In winter your home becomes your retreat from the outside world.
As the temperature drops we are drawn to stay inside, cook comfort food such as hearty soups and casseroles, and hibernate. It is a time for reading and relaxing with your loved ones.
So now is the perfect opportunity to create a cosy haven to enjoy the cold winter months ahead.
How do we create this atmosphere? Well it’s easy just by adding a few key elements.
Here’s my top 5 ways to ready your home for winter:
1. Move your furniture around. As summer decorating is all about simplifying to welcome the outside in, winter decorating is all about creating warmth and cosiness. Move your lounge or single armchairs closer together to create a feeling of inti- macy and position them around your heat- ing source to encourage long conversa- tions on cold winter nights.
2. Decorate the room with warm throws and scatter cushions in rich fabrics. Warm, deep colours as well as a variety of tex- tures in the cushions and throws will give the room instant warmth, cosiness and an injection of colour to brighten dull winter days.
3. Invest in a new rug. A rug instantly brings a room together and creates a defined zone to your family room. This is when a shag rug is my favourite choice. The textures and different layers of materials in a shag rug can give an instant and dramatic effect to the space. Shag rugs are available in an enormous range of styles and colours ranging from deep chocolates to vibrant ruby reds or simple neutral tones.
This season features many new variations to the styles of shags on offer. Carved and patterned shags as well as extremely textural shags made from combining a va- riety of silks, wool and fabrics.
4. Buy a lamp and turn it on. Everything feels better when a room is lit, while subtle lighting will set the mood.
5. Update your bedding and buy yourself that new quilt cover set. In winter we need more layers to our bedding to keep us cosy and warm. By changing your bedding sea- sonally it allows your room to be instantly transformed into a warm, luxurious retreat ready for serious snuggling through the cold nights. Heavier quilts will give you added warmth while throws and comforters complete the layering effect.
By Karen Creith