The holidays are over, the tree, garland, wreaths, lights, and all of that other Christmas stuff is put away, and your living room is looking mighty bare, right? Today seven wonderful design bloggers have teamed up to share with you our design ideas for refreshing and restyling your living room for the new year.
If you’ve arrived here from The Design Twins, welcome! Julie and Jodie are sweet ladies and good friends of mine, and they always bring a comfortable, beautiful and cozy aesthetic to their homes. I always enjoy their posts!
The ideas that I’m suggesting for your winter living room will help your home still feel snug, warm, and cozy for the rest of the winter – sans pine needles and sap.
Let’s dive right in and take a look at my ideas for decorating and refreshing your living room. Most of these ideas could be used in any room of your home with the same effect.
DESIGN IDEA – IF YOU HAVE A FIREPLACE, ORIENT YOUR FURNITURE TOWARD IT SO YOU CAN ENJOY THE WARMTH AND THE AMBIANCE
I kind of wish I could move my furniture around on a whim – chairs on either side of the fire would be so fun. Doesn’t this look so cozy? But I think my husband would revolt if I asked him to help me move furniture every other month. So my furniture stays put – but at least the fireplace is front and center.
Centering your furniture so that you have a good view of the fireplace is a great way to be able to enjoy the ambiance of a warm fire on a cold winter’s night. And here’s a thought – if you can’t move the furniture, you could always throw some big floor pillows nearby.
Floor pillows by the fireplace convey the same sense of cozy comfort, and they’re so much lighter to move around than those big chairs are!
Doesn’t that look so cozy and inviting? I know it makes me want to snuggle up with a warm mug of hot chocolate and a good book.
DESIGN IDEA – USE GREENERY AND ORGANIC PIECES (I.E. WOOD) TO ADD WARMTH AND LIFE INTO YOUR WINTER ROOMS.
I think every room should have at least one green plant in it year round. But during the winter, it’s even more important to add some living elements (i.e. plants) to your room. I added several green plants to my living room to help liven things up during the dead of winter.
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The plant in the photo above I believe is called “Mother’s In-Law’s Tongue”, probably because of its sharp, spiked leaves – isn’t that so sweet? Not! (I am a mother-in-law, after all!) But it is a great plant to use in rooms that don’t get much natural light. I have several of these and love them – they are so easy to keep alive! I move this plant around all the time since it doesn’t have to stay near a window.
Wood really warms up a space too, especially an overall white space like my living room. I find that in white rooms especially, you need that organic touch to make it feel alive. So I like bringing in some natural wood in the winter to warm things up. This oversized tray on my coffee table does the trick. My wonky little side table helps out, too. And this stripped down round table adds an organic helping of warmth to my entry.
There are other ways you could incorporate wood too – maybe a decorative wooden bowl on the coffee table? A lamp with a wood base? Some wood shelves? Shop your house for pieces that will add that warm organic touch of nature to your room.
DESIGN IDEA – ADD POPS OF YOUR FAVORITE COLOR TO DISPEL THE BLUES (UNLESS BLUE IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR – THEN BRING IT ON!)
I decided to stick with black and white, but add generous splashes of green, which happens to be my favorite color. So in addition to the green plants, I also added a warm woolen throw in green, a painting that has green in it, and a little green lamp on my piano.
These are things that I already own – no shopping was necessary. I just gathered them up and relocated them to my living room to help refresh and restyle the space. I’ll bet you can do the same at your house – take a look in bedrooms, family rooms, etc. for items in your favorite color that you can temporarily display in your living room.
If your favorite color is pink, or purple, or blue – by all means add those! Favorite colors can do wonders to help us feel happy, especially when winter drags on and we don’t see much natural light. How happy would it make you during the doldrums of winter to see these fun hits of pink if that was your favorite color? Very happy, I’m guessing!
DESIGN IDEA – ADD LAYERS FOR LOTS OF COZY COMFORT
There are lots of places you could add some extra layers for extra warmth and coziness. Layer some rugs (I have layered a warm fuzzy sheepskin on top of my jute rug here), add some throws, layer on some extra pillows.
Heck, I think even using stacks of books and magazines can feel like a cozy layer of comfort. The dogs in both these photos say “cozy” too, don’t they? So throw a dog in, while you’re at it ;-).
DESIGN IDEA – LET IN ALL THE NATURAL LIGHT YOU CAN
Unless you’re a skier, ice fisher, or bob sledder, you probably spend less time outdoors in the winter than you do others times of the year, so it’s important to get as much natural light into your home in the winter as you can.
My first thought is probably a no-brainer: open up those drapes and curtains, folks! Nothing is more depressing to me in the winter than rooms with the curtains closed. Lift those shades and let in that winter light!
If you’ve already done that, and it still seems a little dreary, try adding some extra mirrors to double up on some of that pretty natural light.
Love this gallery wall utilizing mirrors:
Leaner mirrors are great for reflecting lots of light. Look at this beauty – it’s reflecting light from both of those windows!
Even mirrored furniture can help bounce some of the winter light around.
DESIGN IDEA – USE FLOWERS TO BRIGHTEN UP YOUR ROOM. THEY’LL REMIND YOU THAT SPRING IS ON ITS WAY….EVENTUALLY
Flowers are a good idea any time of the year, but in the winter they feel extra special. I don’t have a good source of reasonably-priced flowers near me, but you can bet when I’m driving further afield and find some, they practically jump into my cart.
DESIGN IDEA – ADD LOTS AND LOTS OF TEXTURE
Texture makes a room feel comfortable and interesting, and yes – cozy. So add lots and lots of texture if you want to warm up a cold room. I like putting the plants we talked about earlier into inexpensive woven baskets. It ups the texture factor by about a million, and goes really well with the green of the plant.
(Hint: I buy all of my baskets at thrift stores – just about every thrift store I’ve ever stepped inside has baskets, and they’re super cheap.)
Fuzzy blankets, warm knit pillows, chunky throws, spiked plants – they can all add texture to a room and make your winter decorating much more interesting.
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DESIGN IDEA – CREAT A COZY READING NOOK WHERE YOU CAN ESCAPE FROM THE COLD OUTSIDE AND BE TRANSPORTED SOMEWHERE WARM!
Winter is the perfect time to catch up on some of that reading that you’re too busy to do in the summer, when you can’t spend all day every day outside. So make yourself a comfy little reading nook and snuggle up with a good book. Besides being great places to read, a little reading nook adds a touch of cozy to your winter decorating.
I love reading either on my window seat by the fireplace, or in the sitting area in my bedroom. Wherever you can squeeze together a little reading corner, I’m telling you – it will be worth it!
All it takes is a comfy chair or bench, a couple pillows and a throw, something to put your feet up on (because we all know that it’s impossible to read sitting with our feet planted on the floor), and some good light.
DESIGN IDEA – USE CANDLES AND LANTERNS TO ADD A COZY GLOW TO COLD WINTER NIGHTS
If you don’t have a fireplace, (or even if you do), you can still get that warm cozy glow from candles or lanterns.
These chairs gathered around the glow of a lantern feel reminiscent of chairs gathered around a fireplace. Don’t let the lack of a fireplace deter you from creating a welcoming winter space – just gather up some of those candles and lanterns and make it work!
I hoped you gleaned an idea or two from my refresh and restyle design ideas above that will help you endure and even enjoy winter inside your cozy home!
Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to stop over and visit Kim and Lacey at Styled with Lace for more refresh and restyle ideas for your living room. Here’s the whole list of my friends who are also sharing their living room decorating ideas today.
Crazy Chic Design
Happy Happy Nester
The Design Twins
Styled with Lace
Masion de Cinq