End 2020 in Style by Making Your Home a Winter Wonderland
This holiday season, let’s raise a glass to our homes; our sanctuaries; our castles. Sure, 2020 has been a rotten year. Lockdowns, shops shut, working environments compromised, socialising cancelled... Yet our homes have provided us with a sense of security, familiarity and relative normality throughout all of it. So let’s max-out our opportunities to make them feel as cosy as possible this winter and end this strangest of years in true interior design style.
Candles and other soft lighting
Yellow light is the warmest light. There’s been a trend over the past 20 years or so toward white and blue lighting in our homes, but its time is coming to an end as more and more of us reach back to our childhood winters for the comfort of softly lit interiors with a glorious golden glow. Tea lights and giant candles in red and off-white will help to make our spaces sparkle and glisten even beyond the Twelfth Night.
Soft furnishings
If ever there was a season for soft furnishings, winter 2020 is it. If you haven't heard about Hygge, the scandinavian cozy lifestyle, or it's Scottish version Còsagach, well it's time for you to catch up!
We’re going all out for maximum cosiness, so arrange your cushions, throws and blankets liberally and in abundance on your sofas, chairs and beds. Tweed, braided wool, velvet and brocade will bring instant warmth to the home, making you feel like there’s nowhere you’d rather be. Add giant floor cushions for extra luxuriousness.
Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels
Winter colours
If you’re of the maximalist persuasion, mixing and matching colours is the easiest way to bring a wonderful cosiness to your living, dining and bedroom spaces. Holiday reds, deep greens, bold golds and traditional tartans and plaids will delight the eye and bring that picture postcard winter look to the home.
For the more tranquil interior decorators among us, you can still get cosy without making your home look like a grotto. Silvers, pale golds, off-whites and sheepskins will extend the freshness of the wintry outdoors into your home while giving you that snug feeling of warmth you’re looking for.
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Logs, branches and evergreens
Speaking of bringing the outside inside, there’s no better season than winter to do it. Sure, holly, mistletoe and a big old fir tree decorated with baubles and fairy lights will form the core of your Christmas decoration. But keep that feeling going through the whole of winter with tree trunk tables, decorative wood piles, pine cones and sprigs of evergreens running throughout the home, from the front room to the bathroom.
Wicker, wicker and more wicker
Natural materials like willow, rattan, reed and bamboo help to make even the most minimalist of homes feel cosy and warm, especially when draped in wintry fabrics. And it just so happens that these are the most commonly used materials in lovely wicker, which is everywhere this winter. We adore it! From luxury hampers and storage chests to clean-lined modernist dining chairs and lamp shades, wicker brings that ancient, handcrafted feeling to our homes, bringing a real sense of wintry warmth.
Image Credit: Kate Whitaker
The warm glow of the fire
If you’re lucky enough to have an open fire or a wood burner in your home, now’s the time to make use of it. If you have an open fire you haven’t used before, make sure you get a chimney sweep in before you light it and check with your local council what types of material you’re allowed to burn on it – you may live in an area that only allows smokeless fuels. If you don’t have a real fire, you may not be able to roast chestnuts on it, but a real-effect gas or electric fire will be the perfect finishing touch to any winter remodelling project.
From all of us here at Riluxa, a very Happy New Year to you all. And good luck with all your home improvement projects in 2021.
If you’re looking for something else to read, check out our article on the perennial allure of marble in the bathroom.
Main photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels