7 Living Room Changes When You’re So Sick and Tired of Winter

From freshening up your fabrics to doing a deep clean, there are plenty of projects to help you transform your living room from a cozy winter hideaway to an uplifting spring oasis.

“We love to swap out heavier blankets and throw pillows for lighter, fresher textiles. Linen and cotton blankets draped on the sofa add a new textural layer,” advises owner and interior designer Jessica Salomone of Philadelphia-based Lotus and Lilac Design Studio. “It can be refreshing to brighten up your sofa and armchairs with new pillows. Modern florals, light textures, and geometric patterns can brighten up your interiors for spring.”

Beyond restyling your space with decor, your living room may call for some more hands-on work, like painting and repairs.

With more daylight hours and frigid temperatures behind you, you may be feeling more energized to tackle home projects. Here’s your spring cleaning checklist with a few quick DIY projects and styling tips that you easily can master in a weekend. By Monday morning your living room will be spruced up and truly reflect springtime.

With spring cleaning in mind, it’s time to KonMari your space, purging items that are weighing you down emotionally and your room physically.

Get rid of the DVD display (if you mostly stream movies and TV shows). Throw away all those mystery cords and clickers that no longer belong to devices. Make room on your bookshelf. And, pare down the decorative displays on your mantel and other living room surfaces.

With longer days and more sunlight, it’s the perfect time to repaint, since you can really see what colors look like with maximum sunlight shining in your house.

“Spring is the season of new beginnings, and there’s no better time to give your space a new look and feel with a fresh coat of paint,” says Erika Woelfel, Vice President of Color and Creative Service at Behr Paint Company. “As the temperature increases and the days become longer, springtime months offer optimal conditions to paint both the interior and exterior of your home.” Ideal painting temperatures are between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Switch out winter’s heavy draperies for something more ethereal and light, like gauzy white textiles that welcome in sunlight.

“Replacing the curtains instantly changes the look of a room depending on the color, style and texture you use,” says Amira Johnson, interior designer with Emerald Doors. “Linen curtains are a hit. They bring out the feeling of the warm, breezy day. They are light in touch, easy and simple in maintenance.”

Or for windows that are clad in blinds and weighed down with curtains, free your portals from fabric altogether and leave them bare to breathe for the season.

After trudging in fallen leaves, mud, and snow melt all winter long, springtime is an appropriate time to really do a flooring deep clean. With tile, have your grout professionally cleaned and repaired. Polish and patch scuffed wood planks. Call in the professionals to steam your wall-to-wall carpeting. And wash area rugs or switch them out.

“Swapping out heavier patterned wool rugs or shag rugs for sisal, woven natural fiber rugs and lighter and/or brighter flat-woven rugs will transform your living room,” recommends Salomone.

After using your fireplace all fall and winter long, have your chimney swept and get any repairs made on damages that were incurred over the cold season. Replace logs with something lighter and fresher, like a tiered candle display or an array of potted plants.

“Remove the winter ashes and add fresh or preserved florals in vases, birch branches, ferns or stacked books for a fresh perspective,” says Salomone “I personally love more unconventional fireplace arrangements. Layer low-light plants in terra cotta planters or non-living plants, such as preserved hydrangeas or moss arrangements for a textural contrast to brick and tile.”

Just as you style your dining room table for holiday dinners, it’s important to update other surfaces throughout your home to reflect the season. In your living room, this means gussying up your coffee table and sprucing up the mantel.

“To make change for your coffee table, grab a pitch of flowers and a stack of books,” advises Johnson. Or simply add floral-scented candles or top a tray with seasonal elements that you’ve gathered from your garden.

While winter may seem like a good time for houseplants in your cozy abode, you’re wrong. Hot radiators zap all the good humidity and make it hard for plants to thrive in the great indoors. Springtime, on the other hand, is a lovely time to bring easygoing plantings into the home with maximum light and more humidity.

“Incorporating low-maintenance houseplants in your interior decorating is an exceptional way to improve air quality and greet the change of season to spring in your home,” says Salomone, who recommends plants like pothos, jade, kalanchoe and rabbit’s ear—and for dried arrangements, eucalyptus and hydrangeas.

“I also love bringing in branches from the yard such as magnolia, forsythia and birch,” she continues. “It adds an element of organic sculpture to vases and can instantly transform the look of your fireplace mantel or console table.”