How To Add Character and Good Lighting To Your Holiday Let
Many holiday homeowners often find interior design intimidating but it really doesn’t have to be. As we’ve mentioned before in our owner guides, there are plenty of unique ways you can make your second home relaxing and appealing so those bookings keep coming in. Sourcing interiors from various suppliers guarantees that your holiday cottage is unique to you. It also allows you to inject some of your own personality into your second home whilst offering visitors a relaxing and enjoyable retreat. Here are our top tips for adding character and good lighting to your holiday home:
How To Add Character
Whether you own a picture-postcard historical cottage or a new build, there are plenty of ways to add character to your holiday home. Here are our top 3 tips:
1. Add quirky items
One of the easiest ways to add character to your holiday let is with quirky items. Recycle old pots and jars, ceramics and earthenware, and place them purposefully around your property. Try displays of pretty teacups and saucers, and place a generously sized antique jug or teapot, or an old carafe on the sideboard.
All of these can be used to add accents of personality and character. Being whimsy here is totally ok but don’t overdo it. Also, it’s a good time to remember that your holiday home is not an outlet for dusty old collections you’ve grown out of. For those items that might be useful, place them on lower surfaces, for purely decorative items, place them up higher and don’t have too many.
2. Add Panelling
In our blog on ‘How to make blank walls more appealing’ we touched on accent walls and panelling. Not only does panelling help to spruce up blank walls it can also add a lot of character to your property depending on the way the panelling is added.
For historical properties located in Oxford, adding oak panels to the lower part of walls can really accentuate the history of the area. For new builds, adding block panelling or shiplap can create a much more modern look that hopefully won’t go out of fashion any time soon.
There are plenty of types of panelling out there from applied moulding to wainscoting, do your research to work out which would be best for your property.
3. Accentuate period features
If you’re lucky enough to have a holiday home that’s already filled with period features, from high ceilings and bay windows to ornate fireplaces and decorative wood or tiled flooring, then you’ll want to accentuate these. The character of your property is already there in front of you, utilise it and make it stand out just that little bit more.
Every old property, whether it’s located in the picturesque Cotswolds or the historic town of Oxford, you’ll find that the original features of your holiday let are not ones to get rid of. If you have an ornate fireplace, make it take centre stage. If you have high ceilings make sure you draw your visitor’s attention to them with well-placed light fixtures or paintings.
How To Add Good Lighting
Good lighting in a property can make a huge difference to the way your property feels. You want to create a place that feels bright, airy, and inviting, not dark, cold, and miserable. Here are our top 5 tips on how to add good lighting to your holiday let.
1. Use dimmers wherever possible
One of the best ways to add character and good lighting to your holiday lets is to use dimmer switches wherever possible. They can instantly change the atmosphere of a room and they come with the added bonus of saving you some money on your electricity bill. You can add dimmer switches to almost every room in your property should you wish and you can add them to many fixtures as you wish as well.
2. Use lighting in unexpected ways
Adding lighting to your holiday let doesn’t have to be boring, in fact, it’s better to think a little outside the box. Lighting is so much more than your overhead fixtures and portable lamps, if used correctly it can add an unexpected glow and a more personalised touch.
Some examples of out-of-the-box lighting ideas can include LED spotlights on a piece of artwork or bookcase, using LED striplights at the bottom or above kitchen units, or mismatching table lamps to provide subtle contrasts.
3. Choose a lighting Focal Point
Adding good lighting to a property should be done in stages to ensure it all gels together well. However, one of the main tips on our list about adding character and good lighting to your holiday let is to make your lighting a focal point. Not all fixtures should be the same size and their sizes can be dependent on the size of your room.
For large spaces, a chandelier makes a wonderful focal point, but for smaller spaces, you may want to have a decorative and distinctive floor lamp that draws your visitor’s attention. No matter what you choose, make sure it fits with the size of the room and offers a little bit of WOW factor when you walk in.
4. Consider Scale
Following on from the previous point about your lighting being a focal point and considering the size of the room, this one really is important. Lighting should never overpower a room but it also shouldn’t get lost in it either. The length plus the width of a room in feet should generally equal the diameter of a chandelier in inches. This is just one guideline you can follow. There are plenty more out there though. You may find that you bought a lamp or light fixture for one room but it works better in another, don’t be afraid to change your mind or ideas throughout the process.
5. Layer Lighting
To achieve the best balance when it comes to adding lighting to your holiday let, layers are incredibly important. For the best balance, you should aim for at least three different sources of light in every room. A good way to add layers of light to a room would be to reduce the wattage of some bulbs whilst leaving others brighter, making sure there are smaller fixtures in small rooms, and adding the odd table or floor lamp for a little extra lighting. Adding layers to your lighting helps to highlight extra details you’ve used to finish the room.
