Getting Your Living Room Snuggly for Autumn-Winter

The darker evenings and longer nights are drawing in as we head firmly into the autumn-winter period; and with most people at least somewhat impacted by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, it’s likely that more of us than ever will be spending a lot of time indoors throughout the season. If the prolonged lockdown periods of the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that you need to love where you live if you intend to be there a lot. So if you haven’t already renovated or re-decorated in the last couple of years, now is the time to get things snuggly and hygge to brave the colder weather.
But how best to make things feel cosy and comfy? Read on for our top tips!

First: Consider Usage

Of course, your first consideration for your living room if looking to refresh it is what you intend to use the room for. If you’re going to binge watch TV series, then focus furniture towards the television and stock up on comfy cushions and blankets. If you have children using the room as a play area, invest in storage and ensure your layout allows for lots of free-flowing space. If you’re going to be tackling your ‘to be read’ pile, think about adequate lighting options so as not to strain your eyes. 
The room needs to have form but be functional too for whatever you’re planning, so don’t lose sight of serviceability for style.

Create Pockets of Cosiness

In bigger living rooms, it can be difficult to create a feeling of cosiness when the aesthetic is lost in large open spaces. Instead, focus on making little pockets or pods of comfort throughout.
Soft furnishings, particularly in warm tones, provide eye-catching snuggly points and can be distributed through a room in the form of rugs, textured chairs and footstools and plenty of cushions and blankets across them. Keep furniture away from walls to avoid an enclosed feeling and gather it around a central piece.

Be Inspired by a Cinema Room

If your winter nights will be filled by TV and film consumption, why not invest in the creation of a family cinema room?
Designing a cosy snug with a screen or projector within makes for the perfect place to wrap up, lie back, relax and enjoy the joy of the silver screen. You will need to consider acoustics and soundproofing as well as appropriate lighting options. If there’s a window in the space, don’t forget to line it with blackout curtains or shutters to avoid sunlight across the screen.

Use Clever Lighting

A room’s illumination can completely change the feeling of it, and needs to be planned carefully in order to keep a warm and welcoming aesthetic rather than a standard day-lit practical one. Ambience is vital!
Ideally, opt for lighting that can be dimmed so that you can turn things down to be a bit more atmospheric in the evening, or invest in wall lights or lamps around the room to be used. Don’t discount candles either; they lend a fantastically hygge feel and if you’ve got children around, faux flickering LED options are available too.

Colour Drench

The concept of ‘colour drenching’ is to paint the walls, ceilings, shelves and carpentry all in a single colour and suits both small and large rooms alike. This design is certainly unconventional by interior design standard but exudes creativity. 
Of course, the difficulty here is which shade to choose when there’s so many brilliant ones around! Ideally either a warming hue such as an orange, chestnut or dark green will be used, or a neutral one. Then, the furniture and soft furnishings within can be picked to complement yet ‘pop’; so opt for cooling neutral tones against the warming shades or vice versa.

Head Upstairs

If you’ve got a loft or attic space that’s unused or just being used for storage, why not utilise it better and make a living room out a loft conversion?
Loft spaces, when properly insulated and kept warm, can create a great room for a snug that sees you leave behind the day’s stresses and concerns downstairs and walk up into a world of comfort and relaxation. You can double up the room as a guest bedroom by popping in a comfortable sofa bed, and it’ll be lent a degree of privacy that other bedrooms in the home simply don’t get.

Warm your Walls

The walls of a living room are the largest and often plainest part of it, so warm these up and draw interest to them.
Internal timber cladding is currently very popular and is a great way to modernise an existing living room; plus it can be done cheaply and easily. Patterned wallpaper can make a statement wall and there are now more designs than ever available online, including those mimicking brick and timber finishes. If wallpaper isn’t your thing, paint the walls, or just one or two of them, in a warm colour that will help you feel snug and cosy.

Don’t Discount Smell

The odour of a room can change the atmosphere of it… as anyone who’s ever walked into a room that doesn’t smell great will attest to! Embrace autumn and winter scents to make yours feel warming and restful.
Scented candles can be bought from all major household retailers and supermarkets, incense is available cheaply and wax melts allow for you to chop and change scents whenever you feel like it without having to spend heavily on new candles. Many air freshener retailers also offer autumn-winter themed plug-in scents that will disperse odour throughout the day and night for a constant haze of pleasant fragrance. With so much on offer, the real challenge is finding the one you like best.
Autumn-winter can be a beautiful time and with so much to look forward to, creating a warm and welcoming living room can help you get swept away in the haze of the new season. Prioritise your comfort and what makes you relax, and run with it.
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Need to freshen up your living room?

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