Empty nesters – Reclaiming your style

You might decide it’s time to revamp your style with a more adult-friendly interior.

When children are living at home, it is inevitable that your decor, furnishings and accessories will be tailored to family life. However, once they have grown up and moved away from home, you might decide it’s time to revamp your style with a more adult-friendly interior.

It is only natural to want to keep bedrooms familiar for children, so that when they come back to visit they still feel like it is their home. As these rooms are probably not used day-to-day, ideally the focus rooms for reclaiming your interior style would primarily be the living areas – it is here that the changes will be felt the most; a few tweaks can make all the difference to a room.

The most lived in rooms in the majority of homes tend to naturally be the kitchen and sitting rooms, with many families choosing to merge the two into one open plan space, often through adding a glazed extension; a large open space draws people to a room. In doing this whilst the family is growing, a natural heart of the home is created, accommodating both children and adults, sometimes across multiple generations. This usually takes the form of a room filled with a mix-match of adult and child paraphernalia – from stylish adult accessories and art pieces to toys, games consoles and musical instruments – or whatever different family members’ interests may be. The easiest way to transform this space into a more adult-centric area is to add storage; that way belongings can be stored neatly away without them being relegated to the garage, attic or other hideaway places. If there is little disposable space, then repurposing a room into an activity room for all their treasured belongings is a good compromise; it provides a home for things have been left behind, as well as a dedicated place in which they can find and enjoy old belongings when they visit.

On the other hand, others reclaim their home by carrying out home improvements, such as adding to or altering the interior space. This might seem counterintuitive but extending the living space provides the room to entertain friends, which you might be doing more of now, and it also prepares for the future… Most people would hope that sons and daughters will start to bring partners home, and hopefully sometime, grandchildren too. At family holidays such as Christmas there needs to be the room to accommodate everyone!

Aside from renewing wallpaper / paint or accessories and soft furnishings to freshen up a room, altering the interior by reducing the clutter of family life through creating space is the best way to get your pre-children home back.