Category: Home Decor Tips

As most would agree, December is the most magical time of the year. Decorating for the holidays is a very personal and family oriented activity for most. Surrounding yourself with sentimental ornaments that have been passed down for generations as well as partaking in festive activities which have been a tradition for years is the norm during this period. We have compiled some decoration ideas to make your home feel festive whilst also being stylish.

Each Christmas is different, but each Christmas is the same. Every holiday, families haul out their boxes from storage and begin to decorate their homes for the festive season. Michael Buble streams from the speakers, the smell of hot cocoa fills the air, the soft flickering of festive candles warms households. 

These holiday habits happen every year. There’s comfort in these actions, there’s familiarity in the tradition, there’s connection in our collective joyous spirit. Once the trees are decorated, you’ve officially begun the rituals of Christmas – baking cookies, hanging stockings, painting new ornaments. Now the rest will fall into place. 

An appreciation of the hidden power of holiday habits.

Topsy Turvy Palette

Opting to fill your home with white ornaments is de rigueur at this time of the year. Whilst, it’s good to follow tradition, why not up the ante and opt for a darker palette? If done right darker hues can give a sense of nostalgia and warmth. Black trees have become more and more fashionable, opting for them can really make a statement in your home. However, if you’d rather play it safe, use gold tree ornaments and warm toned lighting whilst adding richer toned colours of dark greens and reds. 

Try on Some Tassel

To spread the cheer throughout your home, consider hanging on-theme tassels from your Christmas tree as well as adorning your doors, desk, or chest of drawers can be a finishing touch that is also budget-friendly. 

Add Some Sparkle 

It’s Christmas, so literally anything and everything can get away with having some extra sparkle. See ya later, singing Santas. Today’s Christmas decor is downright chic. Look for bright, shiny and glittery accents. 

Pretty Poinsettias

If you’re at a loss about how to add some Christmas cheer to your space, add a poinsettia or two! The use of Poinsettia as a Christmas decoration can be traced back to at least the sixteenth-century. The leaf pattern is similar to that of a star, making it ideal to incorporate the crimson plant into your Christmas celebration decorations, such as on your tablescape. 

Make it merry

Holiday decor doesn’t have to break the bank. A great way to have a more budget and eco-friendly christmas is to use brown paper wrapping. Not only is it more cost effective it also looks tidier under the tree. You can make a lot of gorgeous pieces with craft supplies and a little elbow grease. This can also be a fun activity to do with your children. 

We suggest moderate the use of plastic and synthetic materials in order to avoid your home turning tacky as well as to keep your environmental burden to a minimum. An easy way to avoid this is to incorporate a mix of natural materials such as wooden or paper ornaments and decorations. 

Takeaway Tips

As mentioned previously, decorating your home for Christmas is a very personal tradition, one that can evoke nostalgia. However, it takes a certain kind of courage to break away from tradition and find new avenues to explore. 

If you are feeling stuck in your current home and have fantasies about decorating your dream home for the holiday season, speak to one us at GAP Homes to start the process of securing your dream home.

As cold weather draws near, it’s time to settle in and make your home a cosy haven. Think plush accents, heavier fabrics, and seasonal patterns to add an extra layer of comfort and cosiness to living areas, bedrooms, kitchens, and more. Try the ideas we’ve listed below- from simple DIY changes to more expensive measures – to turn your home into a warm and welcoming space throughout the fall and winter.

Switch Up Your Soft Furnishings

Pile on the pillows! With the change of the seasons one simple and easy way to instantly make your home feel cosier is to switch up or add more soft furnishings such as pillows, blankets etc. to your home. Swap out pillow cases to a more wintery styled cover. Layer your bedding to include more winter tones with blankets, pillows and more.

Texture & Textiles

Texture is the surface quality of a material. Texture adds depth and helps add cosiness to a space. Mixing materials such as leather, ceramic and wood will help create appealing tactile experiences and sensations.

Hardwood and laminate flooring are great, but can get chilly under your feet in the cooler seasons, the same goes for tile. By placing layers between yourself and the floor, you will be guaranteed to feel instantly warmer. Rugs are a great way to do so and to make your home feel more cosy. Find a rug with inviting fabrics such as a chunky knit, velvet or faux fur.

The Power of Scent

Don’t underestimate the power of scent. If your home looks amazing but its smell isn’t up to par you’re doing a disservice to yourself as well as to your home.

Picking a seasonal scent will transform your space and ignite core memories associated with the scent you’ve picked. There are loads of different options to choose from other than the generic Yankee candle. One may opt for wax melts, incense sticks, DIY stovetop potpourri, or even fresh fragrant flowers or plants.

Double Up on Your Drapes

Swap out your sheer linen curtains and trade them out for velvet drapes or any heavy curtain with a thermal lining. Besides making a space look warm and cosy, they’ll insulate your home from cold air leaking in through the windows.

Saturate the palette

Don’t be afraid of colour! It might be tempting to stick to neutral colours when painting your home. Painting or using wallpaper provides dramatic results for little investment, the cost to do so in a room costs much less than that of other home upgrades and it’s an easy home improvement project. Create a focal point with a feature wall with a warm cosy colour or wallpaper design to draw the eye of yourself and guests, as an easy way of making your home feel more inviting.

Soft Lighting

Create a calm and inviting space by adding soft lighting to your home. This could be in the form of lamps, candles, fairy lights or LED strips. Adding a layer of lighting can help change the mood of the space and create a different feel to it.

Watch Sparks Fly

There’s nothing better than cosying up to a fireplace with hot cocoa and fuzzy socks. If your home doesn’t have a fireplace,  invest in a portable one for the same effect.

Winter Green

Create focal points around your home by using winter greenery to add some natural elements. One may also add greenery to the table centrepieces. This will bridge indoors with outdoors creating a seamless effect of your winter wonderland.

Takeaways

There are a number of ways to make your home feel cosy-er this winter, we just listed a few of them to get you started. If you need more assistance do not hesitate to contact us at GAP Homes.

It’s hard to overdo Halloween, you could argue that the more decorations you have, the more protection from evil spirits, tricksters – on All Hallow’s eve.

Whether you’re into natural cornstalks and scarecrows, smiling goblins or ghoulish zombies, Halloween offers an opportunity to pull out all the decorating stops!

Some prefer to decorate for Christmas, others go all out for Halloween. If you sway on the spooky side these tips will help make your house extra fun and spooky!

Here are eight ways to decorate your home for halloween

1. Back to Basics

One of the most basic things you can do when decorating your home for Halloween is decorate your home with artificial spiders and cobwebs. Even if you don’t love the holiday it’s nice to make an effort and get on the bandwagon with adding these simple touches to your home.

2. Harrowing Haunted House

The door and windows are the eyes and mouth of your home’s Halloween soul, so you should make the most of them. Therefore, you should make the most of this and adorn them with decorations. Adding just a few ghoulish touches to your front door and windows will make your house look haunted. For example, propping up scraps of wood across the windows to create a boarded up effect or applying broken glass stickers to windows.

3. Light Up Your Home

Your lights will help set the eerie ambiance for your home, so you should make the most of the lights you have while keeping the house looking fairly dim, so that something spooky could pop up at any time. If it’s too bright in your home, you won’t have enough room for mystery. One example of having the perfect Halloween lights is adding flickering electric candles in the windows.

4. Create a Harvest Haven

Halloween would not be the same without pumpkins, so you should use your pumpkin decorations to your advantage. You don’t have to overdo it with the pumpkins, but thinking of clever ways to introduce more pumpkins into your decor will make your home boo-tiful.

5. Guts & Gore

Add a few specimen jars around your home. Take some big glass jars, fill them with water, and throw in a drop of green dye until water is a nice, gross green hue. Put the jars on display in your kitchen under some lights or in another part of your home where they can be prominently displayed.

6. Transform Your Terrace into a Graveyard

If you’re into the creepy-crawliest holiday of the year, then odds are you’re probably already putting together the outside Halloween decorations for your annual display.

7. Bake Something Spooky

Kick up the fear factor of your Halloween party dessert spread with mummy pops, Dracula dentures, bat truffles, and more. Whether you’re into spooky, silly, or a delicious mix of both, there’s a scare level—and dessert preference—for everyone.

8. Don’t be Afraid to DIY

Golojuch likes to make his own decorations with building supplies like foam and erosion cloth. But if you’re not ready to bring out the power tools, there are some easy things you can do to enhance your display, such as adding clothing or touches of paint to make a plastic skeleton look more authentic.

Takeaways

If we haven’t scared you off yet and you’ve managed to make to the end of this article, we’d like to let you know that we not only can provide way on how to decorate your home but our experts can also guide you on finding your next home. Take a look at our current developments here and if you’d like to contact us feel free to do so.

As summer’s end is fast approaching, even though we don’t want it to, it’s best to be prepared for the autumn season. After weeks of sunshine and throwing open the windows every morning it’s suddenly time to bring in the garden cushions and batten down the hatches.

A little preparation now can help to prevent extreme weather causing damage to your property, and may even result in your house being even cosier as the mercury starts to fall. We at GAP Homes have put together a list of five things to get in order before the season starts. 

Our 5 simple steps will help get your home in the best shape possible. 

1. Get Your Geezer Checked

The last thing you’d want when the cold weather arrives is for your geezer to stop working, leaving you without warm water. Whether it’s a full service or an inspection by a hired professional, it’s imperative that you get your geezer checked ahead of winter to stop any potential problems in their tracks.

2. Complete Pending Jobs Whilst the Sun is Shining 

This autumn will be harder than any other due to the cost of living crisis. Getting your home ready for winter could save you money in the long run. Harsh weather conditions in autumn and winter can cause small niggles to become bigger issues, so think about repairing damaged, broken or cracked items before the season starts.

3. Prepare Your Terrace

As sitting outside becomes less appealing, it can become easy to forget about your terrace and/or garden. Now’s the time to buy those waterproof covers that you’ve been putting off for the whole of the summer. Alternatively, it’s time to store away your furniture in order to protect it from the harsh winter season so it’s in good condition for the following summer. 

It’s also important to take stock of your plants and see if they need tending to, such as bushes that have overgrown over the summer and need to be trimmed. Whilst you’re outside, look for other potential issues which you may have overlooked.

4. Insulate Your Home

Look for holes or cracks in walls and around doors and windows, where the wind or water could come in during the winter. To find gaps around your windows and doors, first close them and then slowly move a lit stick of incense or a candle around the edges. If the smoke or flame flutters, you’ve got a gap and need to seal it. There’s nothing worse than a draughty home and dealing with them now will help save money in the long term and make you more comfortable in your home. 

5. Refresh Your Home

Deep clean, declutter and streamline your main living spaces. Accent your home with autumnal decor by adding cushions, throws and even maybe a new bedspread. Swap out your summer scents for cosier autumnal odours.

In a nutshell

Whilst there may seem like a lot that you need to do in the run up to autumn, in truth many of these tasks only take a few minutes to complete and some are even a nice way to enjoy the last of the summer weather outdoors. Autumn may seem like a long way off, however, in reality, it’s only just around the corner. Therefore, by staying on top of things and preparing your home and terrace for the season you can save money and make your life much easier.

If you’re in the market for a new home, make sure to check out our Current Developments, a selection of new-build highly-finished homes.

A well-designed terrace is like an oasis of calm amid the hustle and bustle of life. Give this outdoor zone a facelift with nature-inspired furnishing, comfy lounges and entertainment areas. We think it’s important to invest in your outdoor living space as much as your indoor space as it’s an extension of your property that sadly most homeowners overlook.

Over the last year especially, as we’ve been cooped up inside under lockdown, we’ve come to value our outdoor space even more. So if you happen to be in possession of a terrace and are looking for ideas to bring out the best of every inch of it, here’s our advice for how to maximise your space.

Minimal Outdoor Space Needs Maximum Creativity 

Having a large terrace gives you more options to explore. However, don’t fret if you’re stuck with a smaller space; it just takes a little more thinking and planning before you can get started with its makeover. Proper planning and a creative mind can convert any small (but mighty) or large space into a lovely atmosphere.

All it takes is a little creativity and some intelligent planning and you can make any space look opulent regardless of its size.

If you’re lucky enough to have a terrace, then you owe it to yourself—and all your friends—to make the most of it. This means doing more than putting out a folding chair and calling it a day. No matter how tiny it is, your terrace has plenty of design potential.

1. Make Proportions Work For You

Any space needs to be measured before you can start working on it. By doing so you’ll avoid making the mistake of buying furniture which would be too large, which would engulf the space or vice versa. Therefore, it is essential to measure your space in order to have the correct idea of how big your terrace is and plan accordingly. There’s a fine line between cosy and crammed.

2. Create a Budget

Overspending is not cool. Feeling guilty about enjoying your new space or running out of money midway and not being able to finish off the project aren’t either. Either scenario is unfavourable therefore it is important to create a budget for this project even though it’s not necessarily the most fun.

3. Decide on a Theme

There are so many styles to choose from in regards to your terrace’s decor. One may either play a wild card and go for something that’s dramatically different to your inside space or play it safe and mirror your inside space on your terrace. The decision is yours. It would be helpful to create a mood board either using pinterest or a folder in your saved archive on instagram to gather inspiration from.

4. Bring in Greenery 

A terrace is at its best when it’s adorned with plants, whether you have a green thumb or not. Think big if you love gardening (shrubs, towering ferns, prickly cacti) and keep it simple if you’re a novice: potted herbs, hanging baskets and hardy shrubs. In this case, more is more and there’s no need to hold back. You cannot go wrong with greenery.

5. Shade 

You won’t be on your balcony for long this summer if you don’t have anywhere to sit in the shade. Even if you’re a sun worshipper, you need somewhere to get out of the heat. Small terraces, unfortunately, might not have the space to accommodate both a daybed and a sun umbrella, so consider a canopy, which will work wonders. Whether you custom make it or even diy-it, it will extend the amount of time you can sit on (and enjoy) your terrace.

In summary

It’s easy to assume that it’s not worth investing any time, money or energy into improving your outdoor space, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. With a little creative thinking, you can transform your terrace into an irresistible summer retreat.

No matter the size of your terrace, it’s part of your home’s precious square meterage – you should try and make the most of them! You won’t regret it.

GAP Homes always include private outdoor spaces. Have a look at our available properties here. 

Good interior design can make a world of difference in your home, especially if you are constrained in terms of space. The key thing to keep in mind when working with small spaces is to be resourceful with the square meterage that you have available. Here are fifteen interior design tips to maximise small spaces in your home;

Kitchen

1. Use Magnetic Strips

Magnetic strips are a great interior design tip for maximising space on your kitchen countertops. Keep your knives and other stainless steel utensils out of the way by sticking them on your wall.

2. Maximise Open Wall Space

Store pots, pans and light appliances on floating shelves. You can also consider using a pegboard or a rack to hang coffee cups and other loose items from.

3. Think Carefully About Colour

Light, bright colours are the way to go in a small kitchen. You can use your countertops to add in a pop of colour should you wish.

Living Room

4. Get Those Legs Out

A great interior design tip for maximising the space in a small living room is choosing furniture with exposed legs. You can couple this with seating without arms to enhance the open feel.

5. Mount Your TV on the Wall

Do away with the need for a TV table or wall unit by mounting your TV on your living room wall.

6. Think Strategically About Storage

Maximise floor space by doing away with bulky storage pieces. Use floating shelves or a built-in bookcase instead. Also consider multipurpose furniture pieces that can be, for instance, both a seat and a storage solution, such as an ottoman.

Bedrooms

7. Use Multifunctional Furniture

A headboard with built-in bookshelves, or a bed frame that incorporates drawers, are both clever interior design solutions for maximising a small bedroom space.

8. Make It Float

Replace conventional nightstands with floating shelves, or do away with shelves and nightstands entirely and simply hang two wall sconces on either side of your bed to use as your bedside lighting!

9. Consider a Wardrobe Wall

It might come at significant expense, but consider using a wardrobe wall in your bedroom to maximise space. Wardrobe walls are shallow in depth, yet run the whole length of a bedroom wall to create a cosy feel while adding storage space and taking up a minimal area of the floor plan all at once.

Bathrooms

10. Use the Space over the Toilet

A little shelving unit that fits neatly over your toilet is something to think about, as is a heated towel rail for storing your towels out of the way.

11. Pedestal Sink/Floating Vanity

A pedestal sink or floating vanity sink are both excellent for making the most of a small floor space in a bathroom. Having one of these kinds of sink will give you additional space for placing wash baskets.

12. Install a Pocket Door

A pocket door is a door which slides into a wall, as opposed to swinging inwards into your bathroom like a conventional door would. This is an awesome little trick to maximise bathroom space.

Outdoor Spaces

13. Grow a Vertical Garden

If possible, use walls to grow plants upwards to save as much floor space as possible. Not only will a vertical garden along a wall of your outside space look fantastic, it’ll do wonders for your sense of wellbeing.

14. Solo Bench – With Accessories!

A small solo bench will hardly take up any space, and can be dressed up beautifully with an ottoman or two, and pillows, when you’re having guests over.

15. Bistro Table

If you intend to do some al fresco dining in your small outdoor space, consider going for a bistro table. Not only will it look super chic, but it can fold away and take up a minimal amount of space.

We hope these interior design tips will help you out when you’re ready to furnish your new home.

GAP Homes – Malta Properties with Efficiency in Mind

GAP homes are designed with your needs in mind and incorporate well-thought out interior design, so every home makes the most of space and provides maximum storage.

Take a look at our current developments here and if you’d like to contact us feel free to do so.