Framing the appropriate ambience within a room is fundamental for you to fully enjoy your living space. Start with your lighting and furniture, then add softer touches to your interiors to aid in creating a room with style, character, and quality. The key to an immersive, and well-designed home is to feed our senses. Ensure our five senses are equally stimulated in a room by planning and layering elements.
Ambience
Exploring a diverse range of colours, tones, textures, lighting, and scents are all manageable and inexpensive ways of changing how a room can feel. Due to the activities that take place in your home, different rooms desire a different ambience.
The use of different lighting styles is dominant in interior design, as light makes a room feel spacious and welcoming. To discover more about the effects and impacts of light, check out our Design Digest: Lighting article here.
Including a variety of textures and building up on the layers in a room can help to set a restful and snug mood. Playing around with the textures and layers of a space such as bedding, artwork and greenery can add depth to your overall design and give a harmonious quality that is not only indulging and welcoming for yourself but also for your guests too.
As we hit the peak of the Winter season with the sun beginning to set during the mid-afternoon, giving us around 7-8 hours of daylight it is paramount for our psychological and mental health that we set the right ambience to make our homes increasingly comfy and cosy.
Using warmer colours in your home is one of the first steps to achieving a cosy ambience. The beaming glow and warmth radiating from your fireplace or your favourite candle aids in setting the tone for that specific space - with warm dim lighting being one of the top forms of light to help create a snug atmosphere.
During this season, consider introducing a set of string lights to your decor, whether that is in the form of Christmas tree lights or a pre-lit garland. The assortment of colours can evoke personal and cultural emotions which can help welcome in the festive spirit.
Creating the right ambience in your home is a personal and intuitive concept. Additional ways you can improve and enhance the ambience of your home includes layering your rooms with different aromas.
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Scents
When you think of designing and styling interiors, many tend to only think visually. But scents are a key ingredient when it comes to creating a full interior experience. Your sense of smell is one of the most powerful ways to conjure up emotions and feelings, so it is crucial to pick the perfect aroma for a room.
From oil burners to plug-ins, right through to diffusers, incense, and room sprays - there are numerous ways you can uplift the mood with scents. Whether you want something refreshing and spa-like for your bathroom or a fragrance more potent and woodier for your hallway, never underestimate the significance a scent can have.
As scents have such a psychological effect and can impact your mood, choosing the perfect scent for a room should always start with strategically planning whether you want a room to stimulate comfort, calmness, or insinuate
cleanliness.
As scents have such a psychological effect and can impact your mood, choosing the perfect scent for a room should always start with strategically planning whether you want a room to stimulate comfort, calmness, or insinuate cleanliness.
When selecting a fragrance for your hallway, opt for something that will give a lasting first impression such as rich tones and wood-based notes. As you step into the living room, you want to create a space where you can unwind, therefore sweet and subtle scents such as vanilla are a dream.
Transitioning into the dining room and kitchen area, you want to select an aroma that does not clash with any food smells. Citrus-based scents, for instance, lime and orange work perfectly for these rooms, as they are bold enough to eliminate strong food odours and refreshing enough to fill up the entire room.
The bathroom should be a space where you can relax. Scents that encourage relaxation and tranquillity include notes of mint, cotton, and linen - perfect for starting and ending the day. Lavender along with jasmine are great scents to absorb into the atmosphere of your bedroom if you have trouble sleeping and want to create a bliss setting
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So how can you set the mood to make your home cosier this Winter season? We share 4 simple ways below:
1- Throw in Some Layers
One of the quickest and most convenient ways to produce a cosy ambience in your home is to layer up. Having a personal nook within your home where you can curl up with a lit candle and enjoy your favourite hot beverage is what Winter is all about.
Wintertime is the best time to lounge, start bumping up the comfort level of your home by purchasing a selection of textured throws, blankets, and cushions.A warm blanket draped across your sofa with the addition of oversized cushions gives a real mellow and welcoming feel to a lounge area.
TIP: Chenille, wool, and faux fur are great fabric options to help give a sumptuous soft appeal.
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2 - A Touch of Nature During this time of the year, we tend to spend less time outside in the cold, but that does not mean we cannot bring elements of the outdoors in.
Adding plants, twigs, wreaths, and flowers into the rooms of your home at a time when facing the outdoors seems unbearable is a sustainable way of setting a snug and sheltered ambience - perfect for a Winter botanical interior.
TIP: Choose plants which have a subtle scent such as a Peace Lily, they are vibrant enough to lift the mood and can also thrive despite the seasonal lack of sunlight.
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3 - Time to Re-Align The furniture layout of a room can have a great impact on how cosy your home feels. If the positioning of your furniture, decor and home furnishings feels too formal and sharp, it can forge a closed-off and uninviting atmosphere. To achieve a perfect cosy setting, devise a balance between curves and lines within your furniture to build an intimate layout arrangement. TIP: Re-arrange your possessions to create a layout which suits your lifestyle and also includes a focal point where you can embrace comfort. For more spatial tips, check out our spatial planning improvement article here
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4- Let It Burn When decorating a room, scent and light carries a huge impact on how the entire room feels. The warm glow of a candlelight helps to create a magical aura in the home. To give your space the appearance and the feel that it is always cosy and warm, add some logs into your fireplace and light it up during the evenings. Not only will this instantly heat up your living space, but hearing and watching wood burn can be therapeutic and calming.
TIP: If you do not own a fireplace in your home, burn a multi-wick wood scented candle such as Oud, to help fill your room with a homey scent and create an instant cosy vibe.
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Need additional guidance with your design decisions and how to set the right ambience?
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by Keleisha Simpson