A sense of warmth in the home is not just for the winter months; it should be considered a welcome attribute all year round. Furniture and interior decoration can be used to great effect to give your home a welcoming feel and a sense of opulence and luxury.
Luxurious Warmth All Year Round
Without decoration, a room is just a box. An easy way to soften the edges and feel of a room is to introduce moldings and trims. Add baseboards to the bottom of walls, tailoring their height to suit the height of the room. For example, if your room has high ceilings, you need a taller baseboard and vice versa. You can also add a crown molding to the top of walls to complete the polished look.
Staying with the box-like structure of the room, let us turn to the color of the walls. Avoid colors that are too “cool”, such as strong blues and greens, or “colorless” shades of whites and grays. Instead, use “warm” colors, according to your taste. A brown palette is almost invariably warm and can be mixed with soft blues, greens, and pinks for variety. The color of the walls should act as a neutral canvas upon which you can pick out isolated stronger colors for more impact.
Once you have established the color and decorative aspects of your “box”, consider your windows and how you will dress them. Heavy fabrics, such as velvet or silk, used for drapes do indeed suggest opulence, but they may not fit with your overall vision for your room. Blinds are an alternative, as are affordable wooden shutters. Both offer a more streamlined window dressing, but wooden shutters have a distinct advantage over blinds in that they can regulate both airflow and light without sacrificing privacy.
It is essential for any room to have a focal point, and the easiest way to establish one is to highlight an architectural feature. The best example of an architectural feature is a fireplace, which can be made more of with an impressive mantel and the hanging of a large mirror. Alternatively, if your room does not have an architectural feature, you can manufacture a focal point out of a dining table or seating.
Seating is often where the idea of warmth enters a room. Warmth can be equated with comfort, so ensure that your seating, whether a sofa or collection of armchairs, is as plush and inviting as possible. Avoid minimalist seating that is all straight lines and sharp edges. Opt for seating that brings together soft upholstery with deep cushioning, and if you really want to up the luxury stakes, choose high-quality fabrics, either plain or textured. Also, add throw cushions of different sizes and appearance to add a little personality to the arrangement.
You do not need a huge budget to achieve warmth in your home. All you need is a little imagination and an understanding of what makes a room comfortable and inviting.
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