Martin Cid 
Improve Your Home and Improve Your Sex Life Too
• Sharing is caring and mess can mean less
• A fresh lick of paint may mean more than colourful flowers
• Pick up the vac for success in the sack
• Grab these top tips for improving your home
Are you getting a nudge from your partner about Valentine’s Day? If they’ve been dropping hints recently about what you can do to make them happy, then remember that home is where the heart is.
Spring’s on the way, and National Home Improvement Month ahead in April, now is the time to show where your true intentions lie – especially since new research shows that 69% of Brits don’t love their home.1 Flowers and chocolates may seem like an obvious way to woo your way to their affection, but research shows that the best way to improve your relationship may be to improve your home. The National Home Improvement Month campaign urges people to Make One Change, and it could help boost your sex life as well as improve your home!
Sharing is caring
Home improvements can be big or small – and an untidy home is one of the biggest causes of arguments amongst couples, Research shows that the one thing couples can do increase the amount of sex they have is to share housework more fairly. Couples who reported sharing equally the housework – including DIY and home improvements – enjoyed 36% more sex on average, 6.8 times compared to around 5 times in households in which one partner did the bulk of routine housework. 2
Red means go but green means no
Getting the mood right is also important. Researchers have also found a direct correlation between how much sex we have and the colour of our bedroom walls. Red is very much a green light for go in the bedroom, with black and purple walls also intense colours for intimacy. Conversely, dark green is more of a stop sign, voted the least sexy colour.
Georgina Burnett, TV presenter, life coach, and ‘Home Genie’ blogger, is National Home Improvement Month ambassador, and she believes that anyone can make improvements to their home with a wide range of projects – and that couples that DIY together can enjoy much more quality time in all sorts of ways. She comments:
“If you’ve got a Special One in your life, then there’s a special reason to Make One Change to improve your home. Sharing a project with your partner can be really healthy for a relationship as it gives you a shared sense of purpose. Home improvement is ideal as you both have something to enjoy together at the end.”
Top Tips for Doing it Together this Valentine’s Day
Here are Georgina’s top tips on how couples can make the most of the opportunity to improve your home and your relationship too:
• Work out your individual strengths so you can work well together as a team and avoid quarrels.
• Painting and decorating can be a fun task to bond over, if you view it that way rather than as a chore. So imagine you’re in the scene from a film and get the music going, perhaps share a bottle of wine (although not too much!) and agree that with each section painted you will give each other a kiss.
• Choosing colours can be a minefield for couples so agree at the start that you may need to compromise. If you like orange and he/she isn’t keen, maybe this just needs to be an accent colour in the room, against something more neutral like grey.
• Fixing broken things in the home can be very cathartic. Doing so together with your partner can give you that shared sense of satisfaction. Sit down and write all the things that bug you both and then prioritise the list so you can tackle one at a time together. Celebrate at the end of each accomplishment with a high 5, a kiss or something more!
• Improving your bedroom together can be a sexy job. Finding out from each other what would make you tick in the boudoir…when it comes to interiors…can teach you a lot about your partner. It’s such an important place to get right for your love life but also because it’s where you both start the day. Even just moving or replacing furniture and linen and removing clutter can have a huge impact on the harmony of this special room.
• Spending time together in nature can be hugely beneficial to a relationship. What better way to do this than actually sorting your garden out so you can enjoy bathing in the sun or candlelit picnics together in the summer. Your garden should be a romantic place to spend together so achieving this as a couple can do you both wonders. If just a good tidy up followed by cuddling up and toasting marshmallows over a fire pit sounds like a wonderful date doesn’t it? Gardening is also a great workout to get you in shape for..erm..other activities.
• People don’t realise how much of an impact home interiors have on a relationship. If there are things that niggle you on a day to day basis, resentment can start to build. You may laugh that one partner is messy whilst the other is a neat freak, but over time this can come between you. Just the very act of sitting down together and going through the improvements you would both like to see happen can make your bond stronger. Remember there’s no such thing as perfection, but just the very fact you’re communicating with each other and showing that you care about your partner’s needs can really make a difference.
• When choosing colours together make sure you have in mind the mood you both need that room to evoke. For example, if you like to relax together in the lounge, you want muted tones. To improve your sex life, add fiery colours like fuschia and red in the bedroom, if you love sharing food together then vibrant colours in the kitchen will work with you.
For information on National Home Improvement Month visit www.nationalhomeimprovementmonth.co.uk
