With garden centres and hardware stores due to open this Monday, we are all already excited about getting our outdoor spaces ready for the summer ahead. But what about inside? With this new way of living comes a new way of shopping until doors can reopen. Online shopping has become the only way we can update our homes. Smaller stores without sophisticated revenue-producing websites are managing to continue to communicate via social media and e-newsletters with their customers, new and old. Complimentary deliveries, curbside pick ups, they are all weathering the storm and doing what they can.

While Irish paint company General Paints (Colourtrend and Curator) is reopening its click and collect service at each store on May 18, it is also relaunching its delivery service (waiving all fees) and offering a free (usually €125) personalised video colour consultancy service with fully qualified interior designers and colour consultants that will provide a detailed report including colour swatches and advice on choosing the right products for each project; www.generalpaintsgroup.com. Helen Turkington has been busy behind the scenes getting her two interior stores ready with lots of new deliveries of accessories, pretty fabrics and furniture. Her Sandyford and Ranelagh stores are reopening on Tuesday. Turkington is also running virtual room consultations and her new online store launches next month. Irish outposts of Danish company Bo Concept‘s interior designers are ready to help with free virtual styling advice online with no-obligation to buy. Sign up for an appointment online, www.boconcept.com.

Whilst Ikea stores are temporarily closed, its home furnishing experts are still available to help with online advice. A lot of its smaller accessories and furniture pieces (not the outdoor furniture unfortunately) are available for home delivery. Check out Ikea’s Gunrid curtains, they help purify the air in your home by using energy from natural light to transform polluted air to clean air! Rebecca Roe of Hedgeroe has taken to Instagram’s IGTV with a series of pretty how-to tips classes; @hedgeroe_home. Arnotts have created relaxing Spotify Summer Sounds playlists to play on their fantastic offering of super high-tech wireless radios and sound systems. Julianne Kelly Interiors are operating a by appointment service, contact them by email at info@juliannekellyinteriors.ie. Willie Duggan, the third generation lighting business run by Monica and Willie Duggan, is holding a seriously-informative lighting Q&A session on Instagram Live every Wednesday at 7pm; @willie_duggan.

Virtual Retail Round Up:

Painted terracotta vases, from €28, The Old Mill @oldmillstores

Bom table lamp, €169, at Willie Duggan Lighting

White Billund dining table, €729, at Bo Concept