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If you are looking to give your home an exciting new look, you can treat this project as a great opportunity for you to make your domestic property kinder to the environment as well.
That’s because, if you are already looking for fresh materials and supplies for use in this DIY project, you might as well make sure those essentials have green credentials, too. Here are just five things you can do to enhance your property in both a visual and ecological sense.
Replace power-hungry lightbulbs with LEDs
Real Homes emphatically calls LEDs “the most efficient of lighting options”, as they offer 95% efficiency. So, swapping out many of your home’s existing lightbulbs for LEDs could help you to drastically reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.
Compared to traditional lighting, LEDs are far better at light distribution and so do not require quite as many fittings in order to produce brightness of the same strength. LEDs can also last as much as six times longer than alternative forms of lighting.
Draw a curtain across your front door
Yes, you read that correctly. One tried-and-tested way to ensure that your home keeps more of the heat that it generates is to plug gaps where much of that heat could otherwise too easily escape — making draught-proofing a no-brainer, especially on account of its low expense.
However, another thing you could do is hang a curtain from a pole affixed above your front door — as, in doing so, you could add more colour and pattern to this particular interior area.
Install an electric fireplace
Whether you want to replace an existing fireplace or instead give your home a fireplace somewhere it has never previously had one, you should keep in mind that an electric model will, compared to a gas or wood-burning one, be better for the environment.
Which? enthuses: “Electric fires are 100% efficient, meaning all the heat they produce is pushed out into the room, as no heat is lost in a chimney or flue.” You can also choose from various attractive designs for an electric fireplace, such as when you shop online.
Place a few houseplants in various rooms
“Sit a pot plant on the windowsill,” the Swedish design journalist Ida Magntorn advises as quoted by Livingetc. “Green plants are good for indoor air quality, and some are particularly good to keep in the bedroom.”
So, exactly which types of plants should you go for? Magntorn notes: “Spider plants, devil’s ivy, snake plants, peace lilies, ivy, palm, jade plants, weeping fig and aloe vera all have great air purifying properties.”
Be careful what you use for repainting surfaces
TV presenter and design expert Michelle Ogundehin has warned that the majority of paints are 37% plastic and contribute heavily to global micro-plastic pollution.
Hence, Ogundehin has told Livingetc readers: “Choose natural lime-based paints so you and your home can breathe more easily. Lime-based paints also naturally inhibit bacteria and mould.” Another good idea would be for you to look for lime-based plaster you could also use.