EP 150 // 3 Hacks I Learned From Instagram For Instant Interior Impact

**Cara Baker** (0:00)
Tiny tweaks, instant interior impact. No rewiring, no renovation, no full room makeover drama. In this episode, I'm sharing three Instagram home decor hacks that may be do a proper little double take, the kind of clever simple ideas that can make your home feel styled, considered, and a bit more polished without ripping the room apart. Perfect for when you're craving a change, but your time, budget, or brain says, absolutely not today. Let's get into it.
Welcome to the Daring Home Decor podcast. Are you tired of playing it safe with your interior design? Are you overwhelmed with choice and just want simple steps to pull off cohesive and unique decor?
I'm your host, Cara Baker, virtual interior designer and bold decor coach. I'll help you get brave, find your style, and create a home with pizzazz. So grab your paintbrush, put on those overalls, and let's get decorating.
Thank you for joining me. The heat wave continues in the UK, and England are through to the semi-finals. Can you believe it? It will all be over once this podcast episode airs. So who knows who will win? We shall see, fingers crossed. And in today's episode, I'm sharing three hacks I learned from Instagram for instant interior impact. And number three, I'm absolutely obsessed with, and if I'm honest, it is the real reason why I decided to do this podcast episode. So let's kick off with hack number one, and it is non-wired lamps with battery-operated bulbs. You can basically cut the wire off a lamp and pop in a battery-operated bulb and get the same effect as if you'd plugged it in. This allows you to display the lamp anywhere in your home. It doesn't have to be near a socket. It doesn't have to be near a wall. You could display it in the middle of the room, maybe on your coffee table, where you wouldn't normally want a wire trailing across, and you definitely probably wouldn't have any sockets nearby. This allows you so much freedom about when and where to display or style the lamp. You could even put one in the bathroom where you wouldn't normally. And I love lamps. They literally instantly make a room feel more styled, more cozy, more considered. We don't just want to be putting the big light on. So this is another option in your tool belt if you're restricted when it comes to sockets and wiring. You could even add lamps onto shelves, in hallways, on sideboards where maybe there's no socket, kitchen corners, and as I mentioned, bathrooms and dark, awkward spots. Basically, there's no thought needed. If you want a lamp there, you can have a lamp there. And once you do this, you'll be thinking, why didn't I know about this sooner?
In our guest bedroom, I wanted, when we decorated it, I wanted two pendants coming straight from the ceiling for the bedsides. And Andy said it wouldn't be possible electrics-wise with regards to the part of the loft which coincides with the ceiling in the guest room where I wanted them to come from. So what we actually did in the end was basically exactly this. I bought some battery-operated light bulbs, and we got switches, and you get like a little kind of transformer that you get with the switches. And Andy managed to put this in the rows of the lights. And basically, you can take the switch anywhere. So we just put it at the side of the bedside cabinets, and our guests can turn the lights on and off. No wiring, no electrics required. So I absolutely love this hack, and it's definitely something that wouldn't have been available in the past. And there's all sorts of battery-operated hacks and shortcuts you can do when it comes to lighting nowadays. I think I've mentioned before, I've got some battery-operated tea lights that I display in various places around my home. I put them into nice tea light holders, and you can set them on a timer. I charge them up once a week, and every evening, they come on, I don't have to do anything, and it literally looks like I've got some little tea light candles going in different rooms, and it makes the place super cozy, especially in the winter. So definitely don't neglect the lighting in your home, and think about what you can actually add when it comes to lighting, that doesn't involve electrics, and definitely doesn't involve the big light. I absolutely love a clever shortcut, because sometimes you don't need to rip the whole room apart. You just need someone to show you the thing you couldn't quite see yet. That's what I kept thinking when I saw this hack. It was so simple, but it opened up all those little styling possibilities. The dark corner, the awkward shelf, the bedside lamps when the electric wasn't possible, the sideboard with no socket. Suddenly, it wasn't a problem anymore. And that's the bit I love about decorating. You don't always need more effort. Sometimes you need a clearer idea. That's what my digital decor kit gives you. Not a giant scary home makeover plan that makes your brain melt. A clear, pulled together room idea that shows you what to use, what colors work, what pieces will bring it together, and how it can feel more exciting before you start buying random bits and hoping for the best. So if you've been staring at a room thinking, I know it needs something, but I don't know what, this is a much easier way to move forward. You can get your digital decor kit at daringhomedecor.co.uk/digitaldecorkit.