If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, away from the tropics, you’ll know that it can be cold for most of the year. Even on summer nights, you can feel the chill.
The remedy to this problem is a warm home. But building an abode that keeps you toasty all the time is easier said than done. Insulating a property is a professional task and it can often take weeks of work to get it right.
The purpose of this post is to provide you with some insights on how you can turn your home into a warm and inviting space. You’ll learn how to go full hygge, just like the Scandinavians do.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Create Cozy Corners
You’ll want to start by creating cozy corners in your home. These are warm spaces where you can retreat and simply feel the heat.
Cozy corners can take pretty much whatever form suits your lifestyle. If you’re the sort of person who loves watching movies, your cozy corner might be a part of your lounge where you keep the plushest sofas, pillows, and blankets. Likewise, if you love cozying up with a book, you could make the cozy and inviting space in your home the nook.
You could also think outside of the box. The cozy corner in your home could be a hot tub or a sauna. It just needs to be somewhere you can go to stay warm.
Simplify Your Home
When you create a hygge space, you also want to simplify your home. Keeping everything organized helps to reduce stress and creates a sense of relaxation.
During the simplification process, ensure you keep the space functional and welcoming. Make sure that each room has a purpose (other than to store all your possessions).
Avoid the temptation to display your collections. Instead, concentrate on how the room feels when you walk into it. If it seems inviting and cozy, you’re onto a winner. If it is harsh, you might want to rethink.
Indulge Your Senses
Creating coziness is also an exercise in indulging your senses. The more you treat them to a good time, the more they will thank and reward you.
Coziness often starts with touch – the way things feel on your skin. Softness is important, but so is weightiness. Therefore, look for throws and blankets that have some heft to them.
You also want to consider the smell and aromas – one of our most suppressed but important senses. Making traditional food in the kitchen or adding scented aromas can radically transform the experience. Often, these sensations take you back in time, reminding you of what life was like when you were young (which is always cozy).
You could also leave some potpourri on the side in a bowl if you prefer floral scents. These eventually work their way into your home, transforming the atmosphere.
Rethink Your Insulation
Another approach to creating more hygge coziness in your home is to rethink your insulation. Getting it right can raise the temperature of rooms permanently, even if you want to run the heating less.
There are various ways you can add to the insulation of your rooms to help them become more hygge. One option is plain insulated plasterboard. You fit this to the walls just as you would regular boarding and it traps heat (or cold if you use air conditioning in the summer).
You can also get systems that pump insulation into cavity walls. It’s not the most environmentally friendly material, but it can help to keep your home a little warmer in the evenings and at night when you turn off the central heating.
Lastly, you might want to add some thicker insulation to the attic. Most properties only have 100mm above the rafters, which isn’t enough. The gold standard today is around 300mm, which will limit the space in your loft but will also save you a fortune in bills.
Light The Fireplace
You can also make your home more hygge and warm by lighting the fireplace. It is the centerpiece for many Scandinavian homes.
You can also dress the fireplace surround to create an even more impressive focal point. Adding a screen, a wood basket, and some fire implements completes the picture and helps to make it look more authentic, even if it uses gas most of the time.
If you don’t have a fireplace, you can improvise with candles. Adding them to tables, window sills, and other surfaces in your rooms instantly makes the spaces feel more welcoming.
Look for systems that let you light clusters of candles. These put out more light and help to define the ambiance of your spaces in ways that incandescent bulbs simply can’t.
Add Some Personal Touches
Hygge isn’t just about making things cozy. It’s also about addressing the psychological side of our living arrangements and making them as palatable as possible.
Therefore, we suggest adding some personal touches to your rooms. Don’t simply copy the interiors you see in interior design catalogs. They’ll never be yours.
Personal touches could include things like photos of your family or travel souvenirs that tell the story of your life. It could also be more elaborate, such as showcasing the artwork you love.
Ultimately, it isn’t the objects themselves that matter as much as the fact that they are there. Keeping them close by will help you make your home feel more like yours.
Add A Soft Glow
We’ve already mentioned lighting briefly, but if you want your home to feel more hygge, giving it a soft glow is essential. The gentler you can make the illumination, the better.
When sorting through various lights, ask yourself what color a Scandinavian cabin surrounded by snow would be. Chances are, it’d be emitting a strong yellow-orange light, welcoming anyone passing by to come in for a hot drink.
You want to do the same with your hygge interiors. Soft lighting is a key feature.
There are several ways you can make the lighting in your home softer. One is to simply buy bulbs with filters that block out the blue end of the spectrum. These will glow more like the evening sun or a flickering fireplace.
You can also try recessing lighting behind your moldings or cabinets. This technique hides the bulb itself, allowing it to provide gentler illumination.
Stop The Drafts
Creating a hygge home also requires you to put an end to the drafts. Cold air blowing in from outside increases your heating bill and generally makes life less pleasant.
You can reduce drafts by putting draft blockers behind exterior doors and properly sealing windows. You can also ask a builder if it is possible to replace your doors and windows with something better.
Most professionals have equipment that lets them detect drafts and other issues. Therefore, it is sometimes worth hiring them to give your property and professional inspection and where air might be getting in.
Keep The Colors Calm
Keeping the colors calm is another way to create a warm and inviting space. It’s something that practically all hygge spaces do.
That’s not to say you can’t include bright natural elements, like greens, browns, and whites. However, you want to be careful. Hygge should immediately relax your senses and provide you with a sense of calm. You won’t get that if everything is kaleidoscopic.
If your interiors look too plain, try mixing up your textures. Combining wicker baskets with pain beige paint can be an excellent way to generate contrast without damaging the feel or the atmosphere of the room.
Use More Natural Materials
Related to this, you might also want to try using more natural materials. Adding furniture to your rooms or using more woven textures can be beneficial.
Metal is also a semi-natural material that some interior hygge spaces use. However, you need to be careful when using it. It can feel cold.
If in double, use brass. It has a warm, shiny glow, and it’s perfect for pairing with neutral interiors. Those wanting something more ostentatious should choose copper. It’s bright, but it doesn’t have the coolness of forged steel.
Tiles are okay in functional hygge spaces, but you’ll want to focus on carpets for communal areas, like the living and drawing rooms. The thicker the tog, the better. You want all the fibers to rise between your toes when you walk on it.
Cuddle Up With People
Creating a warm and inviting space is also helped by cuddling up with people. Having that sense of “togetherness” is a powerful way to bring your hygge space to life.
Being around others is naturally relaxing for most people. We want to have someone there who can look after us.
Add Faux Fur
Finally, you might also want to add faux fur to your home to turn it into a warm and inviting space. Adding animal skins is something that goes back to ancient times, and has been a part of human living patterns ever since.