Warm Cosy Living Room Ideas
Throughout autumn and winter, you’ll want your living room to be a place of refuge from the cold temperatures and dark nights. Whether a cosy living room idea means curling up with a book, watching a movie with family, or entertaining friends, your living space should provide you with the comforting and relaxing environment you crave.
By updating your interior design in line with the seasons, you can ensure that your home is always on-trend. More importantly, keeping your interior design up-to-date means that your home is effortlessly functional at any time of year.
With this in mind, take a look at these seven ways to make your living room warm and cosy this season:
1. Use Rich, Deep Colours
A rich colour palette signifies warmth, which is why it’s perfect for autumn and winter. Teal, turquoise, burgundy, terracotta, camel, coffee, mustard, olive, and sage are all ideal hues for adding warmth. However, don’t be afraid to embrace more vibrant shades if you want to add a pop of colour to your living room. Salmon, blush, lilac, plum, burnt orange, navy, denim, aqua, and chartreuse can all work well when you want to add richness to your living space. Choose shades that have a warm undertone and you’ll be relaxing in a cosy, embracing living environment before you know it.
2. Use Metals to Add Shine
As the season gets colder and wetter, it’s not uncommon for things to feel a little dull. Fortunately, you don’t have to let this affect your surroundings when you use metals to add shine to the space. Copper, bronze, chrome, and stainless steel will all reflect the light well and add a sense of brightness to your living room.
From statement sculptures to metal light fixtures and furniture with metallic elements, there are plenty of ways to incorporate these materials into your living room design and add new depths to the space.
3. Add Rugs to Flooring
An area rug can be a fabulous (and easy!) way to transform any room and they work particularly well in larger spaces, such as living rooms. From a practical point of view, a rug will feel warm underfoot and keep you extra cosy when the colder temperatures set in, but that isn’t their only benefit.
Adding a rug to your living room is a great way to incorporate rich colours into the space without undertaking a full redecoration project. Similarly, you can use rugs to add new textures to your living room, which will instantly make it feel warmer and cosier.
If you’re going to use rugs to transform your living space, be sure to style them appropriately. Extending rugs under the furniture can make the space feel larger, for example, while layering area rugs can be an excellent way to make open plan spaces feel more intimate.
4. Update the Lighting
Lighting is a core element in any room and it’s particularly important at this time of year. In spring and summer, you might be able to rely on natural light to illuminate each room and make the space feel brighter. In autumn and winter, however, you’re going to need some reinforcements.
Layered lighting gives you the opportunity to increase the functionality of your living space, but it also means that you can use an array of fixtures and styles to achieve the desired design. A chic floor standing lamp in brushed bronze combines rich, earthy tones with metallic elements, for example. Alternatively, a dazzling chandelier will cast a soft illumination and add warmth to the room.
Aim to position lighting fixtures at different heights, so that you can create different lighting effects throughout the season. Combine ceiling lights with wall lights, standing lamps, and table lamps to maximise the effect and choose warm LED bulbs to create the right atmosphere.
5. Embrace Smooth, Soft Shapes
Rigid lines can feel a little formal, so steer clear of these if you want your living room to feel cosier. Instead, opt for soft, smooth shapes that invite you to sit down and relax. Comfortable seating is a must-have but look for armchairs, sofas and stools that feature curved backs or soft lines.
Similarly, use furniture that’s circular, oblong, or octagonal if you want to cast a softer feel in your living space. Alternatively, choose pieces that feature rounded edges to enjoy a more informal design this season.
6. Layer Textures Throughout the Room
The textures you use in any room have a big impact on how it looks and feels, so don’t hesitate to add more texture to your living room if you want to up the ante. From super-soft cashmere throws to natural wool blankets, silk cushions, or a velvet footstool, there are endless ways to incorporate more textures into your living space.
Not only will these soft fabrics ensure you avoid the chill throughout winter, but they’ll also create an aesthetic warmth and make the entire room feel cosier. With a combination of cushions, throw pillows, wraps, blankets and even wall hangings, you can add a range of warm textures to your living room quickly and easily.
7. Leave Room for Seasonal Décor
If you celebrate the holidays, make sure you factor this into your interior design plans! Whatever seasonal decorations you choose to adorn your home with, they need to complement your interior. Overlooking seasonal additions now will mean that the room feels overcrowded in weeks to come. By factoring in any extra accessories that you want to showcase later in the season, you can ensure that your living room is perfectly primed for the pinnacle of the holidays.
Transform Your Living Room with the Right Styling
You don’t always need to make major changes to totally transform how a space looks and feels. Re-styling the room and making a few small updates can have a bigger impact than you might think. With some strategic additions and some subtle changes, you can embrace autumn and winter and feel warmer and cosier than ever in your luxurious living room.
Simple Interior Design Styles
Photo Credit: Artemest
Interior design can enhance any space. From your kitchen or living room to an office or restaurant, interior design enables you to make the most of the environment and create an ambience and atmosphere that elevates the space.
Despite the benefits on offer, many people assume that using interior design is complicated or time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be! By understanding the basic principles that underpin interior design and identifying simple interior design styles, you can unleash your creativity and add your own unique aesthetic to any space.
Understanding Interior Design
There are seven core elements of every interior design style: form, space, line, colour, texture, light and pattern. When you’re designing a room, try to ensure that these elements are balanced.
You can use ‘positive space’ to position the furniture in a room, for example, and leave empty ‘negative space’ to avoid overcrowding. Similarly, horizontal lines, such as those created by a coffee table or area rug, can make a room feel wider, while vertical lines, like windows and doors, make the room feel taller.
As you can see, each element - and the elements as a whole - should be balanced, so that one does not overpower another. By keeping these core elements in mind when designing your own space, you can emulate virtually any interior design style.
Simple Styles for Your Home
To find an interior style design that complements your property, your lifestyle, and personality, take a look at the following easy-to-integrate styles:
Modern
A modern interior style is clean and crisp and evokes a sense of simplicity. Not only can a simple interior design style be used anywhere, but it’s also super adaptable and lends itself to any lifestyle.
People sometimes confuse modernity with minimalism, but you needn’t live in bare rooms when you embrace modern interior design. While modern interior design does favour clean lines and an absence of colour, there are plenty of opportunities to inject character into the space.
If you want to use modern interior design in your own home, choose a simple colour palette. Using just two colours with varying tones and shades adds depth to the design while remaining effortlessly on-trend.
When it comes to furniture and decorative accessories, balance softer textures and with metals and glass. These can feature as prominently as you choose but even subtle additions, such as a chrome tap, brushed steel door handle, or glass chandelier, can have a big impact on the space.
Industrial
Inspired by commercial spaces, industrial interior design incorporates raw elements and visible functionality. Perfect in living environments that have been converted from offices, warehouses, or lofts, an industrial interior design can be as cosy as you like with the right styling.
Exposed brickwork and wood are a great basis for an industrial interior but be careful of how much of the space is dominated by this. Choosing exposed brick for just one feature wall can be an effective way to use this feature without overpowering the room or knocking it off balance.
Reclaimed timber is another excellent material to use when you want to create an industrial interior, while slate flooring or tiles can work well too. When you use wood and metal in an industrial design, it’s important to balance these materials and colours, so look for ways to add lightness too. Displaying artwork, choosing vibrant accent colours, and incorporating soft textures can add a homely feel to your industrial interior design.
Scandinavian
Scandinavian design reflects the simplicity of life that’s celebrated in Nordic countries. With an understated feel, this style of interior design is perfect for capturing the concept of ‘hygge’. Also known as ‘cosy contentment’, you can use Scandinavian interior design when you favour natural materials, like form-pressed wood or wool, and use neutral colour palettes.
White, off-white, taupe, and tan are ideal base colours in a room inspired by Scandinavian design, but you can add pops of colour via accessories and textures. This interior design style favours functionality, so choose furniture that’s compact with clean lines, rather than overly ornate. Similarly, value the space that’s available and avoid cluttering the room. If possible, maximise the amount of natural light that flows into the space with trifold doors or voile blinds.
Traditional
If you prefer a classic interior design, then traditional styling might be just what you’re looking for. Here, you can surround yourself with decadent furniture, sumptuous fabrics, and decorative pieces that catch the eye.
A traditional interior design style often features wood flooring and/or furniture. You’ll notice intricate detailing on some pieces, so look out for furniture that’s hand-crafted or bespoke if you want to create your own traditional idyll.
When it comes to fabric, you can be as opulent as you like. Soft fabrics, like velvet, cashmere, and silk, will add balance to the heaviness of the wood and enhance any living space or bedroom. For colours, opt for rich palettes that add depth and warmth to the space, such as deep reds, navy blues, or forest greens.
Designing Your Own Space
Now you’ve got a glimpse of how simple interior design styles can be applied to any space, you should feel more confident incorporating them into your home. Whether you’re planning a total redesign or a straightforward redecoration, embracing a new interior design style can give your property a whole new feel.
When choosing an interior design style for your home, remember to complement the character of the property while selecting a design that you love. Unless you’re going to make significant changes to the architecture, it’s best to work with the features of your home, rather than against them. By doing so, you can ensure that the interior design style you choose is perfectly suited to the proportions and features of your home, which makes it infinitely easier to style.
At the same time, be sure to use an interior design style that reflects your personality and incorporates colours, patterns, and craftsmanship that you enjoy. When you do, you’ll find that your surroundings become a source of comfort, joy, and inspiration.
