5 ways to make your home feel cozy

Home is a feeling and that feeling should evoke one of comfort and joy.

Creating comfort is all about finding the things you like and incorporating them into your home. I am a homebody at heart, so it suits me just fine to spend a lot of my time at home working as well as relaxing.

As the cooler weather approaches, I find that creating those cozy spaces in my home is even more important because I’m spending even more time inside. Although we envision curling up by a fire and a blanket in the colder months, creating a cozy home doesn’t have to be only seasonal. There are a few ways that can transform a home into feeling cozy and comfortable all year round. But first let’s talk about one thing that can kill that cozy vibe!

Clutter is the #1 reason you may not feel cozy in your home

There is one thing that will keep your home from feeling cozy and that is clutter. It is the one thing to fix in order for your home to feel cozy and there are ways to help with this problem. First, I would look around you and think about the things that aren’t working. If you have a counter full of clutter and lets face it, we all have that problem at one time or the other, then incorporate baskets or organizing bins to contain the chaos. Phones can be dropped in a shallow basket on the counter, keys can be hung up by an entry hook system, bookcases and coffee tables can be decluttered to keep only what you love.

Trays and containers for those spaces are another great and inexpensive way to contain items that make your home feel and look more curated. Get creative on how you contain the clutter, when things have a landing spot, it will help you feel better while at home . So that being taken care of, lets add in the cozy!

Blankets

There is nothing like cuddling up on the couch or club chair with a soft blanket. Folding and draping throw blankets on the couch can add texture, color and style to a space. If have a neutral couch color than try adding a pop of color or plaid throw blanket. However, if you have a bold colored furniture, then maybe sticking with a neutral color like cream or beige for your blankets will make it feel more relaxing. In decorating it’s about adding contrast, texture and color but all of those need to balance each other to make your home feel better designed and soothing to the eye. I personally have a neutral color palette but I contrast it with light and dark colors and natural elements like wood to bring balance and harmony to the space.

Candles

Let’s not forget about the power of the olfactory senses. A good smelling home can make it feel more inviting and relaxing. I love the candles that have vanilla, sandlewood, and spice scents. I’m not a huge fan of a real perfume smelling candles like gardenia or strong floral because I think they can be overpowering, especially in open concepts where smells from cooking can take over and usually don’t blend well with strong perfume floral smells. The floral scented candles in my opinion are a little more suited to bathrooms in most cases. Again, this is just preference, and I don’t know about you, but I feel real cozy when I walk into a coffee shop and/or bakery so I tend to go with those kind of scents for my home too.

Area Rugs

I opted for wide plank French hardwood floors in our entire home so area rugs were a must to making the space feel comfortable. An area rug can add texture and color to add appeal but offer that soft feel under foot. If you have carpet in every room then think about just adding a living room area rug on top of the carpet to designate the sitting area and something neutral with texture can make the space feel curated and create clean lines. Think about your home as designating spaces.

Curtains & Linen Fabric window coverings

Blinds are a great functional use for privacy and light filtering in a bedroom, but if they are plastic it can add a harshness to a room. Adding a soft fabric or sheer curtain can soften the standard blinds. In my home, in the areas we needed privacy, I opted to go with a custom ordered linen shade for window coverings. (I will include source info at the end of the post). The linen fabric add a touch of elegance and it was a great option in my study/library and main bedroom because of the lack of wall space for curtains. You could certainly add curtains in addition to the linen shades, which elevates your space and makes it feel well designed.

Accent Pillows

Here is where I shine people! I’m not going to divulge just how many throw/accent pillows I have in my home but let’s just say, I’m an overachiever! It’s the one home decor item you need in your home to make it feel cozy. I don’t just mean the ones that your couch came with when you purchased it! In fact, I typically will donate the pillows that came with my sofa. Here are my rules of thumb for picking out accent pillows for a living room.

#1 Think balance

You will need at least two throw/accent pillows on your sofa, but then add two or more if you want to really create a cozy feel. The saying, “the more the merrier” comes to mind when I think about using pillows to decorate. Depending on the size of your couch, I would say use 2 for a small sofa, 4 pillows for a larger 60+” sofa and if you have a larger sectional, I would do 6 pillows.

#2 Scale

When you are picking out accent pillows, wether it’s for a bed, sofa or accent chair, let’s talk about the size of the pillow to chose. For a small chair or sofa, I would chose 18-20″ pillow(s). If you use 2 pillows, choose the larger size. If you are using 4 pillows, I would chose two 20-24″ pillows (depending on the height of the back of your sofa) and then two more 18-20″ pillows to go on either side of the larger ones. I have a larger sectional so I have two 24″ pillows and four 20″ pillows for a total of six accent pillows. I usually would never only use 3 pillows or an odd number on a sofa simply because I’m a huge believer in balance. Symmetry or balance creates harmony, which lends to that cozy vibe and I’ll be honest, asymmetrical design is not my thing! Asymmetrical design can be done, but it’s tricky and so I generally advise against it, unless of course you are an expert at it. My motto in decorating is that if you can create balance then you should, no matter your style in decorating, because it is more pleasing to the eye and typically feels better.

#3 Color & Texture

I love the soft texture of linen and I have linen accent pillows in my bedroom and accent chairs in my living room. The softness of the pillow will obviously lend itself to feeling cozier. I have a fairly neutral decorated home so if you like this look, then add texture or neutral accent colors instead of pops of color. Soft textures like chenille can add a a softness to otherwise rough texture of a sofa material. If you have a soft fabric couch, like velvet or linen, then you can add some layering of more rough textured pillows for accent and contrast. A good rule of thumb I would use for decorating a sofa with accent pillows, would be to add pops of color to a neutral couch if you like color or use varying textures in neutral colors if you want to keep it neutral.

If you have a sofa in color, I would use neutral patterns or textures for pillows rather than add additional bold colors unless you have a rug or curtain with the same colors and patterns to bring it all together. Generally, I would stay away from huge blocks of different colors without having something to marry all those blocks of color together to create a curated and cozy feel.

The above photo is what NOT to do in accent pillows if the area rug doesn’t match the couch. A better option would be to remove the artwork or the change the area rug with something that matched the artwork in color or the color of the wall. This just looks chaotic and your eye doesn’t know what to land on in this photo. The couch is gorgeous and I even like the blue/green saturated wall together. So how do I fix this? There are two ways actually to fix this design to feel more cozy. One way to fix this is to take away the pillows and area rug and add neutral pillows and a matching rug in creams, beige, tan, rust and a little salmon pink to bring it all together with the artwork. The second way to fix this, which is a little more difficult, is to keep the area rug and eliminate the artwork, then find pillows that have a pattern with rust, blue (like the color of the wall), a deep forest green and cream (or beige) to it to marry all the colors together.

You could opt for a velvet green or blue sofa and use muted colors in the same tones or complimenting colors for pillows and your rugs as well; so that you’re eye doesn’t just land on the blocks of vibrant colors only in your sofa and pillows in the room.

This is an example of color done well. The green and rust colors compliment each other. The gray/Blue walls are also picked up in the rug, as well as the soft greens that complement the sofa. Your eye floats around the room picking up all the details and they all match and coordinate with that one thing: the rug colors that pull it all together. The dark wood floors also have a mahogany dark rust color that coordinates with the rug and the leather chair.

If you aren’t sure what works in a room, go out and come back into the room, and if you’re eye lands on just one thing in the room instead of floating around the room, then that’s the eyesore! Right?! Remove it and do the same thing by coming back in the room to see if that feels better. I love greens and blues in decor and I think those two colors can be done in about any aesthetic, wether its farmhouse, modern or traditional styles.

Can you have too many pillows? I mean…..if you can’t sit down then I would say yes, take a few away maybe and see how you feel, but pillows are meant to add comfort and so if your pillows don’t add a sense of comfort or coziness, then try less or try a different fabric or material.

Hoping your home is the coziest it can be and that some of these tips helped if you are wanting to feel more at home!

Source information:

Linen window shades @ Select Blinds

Casual Pleated Roman Shades

https://www.selectblinds.com/roman-shades/casual-pleated-roman-shades.html?ColorId=11246

**Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and any recommendation and opinions are my own. I do not receive compensation from this brand but rather am recommending based on the products I use in my home. For more information, go to the disclosure policy page here.