One thing is abundantly clear: We have gotten very well-acquainted with the insides of our homes during 2020. It’s inevitable that seeing the same furniture, accessories, and drab walls day after day has an unpleasant impact on us. Chances are, you found yourself wishing you could brighten up those dowdy colors you know so well. Well, you are in luck!

Here are half a dozen little projects that will bring light and delight into your home. You may enjoy these few changes so much that you won’t want to rejoin the mainstream again when all the businesses reopen and the world goes back to the way it was.

Or, more likely, when we can return to “business as usual,” at least your attitude will be as bright as your home.

#1 Painting That Wall or That Room

It’s very likely you have a color that is particularly meaningful to you, perhaps a pastel yellow or blue, that brings a smile to your face whenever you see that shade. What wall or room in your house would you like to transform from dingey to delightful? Of course, moderation is the key. Even the most beautiful wall paint colors can be overwhelming if they are too intense.

Perhaps literally changing the color of a wall or a room is too intense. Or, perhaps, all your accessories in the room you want to change were picked because they matched the hue of the walls. That doesn’t mean that you can’t lighten the tone and stay with the same color. Can you think of anyone’s face that isn’t prettier when that person smiles? Lightening the shade of the paint on the largest wall in a room without changing the color is a way of making a room smile.

Here are a few ideas that may come in helpful as you think about which wall or room you want to change and what color you’d like it to be.

Before you do anything else, decide what you want the room to look like when you’re through.

It may well be that you’ve never painted your walls before. Or perhaps you’ve tried and the result was not what you had hoped. There is nothing like having some good help to breathe a little life into the color you’ve chosen in the form of interior home painters. The best part about bringing in professional interior painters is that they clean up after themselves.

#2 Paint the Ceiling

At some point, you may raise your eyes just a bit and notice the top of the room needs a little help as well. Ceilings come in many varieties. Older ones may be made of plaster.

Perhaps you have a drop ceiling with acoustic tiles or a popcorn ceiling. Regardless of what kind of construction it is, it will accumulate dust and a lonely cobweb here or there. Cleaning the ceiling is a difficult, dusty enterprise that invariably results in a sore neck from looking up.

One thing that can brighten a room and ease the burden of cleaning the ceiling as a bright new coat of paint.

Here are some tips to help you get started on this job:

You may hesitate at this if you have a popcorn ceiling, thinking that it will end up look two-toned, like a mountain range partially covered in snow. In actuality, you can paint a popcorn ceiling and make it appear consistent all the way across. You’ll need to use paint rollers with a very deep knap and make sure you pause about twice as often to fill the rollers with paint.

#3 Painting Trim and Baseboards

Regardless of whether you paint the walls or the ceiling, one way to brighten any room with woodwork in it—and especially living rooms, game rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens—is to paint the trim work and baseboards. High gloss paint isn’t used on large wall areas or other large painted spaces because it’s simply too bright and would become distracting and oppressive. However, trim work and baseboards painted with semi-gloss paint can accent the colors of the walls and accessories and, in doing so, brighten a wall and an entire room.

If you want to make the woodwork come to life, here is the process:

#4 Painting Kitchen and Bathroom Cabinets

How often during our stay-at-home time in 2020 did we find ourselves staring at the kitchen cabinets and built-ins? They seemed to acquire a kind of dreariness about them and sometimes we thought we’d like to replace them all. Replacing cabinets is a massive undertaking that upsets the household for days on end, not to mention the budget. There is a step short of replacing the cabinets that will end the malaise of seeing them day-after-day—and brighten your entire kitchen in the process: painting your cabinets and built-ins.

The main caution about repainting kitchen cabinets is not to underestimate the job or to fail to plan it out carefully. Even though the final appearance is wonderfully uplifting, it can be a daunting undertaking and quite time-consuming. Here is one good way to approach the task:

#5 Interior Brick Staining and Painting

This project is especially intended for those who have brick fireplaces, mantels, or other brick features in your home. If you ever have a chance to check out rustic rental cabins or mountain getaways on your computer, you may notice on those sites with brick fireplaces that there is a scorched, black stain on the brick directly above the fireplace.

Of course, those common soot stains come from people not opening the fireplace damper before lighting the fire. In fact, you may have a stain something like that on the brick around your fireplaces. If you don’t and yet you use your fireplace, it’s only a matter of time until someone in charge of the lighting the fire forgets to open the damper, resulting in an irreversible black stain on the brick.

Whether the brick is stained or not, many folks don’t care for the particular color of brick they have inherited on their hearth. Regardless of the reason you don’t care for the color of brick inside your house, here are some steps to change the brick color and rid the fireplace of its soot scar:

Just in case there should be another damper incident, remember that soot washes right off high gloss paint, which is impermeable.

#6 How Is Your Natural Woodwork Looking?

Many beautiful homes have finished natural wood appointments as well as painted wood. There may be any number of items you’d like to brighten by staining and varnishing. Here are some tips for making the natural wood look brand new:

Each and all of these ventures have the potential to brighten your home and uplift the spirits of everyone who lives there as well as the visitors you will one day welcome again.

Get help from Professional Interior Painters!

Because of the complexity of the projects, you might want to consult and invite the help of professional painters. This removes the guesswork out of which type of paint to choose—even though the color choices remain all yours. Professional interior painters have the extra advantage of furnishing all the supplies and cleaning up after themselves after the work is done. Best of all, you can’t make a mistake when pros are doing the work on your behalf!