Laminate Flooring

Five Top Home Improvement Ideas for the Lockdown

The current lockdown means many of us have a lot more time to spend at home – so it’s the perfect time to get up to date with your DIY. But with the Government currently advising against all unnecessary trips, you may have to get a bit creative when it comes to giving your home a new look.

Here Xylo Flooring, who supply wooden, vinyl and laminate flooring across the UK, provide five top home improvement tips you should be able to carry out without leaving your house.

Remember to Upcycle

Upcycling is defined as ‘transforming waste materials into new products of increased quality or environmental value’. So, before you have a declutter and throw everything out, think about any alternative uses for anything that’s destined for the dustbin.

The possibilities are endless. Old ladders can be turned into unusual bookcases, unused chests of drawers into garden planters, old bottles into innovative lampshades and old tin cans into utensil holders.

Get the Paint and Brushes Out

If you have any spare pots, now is the time to use them – either for retouching areas which have faded or been damaged, or to create a new mix-and-match scheme on a feature wall. And remember you may be able to order some paint online so you could try a completely new colour.

Subtle shades of green and blue are among the most popular colours this year. Studies have shown that these can have a calming effect – just the job in this time of uncertainty.

Flower Power

As we are enjoying an early start to the summer, why not bring the brightness of outdoors inside your home? Go into the garden and take a clipping from any of your early-flowering plants and put them in a clear glass vase.

And the same process also works in reverse. You can take the indoors outdoors and treat the garden as an extension of your house – if you have any old pallets lying around, it’s a simple job to turn it into an outdoor sofa. All you need are a few screws, some paint and any leftover cushions.

Picture Perfect

You don’t have to go out and buy a painting from a gallery, or a poster from a shop, to brighten up your walls. Print out the best pictures stored on your iPad or iPhone, put them in picture frames and hang them up – and you have created your own, really personal, art exhibition. For the sake of consistency, it’s probably best to use frames which are all the same colour – and stick to either colour or black and white.

Keep Everything Clean

You’ve really got no excuse not to ensure that everything is spick and span – in the lounge, the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedrooms. Check out our blog on the subject here – it offers some useful time- and money-saving tips.

If you have wooden, laminate or vinyl flooring, then now is the perfect time to give it a good once-over – not just the regular brushing you should be giving each surface. For tougher stains and substances, use a plastic scraper on laminate flooring, while bicarbonate of soda or warm, soapy water will work well on vinyl. For oiled wooden floors, you can use your spare time to repair any unsightly marks by lightly sanding the affected area and applying some of the original oil.

We stock a wide range of Osmo cleaning products, including floor protectors, oils, waxes, and repair kits. This will help keep you on top of all the regular cleaning your floor needs, as well as more long-term repairs.

Quality Vinyl, Wooden and Laminate Flooring from Xylo

Xylo supply quality wooden, vinyl and laminate flooring to the building industry and the retail trade. If you would like to learn more about our range of flooring and accessories, call us on 020 8368 8122 or email us at infouk@xyloflooring.com.

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