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Forget laugh lines. Does your space age you?

Sydney Blanks, one of my EOS staff designers, specializes in upholstery. She has plenty of advice if you’re starting to feel like your home is stuck in a time warp.

In the interior design business, we frequently see clients who fell in love with a look years ago and are not quite sure what to do next. You may have made a great investment 15 years ago by purchasing a sofa that is eight-way hand-tied, double-doweled and has a kiln-dried frame, but chances are that the fabric on your sofa is in jeopardy of dating your space.

“Textiles for the home follow closely behind fashion trends for clothing,” Sydney said. “What you see on the runway this year will be the inspiration for the sofa or window treatments that are hitting the market in about three to five years.”

We’ve all seen examples of people who get stuck in a fashion rut; they cling to trends or styles for comfort or other reasons. There are plenty of people who hang onto interior looks for too long, as well. If you fell in love with a fabric 30 years ago, you may need to revise your expectations when shopping for coordinates.

Your home reflects your personality. No one deserves to be categorized as “past their prime.”

There are many reasons why we let the years go by without updating. The first step in making a change is to identify the cause.

Children are the No. 1 reason we do not update our homes. We look at new things for our home, and all we can think about are the grape juice stains and fingerprints.

Fabrics made for indoor/outdoor use can be a great solution. All-weather fabrics are no longer the laminated moiré on your grandmother’s glider. There are thousands of fantastic options that will stand up to sun, rain, snow, and, yes, even a 2-year-old.

Another solution is to have a custom slipcover made from a washable fabric. A custom slipcover will ensure that the fit is correct. By hand-selecting the fabric, you have the opportunity to really breathe new life into your space. Having rugs and upholstery treated for stain protection and investing in paints that are easy to clean are also measures that can be taken to give us an outstanding yet child-friendly space.

Budgets are the second leading cause of homes in need of a face-lift. As they say, “money makes the world go round,” and interior design is no exception to the recent recession.

Updating the home tends to end up on the back burner when the belt gets tighter. In fact, investing a little money into your environment can have outstanding effects on your quality of life. By investing in a $40 can of paint, for example, you can have the perfect shade of sunny yellow for your home office and get more work done because the environment brightens your mood. Not all great style is attached to a name brand, and vendors these days are aware of a budget-conscious consumer.

Unintentional procrastination is another reason for inertia. One day you realize that you can’t believe that you bought those window treatments for your living room when your son was 3 years old and now he’s a college graduate with his own small apartment to furnish. Time flies when you’re focused on family, career and, sometimes, mere survival. When we don’t have time to pay attention to current trends, we don’t realize that our home fashions are aging us. Like the avocado refrigerator, everything comes with a life span, some longer than others.

So what do you do if you’re like one of our clients, who decided her couch needs to “find its final resting place in a fraternity house?” Not every project is a complete overhaul, so make a plan. Simple changes can give your space a new look without having to completely renovate. Switching up your window treatments or reupholstering an item can make all the difference.

Once you’ve identified what changes need to be made, you can execute your plan on a timeline that is comfortable for you and your budget. When you’ve turned your 1980s den into your chic salon, invite friends over and bask in all the compliments. Your updated space will make you feel — and possibly even look — years younger.

Jessica Dauray is owner of EOS Interiors. Have questions for a Design Wise column? Contact Dauray at jess@elementsofstyleinc.com.