In our last blog we talked about the ‘New Silver Mushroom’, and the story we hope to tell. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, we shared how the ethos behind the ‘Welcome to our New Home’ campaign is the notion of falling back in love with your home. Just like we redesigned our home and fell back in love with it, we want to help you to do the same.
We saw a beautiful idea on Instagram earlier this week from Lara, a home content creator that we love. It prompts you to ponder what you would say to your home if you wrote it a love letter. Would you thank it for the peaceful mornings, the cosy evenings around the fire, or magical memories made at the dining table? If you took a moment to reflect, would you see that you have started to take these things for granted? Have you forgotten the importance of enjoying these precious moments at home? It’s easy to slip into the feeling of a home being purely functional. We’re here to help you take a step back, and fall in love with your home again through the curation of beautiful, cosy homes.
Whether your style be country cottage, scandi or modern farmhouse, the key to success is making it a cosy space that you love. We often associate cosy homes with warmth, snuggly textiles and moody ambiance. And whilst this is often the case (particularly for us cottage home lovers), there are different ways that we can interpret it. To truly reconnect with your home, it’s important to understand that cosy homes are simply those that feel like a sanctuary, a place in which you can retreat to to feel relaxed and safe. It’s finding purpose for each space that invites you to make the most of it.
A Clean Home is a Clear Head
We’re all guilty of allowing our house to get cluttered. Life gets ahead of us, and there aren’t enough hours in the day, or days in the week to keep on top of everything. We won’t advise you to deep clean your house every other day and make it look like no one lives there - that’s not a real home. We have children, pets, jobs, and hobbies. But whilst perfection is impossible, constant overwhelming clutter will make your home a place that you don’t want to be. You can’t fall back in love with a space that brings you stress. So, our first piece of advice is to set aside a weekend, or a couple of evenings to begin decluttering. One big clean for a fresh start. It’ll be a big job but once it’s done, it’s sure to feel like a sigh of relief.
Maggie Wooden Shelf With Hooks
After the big clean up, the next step is maintenance. Not daily deep cleaning, but finding easier ways to keep it organised on busy days. Find a space for each and everything to live. It’s as simple as making sure there’s laundry baskets in every room, or adding shelving with hooks onto your wall to hang up coats in the hallway or throws in the living room. You will feel a lot happier in your home if you can actually see your floor. It can feel like a task to try and add storage to smaller rooms, but it’s possible. How? Read our Stylish Storage Solutions for Small Spaces and you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
Creating an Ambiance That You Adore
Cosy homes and an inviting ambiance go hand in hand. To fall back in love with your home, you must shift the ambiance. Decide the ideal feeling that you want to come home to, and make it reality. Consider the saying of ‘seeing things in a different light’. You may currently feel that parts of your home are cold and unwelcoming. Quite literally ‘looking at it in a different light’ can change that. Adding lamps, lanterns, and other more subtle lighting elements can entirely change the ambiance. Your ‘big light only’ living room which feels bright and uncomfortable, can be transformed into a cosy sanctuary with a floor lamp in the corner. Your bedroom, which has become nothing more than a space for sleeping, can become the perfect place to unwind, and relax with a table lamp on your bedside table. You see how a little glow can make a big difference?
Introducing scents is an easy, but effective way to perfect your cosy homes. Falling back in love with your home will happen in an instant if you walk in every day to an aroma that makes you melt. If you carefully select the Best Scents for Each Room in Your Home, you can reap all the benefits of natural oils and aromatherapy. Scents can have mood boosting, relaxing and rejuvenating effects in the home, as well as making your space feel cleaner. And remember what we said, the cleaner the home, the clearer the head. Experiment with reed diffusers, candles, and oil burners to decide what feels the most homely for you. When trying to reconnect with your home, having a signature scent that you positively associate with is key. That’s nothing more lovely than catching an aroma and thinking ‘ah that reminds me of home’. Being homesick can be a wonderful thing if it comes from having a place that you love to go back to.
Cosy Homes Follow the Mantra: Comfort is Key
If falling back in love with your home is a process of making it comfortable and cosy, it only makes sense that you make the most relaxing spaces as cosy as they can be. This is where we prioritise the living room, bedroom and even dining spaces. How to make your bedroom cosy? Soft furnishings, soft lighting, and soft aromas. Your bedroom ambiance is the key to consistently sleeping well. A cosy bedroom should be a sanctuary to relax and unwind at the end of each day. If this isn’t the case, it will more than likely be the source of your morning grumpiness. Investing in a high quality mattress, plush cushions, and a soft bedspread is investing in good sleep, and investing in yourself. We assure you that once you’re sleeping well, you will fall in love with your bedroom again. Adding finishing touches like a table lamp on your bedside table, or some extra storage for bedside essentials will make your bedroom be more than a place to sleep. It will become a space you retreat to in the evening, pull out your book, switch on your lamp and get lost in a book.
Create a Sanctuary That's Only Yours
The ultimate goal is adoring each and every part of your home, but we all know falling in love takes time. So, try to prioritise creating a specific sanctuary in your home that’s only yours. Your children may have a playroom that’s theirs, there are communal spaces that are for the whole family or friends you live with. What’s yours? It may be a solo spot in the garden with a hanging swing chair to cocoon away. It could be an office where you go off to write or journal alone. Or it could be a cosy reading nook that allows you to get lost in your book. Wherever it may be, a successful solo sanctuary is a key step in falling back in love with your home. Though tread carefully, you might not want to leave.
Finally, Work With the Seasons
An important thing to remember in the process of creating your home sanctuary is to work with the seasons. Cosy homes aren’t exclusive to winter days when you’re trying to hide away from the cold. Cosy simply means comfortable. In the warmer months, make the most of the fresh air, and avoid letting your home feel stuffy. Mastering the art of cosy comfort in warmer months is learning how to make a space where you can come home, cool down, and sink into a comfortable sofa without feeling like you’re overheating. Lightweight throws, linen cushions, and muslin bedspreads will be your best friend. Refreshing spring scents, home-grown herbs in your kitchen, and fresh bakes at the ready. All these elements undeniably create cosy homes - and none of them make you too hot in the summer months. Aside from standing in front of the oven waiting for your bake to be done…
Colder months are where cosy directly relates to snuggly. But, we’re sure you already have this covered. Chunky knit throws, rich spiced candles, and warm lantern glows. On chilly winter nights, you’ll love no place like your home if it’s a cosy haven to come back to.
Are you Ready to Fall in Love?
So, now it’s time to make the first move, and fall back in love with your home. Following these easy steps towards creating your cosy homes will help you tune into the space, learn to appreciate it, and disconnect from the outside world. Declutter your space and start fresh. Work multifunctional storage, wicker baskets, and easy clean ups into your rooms. Add finishing touches like lighting, and fragrance to soften the ambiance and invite you in. Make your spaces feel as good as they look with soft furnishings and soulful furniture, homes shouldn’t be simply functional, they should be enjoyable. And lastly, prioritise a space for yourself.
Perhaps it’s finally time to write a love letter to your home.
They say ‘Home Sweet Home’ for a reason.
