Why Your Home Looks Dated (And What to Do About It)

It’s difficult to appreciate your home, and to look forward to coming home, if you’re not in love with its interior and exterior appearance. Even if you’ve invested a lot of time and money over the years to make your house follow a specific design scheme, this is sure to look dated as your home (and the items and materials inside of it) naturally age.

Fortunately, there are several things you can do to freshen up your home’s appearance without having to spend a lot of money or exhausting yourself on repairs and renovations. Let’s take a look at five things that may be contributing to your home’s “dated” look and what exactly you can do to bring things back into shape.

Shabby Living Room Furniture

Living room furniture staples like sofas and ottomans may boast timeless and adaptable designs, but they’ll instantly become unattractive if they’ve sustained damage. Torn upholstery, broken table legs, and hard-to-remove stains can quickly turn even handsome-looking furniture into an eyesore. Shabby furniture items may also be quite uncomfortable to use and may even cause issues like chafing and body pain.

Thankfully, it will make an instant difference to update your living room furniture by having these pieces repaired or replacing them with secondhand pieces. One method might be better than the other depending on the state of your furniture. For example, if your sofa’s upholstery is ruined but if the rest of the components are still intact, your first approach should be to repair it by reupholstering it. Reupholstering the furniture might be cheaper than buying brand new, and it also gives you a chance to choose the upholstery material and give your sofa the look you want for it.

On the other hand, if your sofa is irreparable or if the cost of repairs is too expensive, buying secondhand might be the better choice. It’s possible to find a lot of secondhand furniture that are kept in good condition and that almost look and feel brand new. It can be challenging, however, to find and purchase secondhand pieces from legitimate sources online if you fear being met by flakers and scammers.

LookingFour is a name you can trust when you’re looking for high-quality secondhand furniture online. As a secure, one-stop online marketplace in the Philippines, we’re dedicated to providing you with an easy and safe platform to shop for secondhand goods. We always make sure that users are verified before they become sigurado sellers and start selling their secondhand wares. Whenever you’re looking for new or preloved furniture to freshen up your home, you can rest assured that you’re purchasing from a reliable source.

Having Too Much Wall Décor

If the walls in your home are covered in so much décor that the space feels busy and cluttered, now may be the perfect time to take some of these pieces down. The wall clutter may make your home feel small and out-of-date, or like a space lost in time rather than a place to relax in. Many of today’s interior design trends advocate a minimalist approach, and you may benefit from following the philosophy of “less is more” when it comes to giving your home a more modern appearance.

A great way to start is to invest in large-scale wall décor to create a focal point for your living room or bedroom. You can also put your favorite decorative statues and figurines on floating shelves instead of on console tables against the wall so that the latter looks clean and organized.

Old Lights and Lighting Fixtures

You can also refresh your living spaces in your home by enhancing your lighting. Better lighting fixtures will make your home feel even more inviting, as an increase in brightness often makes rooms seem larger than they really are.

It will be difficult to achieve the right brightness in a room if you’re still using lights that are beginning to dim. Consider replacing your old lights with new ones to make your living spaces brighter. LED lights may be your most efficient option; not only are they capable of achieving powerful brightness, but they also consume less energy and last longer compared to incandescent lighting.

Updating your general lighting also allows you to switch up your home’s old lighting fixtures with modern options. This is one of the easiest ways to add new accents to your home’s interior and exterior.

Old-Fashioned Handles, Pulls, and Knobs

Another easy and cost-effective way to give your home a fresh new look is by installing new drawer pulls, handles, and knobs. Updating your cabinets’ hardware is the simplest way to make them look more modern, and you’ll be able to choose from a variety of finishes like bronze, aged copper, brushed nickel, and stainless steel. Plus, installing new hardware for your cabinetry is not a difficult thing to learn, especially with so many online resources available, and you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot on hiring someone else to do it for you.

An Unkempt Yard

If your front yard isn’t well taken care of, it won’t be long before your home’s exterior will start looking dated and disheveled. Weeds, tall grass, and dried leaves scattered all over the ground will make a home a little less pleasant to come home to.

That being said, it’s in your best interest to take care of your yard regularly to help keep the exterior of your home clean and attractive. If you want to further increase your home’s curb appeal, you can plant various flowers to add a pop of color to your lawn. Some of the easiest flowers to grow in the Philippines are petunias, alyssums, dahlias, zinnias, begonias, and impatiens.

As you can see from the insights above, updating your home’s interior and exterior appearance to look more modern and inviting doesn’t have to be hard or costly. With online buy-and-sell platforms like LookingFour, find inspiration for how to beautify your home and have it reflect your idea of the kind of place worth always returning to.