Interiors // Creating a cosy living room for winter

Rather excitingly, and fairly overwhelmingly, we’re hosting Christmas this year!

We’ve been in our new house for seven months now, but five of those months have also involved a newborn baby so as you can imagine we’re not fully unpacked, with boxes still stacked up in our bedroom and Indy’s room…

We desperately need to get the house in order before December so we can begin putting up decorations and preparing the house for our guests. I also want it to feel a bit more like home, as we haven’t got many pictures up yet and the walls are feeling rather bare.

One area that we will be concentrating our efforts on is the living room, or as we have affectionately named it, the Cocktail Lounge. (Despite the fact that we are yet to enjoy a cocktail in there…) We will be spending a large proportion of Christmas in there – from snuggling up on the sofa watching Christmas movies, to opening our presents on Christmas Day – as well as celebrating Busby’s third birthday!?! So we need to start sorting it out and making it super cosy!

Here a few ways to achieve a cosy living room:

• Darker colours. I love our living room ‘statement wall’ which is a beautiful teal colour. We’ve teamed it with a grey sofa and mustard yellow armchair, and then accessories to match. Darker hues really help to make a room feel more cosy.
• Throws. We’re desperately on the hunt for some throws that match our living room, but it’s been difficult finding ones that match our colour scheme. I know, first world problems. Hopefully Christmas will encourage shops to stock some huge fluffy ones so we can get snuggly and cosy on cold nights!
• Pictures. We’ve started to collate our wedding photos into a folder to be printed, but with over 3000 to choose from, it’s quite the job! We want to put a collage of them up in the living room. I also want to get some gin-inspired prints for the walls too. I think pictures really help a room feel cosy and comforting.
• Comfy sofa. Our sofa is very comfy with it’s L-shape. It also converts into a bed, which has been fantastic during rainy afternoons where we’ve all cuddled up and watched a film together. We also have a very lovely, big, armchair, which I love to curl up in and write on, or snuggle with Indy.
• Lighting. Lighting is so important when creating a cosy room, and I’m not sure we’ve got it quite right yet as it feels dark, rather than cosy – I think we need another floor lamp. Candles are also perfect for a cosy atmosphere.
• Wood burning stove. We looked into buying a wood burning stove for the living room, as had the most wonderful one while we were on Honeymoon last year and completely fell in love with it! But alas, it was a little too expensive for what has already been an expensive year. We do have a gas fire still, so we’ll be lighting that and a delicious Christmassy candle, to try and evoke a similar feel!

What do you think helps create a cosy space?

Hannah

*Collaborative post.*