7 Ways to Make Your Home Extra Cozy This Season
7 Ways to Make Your Home Extra Cozy This Season
Our homes reflect us, and that makes them come alive during the holiday season! Savor the process of decorating for the holidays. Like home itself, it can be full of joy.
The truth is, most of us could use a little help. Most of us, faced with our own houses, aren't sure where to start decorating for the holiday season. This blog post is full of starting places - 7 of them, in bite sized tips, techniques and pointers. Every idea works with your current decor, designer-tested, and able to harmonize, not clash, with your home.
7. Turn Up the Texture
The most luxurious piece of furniture in the Family Room is not necessarily the sofa. Its often cozy toss pillows and chunky blankets that make the room an inviting place to lean back, put up your feet, and read.
6. Rugs to Sink Your Toes Into
In choosing colors for your holiday decor, I like to use a rug as a starting point. If you are fortunate enough to swap out a spring/summer rugs for fall/winter rugs, layer them over wall to wall carpeting for a cozy vibe. To make the room as rich and intense as the rug, bring in deeper hues in your holiday decor that are more prominent in pattern.
5. Window Treatments to Keep You Warm
Most people think purely about looks when they address a window. What will be prettier; curtains, shades or roman shades? What color? What fabric? What print? Truthfully, the first question should usually be: What do I want this particular window treatment to accomplish? Your answer, which may vary from room to room, could include partial privacy, total privacy, filtering sunlight, framing a good window or turning the window into a focal point. Maybe you want the holiday table to shine in your Dining Room with natural light, but you also want partial privacy from the house next door. Sheer curtains are a natural solution; they allow sunlight while veiling the neighbors' view of your holiday celebration.
4. A Fireplace Mantel to Smile About
That huge open space over the fireplace can be daunting to fill, especially when you consider the cost of a massive mirror. Here's a solution for the holiday season: cozy up your mantel! Objects on a mantel should be of varying heights, you want a skyline, not all the same level. Raise a few small objects, such as framed photos or candles, above their neighbors by creating pedestals that become part of your holiday display; a stack of three bound books, a collection of candlesticks add fresh garland to top it off!
3. Your Favorite Scents of the Season
If your Dining Room centerpiece consists of two candlesticks flanking a flower arrangement, its time to drag it out of the 1950s. Try grouping a large cluster of candlesticks in the center of the table. You can never go wrong with white, cream colored tapers that fill your home with the scent of the season.
2. Fall Foliage at Home
Fresh greenery and flowers add a touch of season to your home. Arrange large bouquets or branches in a silver-plated champagne bucket. Buy sprays of greenery that will go with everything - eucalyptus, box or anything that strikes you and add a few long-stemmed roses for color. This will keep your costs down but still add warmth to your holiday decor!
1. A Place to Gather Loved Ones Close
Reclaim your fireplace! Consider pulling two armchairs or wing chairs up to the hearth. Place a round table between them, a great spot for hot cocoa! The fireplace now becomes an anchor for gathering, ideal for two (remember to light the fire!).
Choose a handful of ideas from this post that appeal to your sense of comfort, your eye for design, your budget and your home for the holidays. They will work together, because your taste and your personality will bring the holiday spirit in every decorating decision you make. Don't feel like you can go it alone? Most people don't know it, but you can hire me for just a few hours, either to get some advice or to have your home "re-styled." Schedule a Discovery Call and we'll get to work on creating gorgeous holiday decor in your home!
Cheers!
~Michelle