and moments of inspiration are now solely our own venture. Having a clear space to sit and work at is paramount, but of course being surrounded by beautiful things is more important than ever to keep us feeling inspired.

We have rounded up our favourite workstations to share a bit of inspiration for your own.

In this light and airy bedroom, a swing stool sits in front of a distressed painted writing desk.

At Covent Garden Hotel, this Japanese marquetry roll-top desk has hidden draws for your treasures. We contrasted this desk with a very contemporary John Stefanidis chair.

In our new Terrace Suite at Ham Yard Hotel, this sweet little desk is simply adorned with fresh flowers and a reading lamp made from wooden bobbins.

At this desk, you can look into the mirror for inspiration. We have created a a mix of old and new, with an abstract painting, a modern mirror (inlaid with a narrow double strip of perspex which gives the appearance of an old Irish mirror), and a lucite lamp sitting on a traditional rosewood table.

At the Knightsbridge Hotel, we placed a writing desk in front of the bookcase in the library. An illuminated ladder adds interest and we hung a framed photograph in front of the shelves. The books act as a backdrop to the artwork, adding depth and layers to the room.

An antique writing bureau sits in a fabric covered alcove at our Haymarket Hotel; it is the perfect place to put pen to paper.

Framed Oliver Messel drawings hang above a Swedish bureau in this calm master bedroom. While in another guestroom, we have covered a tub chair in my hot pink ‘Bookends’ fabric for Christopher Farr Cloth to create a colourful and comfortable spot to get down to work.

Send us a photo of your workspace and use the hashtag #DesignThread – we’d love to see your own space!