Spring Home Refresh

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Our resident blogger Lucy Young @_Oceancityliving browses Plymouth’s shops ahead of her spring home refresh.

There’s something about the change of light at this time of year that makes me want to hit the refresh button in my home. Maybe it’s linked to the nesting season, but spring feels like the perfect time to ring the changes and have a seasonal switch up. It’s time to pack away the snuggly blankets, winter bedding and dark colours and update your cushions, throws, candles and prints in tune with mother nature.

And after the cosy tones and heavy textures of winter, it feels so refreshing to swap in some lighter colours and fabrics and just a few carefully curated pieces can give your home a much-needed spring refresh. But you needn’t go mad and break the bank, the High Street is full of affordable home accessories to herald the start of the new season and even small changes can make a big impact.

With a spring in my step and the sun finally shining, I popped out to browse the city’s shops to see what’s new on the High Street…

First stop, Primark: the budget-friendly High Street staple has been expanding its home range in recent years and has got you covered for everything from bedding to bath towels, faux plants to home fragrance with a fashion-forward approach that delivers on-trend pieces at a fraction of the price. This season they have plenty of pastel florals with bed sets, cushions, lamps and artwork in sweet sugary tones and stacks of pretty storage from woven baskets to cute crates. Perfect for organising that wardrobe edit and having a clear-out after the winter. Primark’s current kitchen range is paired back Scandi rustic in style. Using lots of natural materials like wood, bamboo and cotton, there seems to be an effort even on the High Street to ditch plastic in favour of more sustainable products, which can only be a good thing.

Next stop, Marks and Spencer: the cornerstone of high street shopping, M&S has a reliable, classic range of quality homewares. They’ve gone bold this season with a jewel-like palette of greens, blues and yellows. Jungle bright cushions and nature motifs adorn their piles of plump cushions which make a fresh, zingy change after the restful greys and calming colours of winter. It’s amazing the impact that swapping a few simple cushions can have and it’s definitely much cheaper than completely redecorating your living room.

 

At the opposite end of Drake Circus, Next also has a good homeware section with lots of seasonal decorative accessories across various ranges. Painterly prints on vases and soft furnishings have a Mediterranean feel which instantly transports you to sunnier climes. Next also has an extensive home fragrance section so you can fill your home with the scent of spring and lift your mood to match the lighter, brighter days ahead.

With a fair few long, lazy Bank Holiday weekends to look forward to, I popped into Waterstones to browse through interiors books, looking for some inspiration, but also for some new coffee table additions to leaf through this spring. There are some beautiful books out there that are far too pretty to put on a shelf, plus, if you have them out on display, you’re much more likely to look at them.

Heading outside of the mall, TK Maxx always has a wide range of top brand homewares at discounted prices. Their ever-changing stock has plenty of on-trend seasonal pieces so you can update your home with designer names on a budget. I’m a sucker for kitchenware and TK Maxx has a great department with crockery, mugs and table linen in spring colours and patterns. Easter is just around the corner too and they have loads of lovely decorations, wreaths and ornaments…be quick though as they sell out fast!

Strolling down to House of Fraser, opulence and glamour seem to be the order of the day with deco-inspired decadence from brands such as Biba, Rita Ora Home, Ted Baker and Sanderson. Spring needn’t all be about saccharine pastels: lush, coloured velvet cushions are teamed here with brushed gold accessories and tropical motifs such as pineapples, jungle cats and palm leaves. If you’ve got a hankering for travel to far-flung places, then this look is for you.

But refreshing your home for spring doesn’t have to mean buying everything new. In the spirit of sustainability and the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra, there are lots of vintage homewares to be found in charity shops and second-hand stores. St Luke’s hospice has lots of shops across the city, but their central store on Cornwall Street has a great selection of glassware, crockery and kitchen pieces that are looking for a new home. If you like the vintage vibe then you can pick up gems like these 1950s glasses, jug and pretty, floral cake stand all perfect for an Easter afternoon tea to celebrate the start of spring.

And if you’re looking to start tidying up your outdoor space and giving it a little spring spruce up, B&M on Cornwall Street and Wilko inside the Armada Centre both have some great budget buys, including garden furniture, spring bulbs, bedding plants and outdoor lighting. Here’s to brighter days and better weather and a much-needed home refresh ready for spring.

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Funded by the Reopening High Street Safely Fund, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and HM Government