Hi Everyone! I don't know about you, but I always feel like our home looks so sad and empty once we take down the Christmas tree and all the holiday decorations. Everything seems so bare and dark without the twinkling lights and the colorful ornaments, and the cold, gray weather outside doesn't help much! This time of year is when winter starts to drag on, at least for me, and feels like it's going to last forever. I've been trying to brighten up our living room a little bit this week, adding in some warmth and color with a few simple touches and wanted to share a couple of simple tips with you today!
Bring in warm colors.
You don't necessarily need to change the wall colors or buy new furniture in order to bring in some warmth into your living room. You can bring it in with small accent pieces and little pops of color around the room. This will close the space in a little bit and make it feel cozier and friendlier. Add warm colors (I used browns, yellows and golds) through throw pillows, blankets and throws placed on armchairs and couches, flowers, candles and other decorative accents. We have a lot of white furniture in our home, so I'm always trying to bring in some more color, but if you don't have any white pieces, that's another way to brighten your space up.
Bring in more light. Literally brighten up your living room. Do this by adding in extra light fixtures like small lamps on end tables, changing out your light bulbs for ones that give off white light (not yellow light) and adding candles that will add soft mood lighting in the evenings. Lamps can also be great decor pieces and if you pick ones with metallic or reflective bases, they will reflect even more light and create the illusion of being even brighter.
Bring the outside inside.
What I mean by this is bring in some fresh accents into your home. Things inside your home can feel so dead and sterile during the winter when you can't leave the windows open to get fresh air in because it's too cold, and there isn't much greenery outside your windows. So to bring more life and warmth back in, get some colorful fresh cut flowers and place them in fun vases, or use big bowls of fruit in a single color (limes, apples, oranges, lemons) for a fun pop of color!
Bring in some mirrors.
Mirrors are a great tool to use because they serve two purposes. Use large mirrors to reflect light by hanging or leaning them against places where they will catch as much light as possible. This will not only brighten the room up, but it will also make it look bigger. Hang the mirror near a window or opposite a window for the best effect. Either use a big mirror with a fun, statement frame, or if you don't have a large mirror, use several small ones and create a theme throughout the room, or use them all on the same wall and create a collage out of them to add some interest. This way, the mirror(s) also double up as decor pieces!
Bring in happy memories.
I have moved so many times in my life, both with my parents, on my own, and with my husband. I have moved countries and continents, and know that moving can be very stressful and overwhelming! Setting up a new home can be both exciting, but also difficult if you have a lot of things to move and take care of, or if you're having a hard time being in a new place. After all of our moving around, I've found that you can also "mentally" brighten up a room, and it does almost as much as the physical brightening will. To do this, fill the room with happy reminders of family, friends and good memories. Use pictures, things you bought on your travels, family treasures that have been passed down to you, your favorite books and other meaningful objects that will brighten your day as you look at them. I love this quote that says, "A room should feel collected... not decorated", because that's what a home should be. A collection of your life so far.
