In this Covid-19 pandemic, more and more of us are getting used to planning our schedule around not going to school or work. Ever wondered whether, when the pandemic and lockdown are finally over, will a better you emerge out of all these sudden and drastic changes?

Yes, you could utilise this time to reflect, strengthen your bonds with family and friends, study better, and become a reader, a writer or a physically fit person. Be health conscious if you haven’t been so far, or come out of this with a new hobby, pastime or a makeover. The makeover could be personal or it could be a makeover of

your personal space, which could be a room that is all yours or you might be sharing it with a sibling. Your personal space could also be a part of a room or just your desk — any place that should reflect your personality and creativity.

The makeover does sound exciting, doesn’t it? This is a great time to plan, design, DIY, paint, craft — who won’t be excited about this?

You may need to discuss with your elders and siblings as to what their ideas are and how you can all come up with different plans, decide on something suitable and get the stuff to materialise everything.

Here are some ideas to help you do up your rooms, and make it so beautiful and cleverly done that it will cheer you up while you are social distancing at home. And you can share some pictures of it with your friends and family.

As we begin planning, we must remember that since social distancing is in place and shop timings and availability of stuff is restricted, so there will be some limitations to the kind of material available. And since it is best to avoid going out to shops unless for essentials, you can collect stuff for many DIYs from around the house. Surely, we all have old magazines, card paper, cartons, boxes, scissors, glue, paints, pieces of cloth, old greeting cards and wrapping paper. You will be surprised how odds and ends will turn up once you make up your mind about your project.

Plan on paper first

You could renovate your given space with a theme or just redecorate with different ideas. If you have a favourite cartoon character or movie character, then your theme could be around them. For instance, your theme could be power heroes, Elsa from Frozen, or water life, if that is what puts you into your element.

The idea is to have things around you that relax you and bring out the best in you. As you may already know, colours have an effect on us and our favourite colours certainly make us happy.

It is always easy if you jot down the list of things you have. Make another list of what changes you want to make to your room or personal space and what stuff do you require. The last step here would be to go on a hunt and ask other people at home if they can help you get what is missing from your ‘Stuff that you require’ list.

Now that you have the basics down, below are a few ideas to pick up and customise according to a theme or a plan that you have in mind.

Decorating walls

How many walls have you got to decorate? If it is a room that you are decorating, you will have probably three to four walls to do up. There may be a closet, window or a door in one or two walls. Make sure you take permission from your parents before you stick stuff on the walls. They will help you find the most appropriate ways in which you can put up, nail or stick things either permanently or for short term use, whatever the case may be.

Look at the wall space available, and decide what shall go well there? Do you want to see a banner when you wake up? One that says a quote that you particularly like, or one that motivates you? Would you like to see tinsel stars in front of your blue wall or an aqua-life scene right out of Finding Nemo?

The world is an oyster and you can do whatever comes to your mind. You can even make a collage of your family’s or friends’ pictures that will always remind you of the fun times you have had together.

You can always use old magazines lying around the house to get hold of pictures. You can cut pictures out of greeting cards or old flash cards that you and your siblings don’t need anymore.

Here is an exciting idea if you want to do nothing on the wall but still want that space to reflect something interesting. If there is a light on the wall, with the help of a grown up, take the bulb when it is cool. Now draw on it randomly with a marker or use different colours on it. When you put it back in the socket and light it up, you will be surprised to see a kaleidoscope of colours in your room. Isn’t it so simple?

Do up that desk

Do you have an untidy desk or a neat one? Does your mum always yell at you for being messy? Well, if you have a tidy desk then you are probably an organised person and are using a desk organiser. Maybe it is time to change it.

If you are a messy person, then you need to organise your desk and this is the best time to create a desk organiser. Get hold of any art and craft stuff — old boxes, containers, tins, cans or even toilet paper centres around which toilet roll is wound. With almost anything that is discarded, a desk organiser can be created.

Desks can easily get messy as they are places where we spend time working either with DIY projects, or doing homework. Being organised may be difficult at first, but it will make your life simpler and being organised makes you more efficient.

If you don’t want to be artistic and feel no creative ideas coming on, you can use glass jars or empty jam bottles, to keep you stuff such as pencils, markers and other stationary. If you do feel creative, you can take these jars, tin cans or containers and cover them with paper. This can be wrapping paper, or any brown or white paper on which you can stick pictures or paint on them. Girls might like to stick shells, pearls or sequins on them, while boys might like to stick pictures of their favourite superhero.

You can also stick cans together and make a bigger organiser. We buy so much in tin cans these days so don’t throw the cans when the product inside finishes. And if you use cans of different sizes and stick them together after painting/covering them, you will get a very nice table organiser. These can come to many different uses and you can even make one for mum to store her cooking spoons and cutlery in. You can find loads of ideas on Pinterest for this.

When you have done a spot of redecoration in your room, maybe it will inspire others in the house. And by the time this pandemic is over, your house interior would look so refreshing and improved. But the main thing here is, you must show your creativity by utilising things around you, not taking unnecessary risks by going out to buy things or asking your parents to do so. There are also so many art shops now selling things online and delivering the goods at home, so you can check them out for anything you absolutely must have, with the permission of your parents of course.

Some pointers

• Gold is a classic colour and you could use gold or silver paper to cover around these cans in which you can store small things such as erasers, sharpeners, or clips and pins.

• You can use plants and greenery to liven up your room.

• Create a superhero photo frame as a centre piece for your room.

• If you have a window sill, why not put some plants there. Just don’t forget to water them regularly.

• You can repaint an old furniture piece in your room, like a desk, side table, etc., to change the look and colour of your room.

• Look up hand lettering videos and artistically write your favourite quote, give it a nice border, paste it on a card paper and use it as a wall/table decoration.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 11th, 2020