Make Your Home Cozier With These 7 Tips

1. Pick Warm Tones

Colours with red, orange, or yellow tones make a space feel warmer, warmth = coziness. Now, you don’t need to paint a room bright orange to make it feel warm! In fact, a strong use of a warm, vibrant colour can make a space feel unrelaxing. If you choose a neutral paint colour with a warm tone or a light, warm paint colour, you can create a space that feels both cozy and relaxing. 

You might not be up for repainting your space, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use warm tones to make your home cozier! You can incorporate warm tones in your furniture, trim, rugs, and décor. If you like a bolder look, you can go for that bright orange in a few accent pieces throughout the room.

If you’re after that calm, relaxing feel cool tones can give, you can still make your home cozier with the following ideas:

2. Add Texture

Texture can make a space more interesting and can also make your home cozier. Try to incorporate textures that are soft to the touch and that are more matte than glossy. For example, leather couches aren’t as cozy-looking as polyester or microfibre and glossy-finished furniture feels much more formal than a natural finish.

3. Decorate with Pillows and Blankets

Adding decorative pillows and blankets to your space makes your home look and feel more cozy. This is also a great way to add texture. Cable-knit, faux fur, and other fluffy styles are extra-good at bringing the cozy factor. Keep in mind that too many perfectly-placed pillows can make a space look stuffy or overly formal, working against your desired cozy vibe.

4. Mood Lighting

A British interior design expert I was watching on Netflix said that any given room should have at least four sources of light. I definitely do not follow this religiously but I try to layer a couple different light sources to build atmosphere. The room in the picture above definitely gets a lot of beautiful natural light. If you look closely, you’ll see they also have candles, a wall sconce, a reading lamp, and ceiling lighting. Imagine how cozy this place looks at night with all those lit up!

When choosing light bulbs (and even Christmas lights), anything labelled “warm white” is a pretty safe bet. If you want to add extra atmosphere and coziness, picking an accent lighting piece with a really warm tone can add some extra personality and interest.

5. Lower Wall Hangings

A general rule of thumb is to hang your wall art approximately at eye level. If you have lower ceilings, you may want to hang your art on the lower end of eye level so as not to emphasize your low ceilings.

A good time to break this rule is when you’re hanging art over a large piece of furniture like a sofa. This takes attention away from a stark wall and focusses it on the furniture where the coziness is happening. Having a more focussed or contained point of interest seems to add to the cozy vibes. This is also a great place to hang your larger wall décor pieces because they can be low over your furniture and eye level at the same time!

6. Rugs

Rugs can ground a space with a designated purpose such as a seating or dining area.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can literally pile on the coziness by layering multiple rugs. You can create a cozy, bohemian feel by overlapping rugs with different textures and patterns to cover a larger space. Another option is to centre a smaller, medium-to-high pile rug over a larger jute or flatwoven rug which will feel more symmetrical and balanced. Either way, this decor technique is super on-trend right now!

7. Add Plants

Plants are a great way to create balance in a cozy space. Adding a plant or two will brighten up your home. Plants literally add life to your space which nicely balances out the tired look that having lots of throw blankets and worn furniture can create.

If you’re not yet ready to be responsible for another living thing, adding a vase of cut flowers or greenery will also do the trick.