Warm up your home for winter

The nights have rapidly drawn in, the temperatures have plummeted and there’s no better time to be at home, snug and warm.

But making your home feel warm is about much more than fitting the odd draught excluder and turning up the heating – there are a whole host of things you can do to make your home feel cosy when outside is frosty.

Here are our top 20 ways to make your home cosy for the winter:

1. Create cosy nooks and special spaces that are great places to relax in – place a side table next to a comfortable chair with a blanket, plenty of cushions and a pile of magazines or books to read.
2. If you’ve got draughty wooden floors, cover as much of them as you can with rugs to keep out the chill.
3. Monochrome colour schemes may be cool in summer, but for winter, rich colours will help you feel warmer and cosier.
4. Natural materials can really help your home to feel like a warmer place – wood and metals like iron and copper will add a homely feel to any house.
5. Set the mood for a cosy evening with lighting. Use lamps and fit a dimmer switch to your main light fitting so you can adjust the light to suit your activity.
6. Make your house feel like a home with plenty of personal touches, such as photographs or treasured mementoes that mean something to you.
7. Fragrance will help you relax after a long day: use candles, flowers or room scents with warm fragrances such as vanilla. If you have an open fire, roll some cinnamon sticks and pine cones into newspaper and place under the wood before you light the fire.
8. Make sure the curtains in your living room are thermally lined. Thermally lined curtains can retain 30 per cent of the energy lost through windows.
9. Add some blankets and throws to your sofas so that people can cosy up together – use different textures to create a layered look such as knitted blankets, fake fur throws and sheepskins.
10. Draught excluders will make your home a far more comfortable and cosy place on a stormy evening. They can also help you to reduce your energy bill.
11. Turn up the heat with hot water bottles: not just for bedtime, cuddling up with a hot water bottle on the sofa is one of life’s greatest luxuries.
12. If you can’t paint your walls, an easy solution to add warm tones to a cold room is to add coloured paper behind your shelves.
13. Bake something delicious smelling – there’s a reason that estate agents swear by the ‘just-baked’ smell when it comes to selling houses, it makes people feel at home. Try baking apple pie, cookies or bread. Then eat them!
14. Order is good, but when it comes to the cosy look it can make a home feel unloved and unlived in. An unfolded cover on a chair, a cup on the table or an open book shows there’s life and love in your house.
15. Consider using pieces of vintage furniture to add a lived-in look to your home. Vintage furniture bears the traces of life on its surface which adds to the cosy effect.
16. Books make a home feel welcoming – lay some on your coffee table or display in a bookcase. Vintage books from charity shops look great displayed together and often have gorgeous slipcases.
17. If all your furniture is against the walls while the centre of the room is a big, bare open space, consider pulling furniture away from the walls and closer to the centre.
18. Seasonal plants and flowers can add cosiness to any room. Choose flowers in rich, jewel-like colours to reflect the colder weather.
19. If your walls are bare, consider hanging a tapestry or a vintage quilt on the wall to add depth and warmth.
20. Candles add instant cosiness to any space and, if scented, a delicious fragrance, too. If you haven’t got an open fire, group together several pillar candles for an instant warming effect.