Feeling warm and cosy throughout winter should not have to be an expensive issue, so consider these simple ideas on how to subtly change your existing home into a more embracing, comforting one that warms you from the inside out. Of course, the very word ‘winter’ calls to mind images of logs in the fireplace to warm you from the outside in, but many of us don’t have that simple luxury and cannot afford to install one. So, for now, let’s focus on the feel of your home.

Creating warmth with colour

Just like the warm glow of flames and coals, colour can instantly create any required mood. Remember that all colours can have cool or warm undertones, so be careful to opt for the right shades. Warm hues of red, orange and brown, even shades of warm grey, will soften a room and create a cosy feel. If you prefer lighter colours, choose warm pastels like rosy pink and replace white with beige. Hues like gold and chestnut are a sure way to give a room a luxurious and warm tone. It is not necessary to undertake the costly and inconvenient trouble of repainting walls: as the following tips will show, inviting moods can be created simply by acquiring the odd decorative item for renewed colour, or by changing covers on existing ones.

Intensifying warmth with lighting

Even without a fireplace, you can create the exact same effect with soft, warm light reflecting off your walls, and the easiest and most inexpensive way of doing so, is with candles or string lights. This need not be confined to the living room: even your bedroom will suddenly feel romantic and inviting with string lights draped around your bed, or a selection of warm-coloured, pleasant-scented candles. Visit craft shops for candles that double conveniently as works of art to enhance any cold, wintry space in your home – they work wonders in the bathroom. And opt for multiple light sources in the form of lamps or spot lights. These are flexible as you can simply change cool light bulbs to warm-hued ones with the former, replace the lamp shade for a warmer texture or colour, and install dimmer switches for altering the quality of light with the latter.

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Inviting furniture

Especially the seating in your home should call out: Use me! Remember that cosy means comfortable in this context! What is the use of beautiful furniture that nobody will choose to use? But the need to buy new pieces is not your only route to warming up your home. Simply alter existing sofas, chairs, and poufs (even beds) with a change in texture, colour and fabric. Cable knit covers on cushions and poufs can instantaneously introduce warm colours and textures, and knitted or crochet throw blankets work warming wonders in both bedrooms and the living room. Consider acquiring baskets in which these can be piled up, to afford both easy access and an added, textured, decorative touch.

Mirrors and mural adornment

For an extension of the warm look, you need look no further than your walls. Bare walls are cold. Be brave and trust your artistic instincts: many artworks and crafts to hang on walls are simply pleasing and inexpensive, and wall hangings come in such a diversity of colours, textures and sizes. Mirrors are invaluable in that they extend any mood you have created and carry the effects of textures, lights and colours further. For a warm look, try wooden mirror frames.

Textures

Adding a few lush, rich textures to complement your existing décor is all it takes, as mentioned above, on walls and furniture. Heavier weight textures are warmer. If the cost is no deterrent, acquire cashmere blankets or throws, but inexpensive options like faux fur, knitted weaves and velvets are equally warming and comforting. Canvas and grainy sack fabrics are good winter choices. For further texture and colour tones, small pieces of richly patterned wrapping paper can become art if framed in rustic wood and spaced around the room. Different grains of real wood in your home works everywhere: stained pine trunks, worn wood coffee tables, the odd carving and even attractive pieces of driftwood will add a welcoming feel. Wicker baskets can hold blankets or natural elements like firewood, pine cones and potted plants to add an element of interest and artistic coziness.

Create a cosy nook

Simply focusing on smallish corners of rooms can create an enticing, curl-up spot to hold off winter blues. Don’t be afraid to pile up the pillows and throws in warm tones and textures, and use the lighting tips to enhance the comforting effect of these.

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Rugs

Rugs are an essential part of winter décor. Apart from covering up cold floors, they add glorious colours and textures and are artistic statements all on their own. Large area rugs create a warm focal point in any room. Use them layered over neutral coloured carpets, for next to beds and even in bathrooms.

Drapery and curtains

Window panes are invariably cold-looking and allow heat to be lost, therefore window treatment is important. Investing in substitute, heavier materials for drapery or curtains is a quick seasonal solution to use year after year. Wooden blinds or canvas/grain sack ones are also suitable options for closing out the cold.

Greenery and flowers

Small woven holders for dried flowers can be dotted everywhere around your home. Vases in glowing hues holding bursts of beautiful flower-power, and potted plants in different sizes and shades of green, add essential warmth, an artistic flair and freshness to any home.

Focus on the fireplace

Even if you have no fireplace, you can create the impression of one perfectly simply: use clusters of candles, the lighting tips covered above, or one of the many tasteful heater designs options available nowadays. Whatever your choice, place focus on this area by decorating the mantle with an artwork, mirror or any attractive piece to draw the eye, express your style and intensify the feeling of inviting winter warmth.

Udumo Group delivers interior décor and design services by empowering unemployed people with skills development initiatives. We believe in investing in the individual, nurturing inherent skills, and uplifting communities. We hold as our mission making the future sustainable by mentoring meaningful change in the wider environment. Our interior design philosophy is to design beautiful spaces that are both functional and timelessly pleasing. We have proved that promoting the values of creative excellence, discipline and commitment can bring forth the beauty within each person and reflect it in both private and public living spaces around them.

### For information on Udumo Group, visit: www.udumogroup.co.za

No matter how many different designer websites and magazines you visit, you will find that all of them return to the same basic principles concerning ideas to help you turf out the old look and create an entirely new one without the cost of calling in a professional. With minor variations, here’s what your “spring clean” should focus on when deciding what must OUT and what must IN.

A change of colour

Start with your entryway. After all, this is the first part of your home that gives you a greeting embrace as you open your front door. Consider how colours affect your mood and what mood you’d like homecoming to evoke. Most designers suggest opting for three colours or shades for different sections of the house: one for the walls, one for couches, chairs and other furniture, and one that dominates in accessories. Of course, you need not follow this rule at all, but it is a useful guide to ending up with an aesthetically pleasing end result.

There is no need to change the colour of all the walls, either. Simply one of the walls in a room can be in a daringly different colour or shade to match the furniture that dominates the room, whether this be your entryway, living room, dining room, or bedroom. You can even opt for wallpaper in a new shade just for certain sections of walls. Changing the colour on picture frames is an equally simple manner of introducing a fresh feel into a room. For the bathroom your IN with new colour can simply be a new shower curtain, a row of colourful tiles, or a splash of paint on that old bathroom cabinet. Just remember: if you want a gentle, calming effect, select softer hues; for a vibrant, energizing effect, bolder colours are best. Select colours that stir the required emotion in you.

Differing textures

Here we are talking linen, velvet, silk, cotton, brushed suede, leather, mohair, the weave on cushion covers, faux fur blankets, rattan chairs and woven baskets, differing grains of wood, and even of introducing hints of new texture into artwork frames, flower vases or place mats. Texture adds so much character to any room and encourages the creative artist in you to emerge as you play with varying combinations and arrange them in corners of rooms or on a table, as shown in the photograph below.

The kinds of OUT and IN here will depend on how much you want to spend, but every little change will be refreshing. Decide on what suits your pocket and your needs. Go big, and opt for texture change in curtains or upholstery? Go small, but with equal pleasure, and simply splash out on new cushion covers, new throws or blankets, new lamp shades, a sculpture or two, or interesting texture additions to picture or photo frames? Further ideas for texture effects will follow in the accessories section below.

New lighting effects

Overhead lighting is functional, but, let’s be frank, it is hardly ever flattering or interesting. If your budget allows it, invest in pendant lights. These are extremely effective when illuminating work spaces in kitchens, but are equally useful for creating special softening effects in a bedroom, dining room or living room. Also, adding them to your bathroom, near the sink, will provide the necessary, focused light for those who need to apply make-up or shave.

Other lighting changes can be reassuringly inexpensive. Bringing in a new table lamp or two, or simply replacing the old lampshades on existing ones, will “throw a different light” on almost any living space! The best idea by far is to install dimmers; the flexibility these afford, in terms of altering the mood or look in any room at any given moment, is worth the relatively tiny cost.

Naturally, new window treatments can also produce surprising changes to the light in every room. Decide to add or remove panes of frosted glass, or replace outdated blinds and heavy old curtains with linen or bamboo shades.

Additional Ins and Outs

A good choice of mirrors will enhance any room. For a small dining or living room, replacing your existing mirror with a large one will add depth and dimension. Smaller ones you already own can merely be framed differently to refresh that spot, or you can visit secondhand shops for inimitably lovely antique finds. The same applies to the enriching effect of rugs. These are available in so many different sizes, colours and immeasurably lovely designs. And for that overdue and vital spring-clean of messy clutter, there is an absurdly simple designer solution: containers. Any decorative bowls or woven baskets to your liking should suffice. For loose items like soaps and bath salts in the bathroom, or your dressing table items, placing them on a beautiful tray, or adding a small bowl of coloured stones to such surfaces, can prettify the space.

Accessories

As reflected in this photograph illustrating the use of varying textures, relatively inexpensive IN-items like candle holders, bowls, trays, flowers, books, pine cones, frosted glass ornaments, an antique, enamel-coated jug or kettle and the always enlivening addition of a pot plant can turn the old into the new. Nature offers an astonishing array of choices here: twigs or feathers, shells or rocks, or your own imaginative use of dried or pressed flowers, can turn into pieces of timeless creative expression. Better still, for when you feel the need for the next uplifting spring clean, these can simply be rearranged or shifted to a new part of the room or house.

And you will have proved that you yourself can turn your home into a constantly evolving work of art.

Udumo Designs deliver interior décor and design services by empowering unemployed people with skills development initiatives. We believe in investing in the individual, nurturing inherent skills, and uplifting communities. We hold as our mission making the future sustainable by mentoring meaningful change in the wider environment. Our interior design philosophy is to design beautiful spaces that are both functional and timelessly pleasing. We have proved that promoting the values of creative excellence, discipline and commitment can bring forth the beauty within each person and reflect it in both private and public living spaces around them.

For information on Udumo Designs, visit: www.udumodesigns.org