(ARA) – Will this year’s holiday house guests be seeing the same drapes, throw pillows and wall decor they saw in your home last year? Or even the year before that?

If your decor is looking tired – or you’re just plain tired of it – the holiday season is a good time to gift yourself with a few new items that will also refresh your home for guests. It’s easy to make a big decorating impact if you focus on sprucing up areas like windows, furnishings and walls. Consider these helpful hints:

Windows


The cheapest, most high-impact way to make windows look better is to wash them. Seriously. For the price of a roll of paper towels and some window cleaner – and some elbow grease – you can make your windows look great, not to mention brighten the entire room.

Once your windows are sparkling, reward yourself for your hard work with some new window treatments. If the holiday hustle and bustle leaves little time for a run to the home decor store, online resources like SeventhAvenue.com make it fast and easy to shop for curtains. Whether you opt for traditional or contemporary, replace curtains in rooms where guests are most likely to gather, such as the kitchen, living room or family room. To top off the holiday spirit of your new curtains, replace standard tie-backs with some festive holiday bows.

Furnishings

Replacing every stick of worn-looking furniture in your home’s “public areas” probably isn’t practical for your budget with the expenses of the holiday season looming. But you can refresh the furniture you have with a few simple steps:

* Make sure it’s clean. Polish wood surfaces and vacuum upholstery. Dust and dirt will never be a designer statement.

* Dress up older pieces with new cushions and pillows in eye-catching colors and patterns. A fresh pop of color can draw the eye away from less attractive surfaces.

* If your furniture is just too tired-looking and replacing it is not in the budget, consider concealment. Slip covers and colorful throws are cost-effective ways to refresh older couches, loveseats, dining room chairs, armchairs and even recliners. Choose ones that accentuate your holiday theme, such as “Snowball” slip covers that offer a plush feel and bright colors in a material with a raised, snowball-like pattern.

Walls

Walls are usually the largest design element in any room, and updating them can completely rewrite the profile of a space.

Painting walls is a low-cost, low-labor way to refresh a room’s atmosphere and set the stage for a whole new look – even if you just put the same furniture back into the freshly painted room. Giving walls a fresh coat of paint is well within the capabilities for most do-it-yourselfers, but if you’ve never painted before or are hesitant to take on the project just before the holidays, there are other ways to liven up your walls.

Changing wall decor can be fast, effective and fun. Sometimes simply moving a well-loved piece of art from one room to another is enough to make you see the piece – and the room – in a new light. Or, if you crave something new without the hassle of in-store shopping during the holiday season, you can find wall decor from framed art and mirrors to wall hangings and tapestries online at websites like SeventhAvenue.com.

The holidays and their hectic pace may make it hard to fight your own fatigue, but you don’t have to face the season – and all your house guests – with tired home decor. A few simple, cost-effective upgrades can make your home bright again this holiday season.