Coziness isn’t something you can purchase at the store or hire an interior designer to create for you. A cozy home has to do with the personal touches and the day-to-day way you live in your space. From textures to scents to visual appeal, your home becomes cozy in many ways.
Soften Your Furniture
Image via Flickr by DesignFolly.com
When you think of a cozy room, you probably picture curling up on a couch with a blanket and some comfortable pillows. Adding throw pillows and soft blankets to your furniture invites people to sink into them and get comfortable. Plus, the extra fabric creates an appealing visual texture that you can supplement with area rugs and warm wall colors.
Pay Attention to Scent
Scent is one of those things you don’t always notice. When you do notice, that means it’s either quite nice or outright terrible. Choose universal, appealing scents to gently perfume the air in your home. Potpourri, unscented candles, and light citrus scents will make the house smell clean and inviting. To ensure that no bad scents permeate your home’s air, take out the trash often, keep the bathroom clean, and don’t let dishes hang out in the kitchen sink.
Temperature Impacts Ambience
It’s hard to feel cozy when you’re too cold or too hot. Programming your thermostat to deliver ideal temperatures at the right time of day is a good first step. Also consider how the sun can heat up a room if you leave the curtains thrown wide all day — and how badly insulated windows will let in chilly air during the winter. If your upstairs always seems to be the wrong temperature, the culprit might be your attic. Get an unfinished attic insulated for an overall improvement in home temperature.
Levels of Lighting Are Everything
A room with one overhead light does not feel inviting, no matter how the room is designed. Make the most of your natural light sources, and supplement those with lamps. You want your lighting to hit different levels, from high to low, to create an overall glow in the space that doesn’t cast unfriendly shadows. Table lamps add light to the middle, whereas floor lamps brighten up dark corners. Give yourself options so that you can create different lighting effects by turning lamps on and off.
Add Personal Accessories
The nicest home decor in the world won’t feel cozy unless it feels like it belongs to you. Accents shouldn’t come straight out of a magazine — they should come from your heart and your imagination. Pepper your space with pieces that mean something to you. These might be framed pictures of your family, trinkets your favorite people have given you, or pieces of furniture from a favorite relative’s home.
With these tips, you can easily create an interior ambience that’s warm and inviting. Your guests will enjoy visiting your home, and you’ll love spending time indoors. Make your space somewhere you want to be, not somewhere you just happen to live. It’s your home, and you have total control.
