Aside from feasting on mouth-watering Malay delicacies such as ketupat, rendang, satay, lemang and so forth, spaces are also decorated to welcome the festive Raya season. Not just houses but offices, malls and other public places are adorned with a kaleidoscope of decorations.
An easy way to get into the Raya mood is to spruce up your home. To freshen up your living space and get it Raya-ready, we have prepared a list of decoration ideas you can consider getting for your home this Hari Raya. Hopefully, it will make for a refreshing change of environment since we have spent so much time at home for the past two years!
Rearrange your furniture
It makes sense to start with what you already have at home, and you’d be surprised how much changing up the placement of your present furniture can make the house feel different! This is true for all rooms of the house, but if you want to focus on one room for Raya, then it makes sense to start with the living room. Living rooms usually have one focal point (be it the TV, a coffee table or a large sofa), and the rest of the furniture facing or surrounding it. So try and see if it makes sense to change up the formation of the furniture — some ideas include changing the focal point, swapping positions of the furniture, or changing the angle of the set-up relative to the room.
Get an accent piece
Instead of doing a whole makeover to your home, focus on getting a few accent pieces that can help make your living area shine. For soft furnishing and a wide variety of home decor specially curated for your homes, you can get both casual and striking designs from Propupstore. Choose from a selection of canisters, vases, cushions, mirrors and a whole lot more! You could get a colourful throw rug to put on your sofa, a table runner for your dining table, a new plating dish, or a couple of new pillows in contrasting colours. If you’re looking for a new piece of wall decor, get a mirror to hang on the wall — it’ll help make the room look bigger too!
Get some Raya lights
Festive lights are a common sight during Raya, and it’s such an easy way to bump up the celebratory mood at home ? Best part is, they’re not super expensive to buy either! You’ll find plenty of options online that are affordable, from those in warm or cool tones to colourful lights and even those in special shapes like baubles or even ketupat! You can hang them outside your house, along your windows, over your doorway, or any other spot that you fancy. Opt for vendors with supplies available locally so you can get your lights delivered quick and in-time for Raya.
Switch up your tableware
This is another easy option that doesn’t require a lot of investment. Tableware refers to anything you use to serve, dine or decorate your dining table with, and it’s a nice accessible option to freshen up your dining area that won’t necessarily take-up a large cost! Try switching up your plates, opting for colourful or patterned ones. Or if your plates are plain-coloured, try getting pretty cutlery. You can also buy placemats, a table runner or table cloth, or put some table decor like candles, a vase of flowers or plants, or even glass jars filled with your favourite raya kuih.
Switch positions of your wall decorations
Our house often contains a number of wall decorations that are significant to us — things like paintings, calligraphy of verses from the Quran, framed photos, posters and so on. A nice way to spruce up the home without spending anything is to change around some of your wall decor! Having them re-positioned in a different part of the house can add a new touch to the room. Think of new and creative ways to place them too: perhaps photos that were hung separately can be clustered together in a new location for a different look. Simply shuffling the decorations you already have can definitely help freshen things up, but if you’re looking for new decorations they don’t have to be expensive either!
Go green and natural
Green is a popular colour for Hari Raya, and the more natural greens you put in your home, the better. Weave some ketupat cases with real leaves and place them around your home, together with some leafy plants so that you weave in the green elements seamlessly into your home, rather than forcing it into the setting. And don’t worry, if you’re not up for investing and caring for plants, there are plenty of realistic-looking artificial plants available nowadays that will do the job too.
Declutter your space
Sometimes it’s not about adding on to your home, but rather taking away. And nothing does more wonders to a particular space than by decluttering it. Get your Marie Kondo on and tackle areas where it’s easy to accumulate items such as tables, shelves, or open counter space. Throw away things that are broken, and sort out items that are still in good condition to give away or recycle if you’re no longer using them. Sort through the items you want to keep and make sure they are stored where they should be in an orderly fashion. By minimising the items and clutter, you’ll be amazed at how much more appealing and soothing the room will look.
Matching table runners and cushion covers
Nothing screams Hari Raya more than matching decorations. Traditional motifs and Middle Eastern themes are beautiful choices for this festival. Opting to have cushion covers and table runners with the same patterns will create a harmonious environment. However, remember to make them only as highlights against a simple monochromatic colour scheme for the rest of the space. In interior designing, less is always more. If you’re thinking of following the matching theme completely, you can add curtains of the same pattern for a more schematic look.
