How To Make Your Home Feel Cosy This Winter – 10 Hygge Ideas!

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If you are looking for ways to make your home feel cosy this winter you’ve come to the right place! As the nights get darker, and the temperatures drop, there is nothing nicer than coming home to a warm and cosy house.

I’ve got lots of ideas and tips to make your home feel cosy this winter, read on to find out what they are!

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How To Make Your Home Feel Cosy This Winter

Check Your Heating

When it’s cold outside, having a warm home immediately makes it feel cosy.

Before the cold weather really sets in, make sure your central heating and radiators are working correctly – especially if you’ve barely used them during the summer months.

The same applies if you have another type of heating system in your home.

I also think it’s worth investing in a stand-alone, portable heater, for emergencies.

Check to see if your boiler needs a service and that it is working efficiently (which will save you money too).

If you are confident in your DIY skills, you can also check that your radiators are heating up properly – this guide shows you how.

If you have a real fireplace, get a chimneysweep around to clear the ash and soot, and to make sure everything is functioning as it should be.

Keep The Warmth In

Once you know your heating is in good working order, you want to keep that warmth inside your home!

Heat naturally flows from a warm area to a cold one, so if your home isn’t insulated properly, there’s a pretty good chance warmth is escaping through the walls. According to the Energy Saving Trust, about a third of all the heat lost in an uninsulated home escapes through the walls.

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Is your house insulated? It may not be as expensive as you think, and there are grants available for low-income households. The money you spend will be recouped in energy bill savings. Think of it like a big blanket for your house! Cosy house = cosy home!

Radiators heat both the room and the wall behind it, so you could place reflectors behind them to bounce the heat back into the room. We actually use these in one of our rooms, which struggles to stay warm – even with the heating on. It’s made a real difference.

Exclude the draughts in your home around windows and doors. Check that the insulating seals are intact, and if not, get them fixed as soon as you can. We had to add insulating tape to some windows in our house this year. It was such a small simple job, but the warmth of the room has improved.

Don’t forget the draughts coming in through doors – especially if your front door comes straight into a living space rather than a hallway or porch. You could knit a funky draught excluder or buy one if you’re not a knitter!

Change your curtains. Thermal curtains will help keep the heat in. My mum always changes her curtains as the cold weather sets in. As the night draws in – typically the temperature outside will start to drop – so draw your curtains to keep the house feeling warm.

Let There Be Light

It might be grey and miserable outside, but you can brighten up your living space with lots of lovely lights.

Switch bulbs to warmer, yellow light if possible. I work from home so need bright white light in my office space, but in our living room, I prefer warmer lighting.

Other ways to bring cosy lighting to your home are with candles, lanterns, and tea lights (do not leave naked flames unattended); you can also buy battery-operated candles these days.

Side lamps (instead of the main ceiling light) seem to add a cosiness, as do fairy lights (even when it’s not Christmas!). In our old house, we had red LED fairy lights hung around the whole living room, and people always used to say how cosy our living room was.

You could wrap fairy lights around the banister, across a mantelpiece, or above your bed.

Why not place a battery-operated candle in the bathroom so that even the smallest room in the house has a cosy touch.

If you have space to stand several candles and tealights safely, this will elevate cosy levels to the maximum!

What’s That Smell?

We all like our homes to smell nice – nothing worse than a stinky home! If you’re using candles to add some ambiance, why not scented candles?

I am a fan of Yankee Candles, they make so many lovely seasonal scents. But of course, there are lots of other brands to choose from.  You could use a plug-in air freshener too

If you don’t like the idea of artificial scents, why not make your own? Pinterest is full of great ideas – stove top and slow cooker potpourri are all the rage right now.

Warming Decor

I like having neutral walls and carpets in my home so that I can switch out accessories with the seasons. In winter, add warmth to your surroundings with colours like burgundy, purple, dark reds, golds, deep blues, and greens.

This could be the curtains, a throw, a rug, or some cushions. It could be some accessories, or even flowers and plants.

If you really want to change things up, you could paint a feature wall, or if you don’t fancy getting your hands dirty you could hang up a print or artwork.

Add Layers!

Remember how I likened insulation to a big blanket for your house? Now time to add some layers inside:

Add warmth to the floor…

• …especially if you have wood/laminate/vinyl/stone flooring!
• A small rug in front of the kitchen/bathroom sink will feel nicer underfoot than a cold floor
• If you have wooden flooring in bedrooms, a bedside rug will also be welcome on a cold morning when you have to get up for work or the school run
• You could even add a rug to a carpeted floor if your house is particularly cold, making the room feel even more cosy

Get out ALL the blankets!

• Nothing screams “cosy” to me more than being snuggled up under a comforting blanket! Place several in the main living areas – one for each person in the house if you can, so that everyone can grab one and bundle up. Even nicer if you can have a spare blanket or two for guests.
• Place extra blankets on beds for when nights are particularly cold.
• Anything faux fur, fleece, flannel, or knitted has a warm cosy touch and feeling ♥
• Speaking of beds – switch light summer duvets for ones with a higher tog
• Invest in an electric blanket (for your bed) or an electric throw (for when sitting on the sofa)
• If you don’t like the idea of the above, why not a good old-fashioned water bottle?
• You could also DIY your own microwaveable wheat bags. Make several and keep a pile of them in a basket in the living room – handy to warm up quickly for yourself or guests. Again, Pinterest is your friend

Pillows & Cushions & Beanbags, Oh My!

• Need to up the cosy factor even more? Add scatter cushions to the sofa (or if you’re not a fan of them, but still love to hug a cushion, stack some in a basket nearby).
• Pile some extra pillows on the beds to hunker down under the duvet and read a book.
• Beanbags are fun for kids and grown-ups. They come in such an array of colours and sizes these days too. Great for lounging around in your PJs, reading, or watching a film! They’re also pretty good for putting your feet up, and not as an expensive investment as a footstool either

Hygge

Okay, so I can’t write a post about how to make your home feel cosy, without mentioning hygge, (pronounced “hue-guh”). It’s likely that you’ve heard about hygge before, but if you haven’t (or if you have, and don’t know what it is!) let me tell you…

Hygge is a Danish concept that can’t be translated into one word, but it means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life, with good people.  Essentially hygge is the Danish art of cosiness!

So whilst I’ve given you lots of ways to make your how physically more cosy, I’m going to round out with 10 hygge things you can do to enjoy the cosiness of your house, with family and friends this winter.

1. Add a hot drinks station (hello Pinterest!) to your kitchen. Whether your hot drink of choice is coffee, tea, hot chocolate (or something else) setting up an area of your kitchen counter specifically for making hot drinks means no faffing around searching for stuff. It can be as simple as a tray with some mugs, spoons, a jar of hot chocolate, and some marshmallows; or as fancy as adding lots of other toppings or syrups for specialty coffees. 

2. Keep slippers by the door to change into after coming home. Taking off your shoes and letting your feet relax in some comfy slippers is bliss! Have a pair for each family member (and if you’re feeling extra nice, have some spare ones for guests). Place in a basket, in little bags on hooks in the entryway, or if you have the space, a cubby hole storage unit.
3. Ditto with fluffy warm socks. If you don’t do slippers, replace the above with socks?

4. Add a wreath to your front door. They’re not just for Christmas! Beautiful evergreen wreaths with berries, fruit, and pine cones are welcoming, creating a warm atmosphere as you enter the home, and therefore hygge! The same goes for a nice welcome mat – you could have one inside and out. 

5. Change into your comfy clothes when you get home. If you’ve been out all day at work/at school/with the kids/wherever, and you are not going out again, get into your comfy outfit A-SAP! This might be a fleecy pair of PJs, or a pair of leggings and a huge jumper – whatever it is, it will help you feel all cosy on the inside and out.

6. Create a reading nook. If you have a spare corner somewhere in your house, you could set up a nook to read your favourite books on a rainy afternoon. Again, Pinterest is full of ideas. Essentially, somewhere comfy to sit, with some light, a blanket, and a stack of books is all you need!
7. Cook up your favourite comfort food. Cook it from scratch, cook it with love, and share it with family and/or friends for the ultimate in hygge.
8. Eat dinner by candlelight. For cosy atmospherics and intimate chatter.

9. Make and bake. Whip up a batter of your favourite cookies, brownies, or cupcakes, and bake yourself a sweet treat. Or get some wool and knitting needles (or a crochet hook) and make a scarf. 

10. Unplug yourself. You don’t need to be attached to your computer/phone/tablet/games console all day long. Make time for other things, for spending time with family, with friends, with your pets… Hygge means enjoying a good life with good people, so do that… go for a walk in the forest, watch a movie with friends, or have a family games night. Remember what it feels like to connect with others in person and not just online!

Make sure you’re following my Get Hygge With It board over on Pinterest for tons more ideas for getting cosy all year round.

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