9 Tips to Make Your Living Room Feel Cozy and Welcoming
Lighting
If you want your guests to instantly feel relaxed, make sure the lighting is just right. When we say lighting we’re referring to multiple lights, nobody wants a huge dentist style white light shining on them in the evening or on dark winter days. Warm your room with multiple lamps placed in corners to lighten the room don’t try and go overboard; use warm bulbs to get this ambiance just right. One could also use smaller lighting to set the tone, for example, candles in chrome floor lanterns or even fill them with fairy lights.
Comfortable Furniture
Something about a comfortable sofa opens us up for conversation and can definitely put your guests, or your family at ease. Stay away from firm furniture, you’ll notice sometimes people sit on the edge of a sofa and their back will never touch the rear cushion – This is a clear sign they are not comfortable. A sofa from makerandson.com would be a perfect example, you have no choice but to feel relaxed when you fall into one of their sofas. You want your sofa to not only be comfy for guests but also luxurious and comfortable for you! Imagine yourself how you would feel during a Netflix binge before picking the sofa for your living room.
Add a throw
To make a seating area look more inviting and cozy, add a fluffy throw over the armrest or the back cushions. You may not even use it, but it certainly adds to the feeling of comfort if all you can see are cosy things around you. Besides, when winter comes around there is nothing better than submerging yourself into mountains of fluffy throws and cushions.
Choose a rug
Again, the rug will mainly be a comfortable item that you look at giving you a sense of comfort. That doesn’t mean you won’t appreciate its warmth when you finally have to stand up and make a cup of coffee or reach for a bottle of wine. A rug can also define the boundaries of a seating area, if it goes under the sofas and coffee table, you get a sense of a room within a room which is great in big rooms as its hard to feel relaxed in a larger open space.
Change your coffee table for an oversized ottoman
A big one here, this will transform the feeling of your living space. Say goodbye to straight hard wooden edges and welcome a softer piece of furniture. Not only do they provide more storage for things like spare candles and hidden chocolate boxes, but they can also still be used as a coffee table by adding a tray on top. This method is actually more convenient when you have to take all the cups back to the kitchen, just take the tray with you!
Make your home homely
Don’t be afraid to show who lives in your house, whilst art can certainly add a feel to a room, it’s nice to see that time you took a trip to the beach or your nephew’s first day at school. This can transform your space from show-home to real-home. It shows you’re a genuine person and what better way to warm a space than with warm memories.
Fireplace
Traditionally living spaces and seating areas were focused around the fireplace, in many homes, this is still the case. Even if you don’t use it, the feature itself is welcoming – If you don’t have a fireplace, an LED fireplace can be installed. We’ve even seen people playing a video of a crackling fire on their TV and surprisingly the effect worked.
Candles and Diffusers
Smell is something you obviously can’t see in your design, but it’s a huge part of how you and your guests will FEEL in your room. Try not to go for something overpowering that gives you a headache or after a while, a fragrance you just can’t stand like a strong leather. Use things like vanilla cotton, or sea breeze types of smells, a delight but not a distraction.
Furniture placement
If you have a larger room, you can still define a space within that room. we mentioned earlier about the boundaries being set by a rug, we can use this to bring the sofa away from the wall. Bring your sofa and chairs to the middle of the room, if you like, centered with a coffee table or ottoman, this makes the seating area the main focus of the room and almost replicates the amazing feeling of gathering around a fire. You can move ottomans and coffee tables behind the sofas too, again marking the borders of your seating areas.
