Cosy evenings at home with the family are what winter is all about. Leaving the cold weather outside and curling up together on the sofa can be magical. In this post we’re going to explore how you can create a cosy hygge living room that the whole family will be sure to love.
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If you’ve never heard of hygge before, then you’re in for a little treat. Taking away the stresses and strains of every day life, hygge gets you back to basics.
So what is a hygge lifestyle?
Hygge (Pronounced Hoo-gah) is a Danish concept, and loosely translates to warmth, cosiness and togetherness. Think blankets, candles and board games with friends. Chatting and laughing with bowls of comfort food on the side.
Rather than being a ‘thing’, hygge is more of a feeling. And although you can’t buy a hygge living room as such, you can certainly create the general ambience of hygge with a few comforting items around your home.
Think of hygge in the same way as you would think of something like happiness or love. It’s difficult to explain, but its oh, so good when you experience it.
Hygge is a way of life that promotes happiness and contentment, and its something that we should all be following in one way or another.
How do I make a hygge living room?
One of the great things about hygge is that it can be incorporated into any area of your life, and one of the best places to start is with your home.
With the colder weather setting in, your home is the place that you go to for warmth and relaxation. A little sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of normal life.
Let’s now have a look at how you can create a relaxing hygge living room to add some cosiness to your winter:
Whether you go all out and try everything on this list, or you just pick a few to have a go at, as long as you keep things simple, relaxing and fun, you can’t go wrong.
Go au naturel with colours and textures
Creating a hygge living room is all about keeping things simple and natural. Colours and textures that add a feel of nature, and key pieces that have wood accents are all great starting points.
Wooden floors and furniture, blankets and wicker baskets can all add a hygge feel to your living room. And mixing different textures like a wooden chair with a soft blanket can add a hint of cosiness.
Sticking to neutral colours, rather than bright colours can really help to give that ‘log cabin on a snowy day’ vibe to your home.
Decorate with candles
Candles can give an instant hygge feeling to your home by creating a warm and relaxing atmosphere. Placed on dark shelves and in gloomy corners, the soft flicker adds glowing pools of light that brighten up those forgotten about areas.
If you like scented candles, go for natural scents to compliment your room. Vanilla, cedawood and winter berries are always good places to start.
Add some ambience
As well as candles, lamps and side lights are a great addition to your hygge living room. If you have a dark area, adding a lamp can give a nice glow.
Fairy lights work well too for adding warm lighting to darker spaces. Use them to line shelves and door frames to create a relaxing atmosphere.
Get cosy with blankets
Soft, fluffy blankets always add a splash of cosiness to any home. To really get the hygge feeling in your living room, try layering different textures and colours on your sofas and chairs.
Knitted and fleece blankets draped over a sofa can make an area super inviting. Sticking to colours like creams, browns and burnt orange hues will give a nice warming feel to anybody looking for somewhere to sit.
Switch off the screens
One of the things that hygge stands for is family, friends and being together. Use your living room as a place to have some family time together and enjoy each others company. Put your mobile phones and tablets in another room, switch off the TV and play a game or have a chat together.
Indulge with sharing platters
Bring the dining room into the living room with sharing platters and snack foods. Make use of the space you have and set yourself up on sofas, comfy armchairs and cushions on the floor.
When you’re spending time with family and friends, it doesn’t always have to be a formal affair. A relaxed dinner works just as well as a sit down dinner party, and fits in with the hygge lifestyle so well.
Add some plants
Plants are pretty much an essential to a hygge living room. Bringing the outside in by adding some greenery can give you that feeling of being outside while still being warm and snuggly!
Plants add colour, clean the air and freshen up a space really well.
If you’ve never tried house plants before, I’d recommend starting with a spider plant. They’re super easy to look after, don’t require much light, and look really pretty, especially as they age.
Declutter and embrace minimalism
If minimalism isn’t your thing, then don’t stress. You don’t have to throw away all of your stuff to achieve a hygge feel.
Rather than going totally minimal, try having a bit of a declutter and getting rid of those things that you may have forgotten about, or just don’t use.
Hygge is all about embracing the possesions that bring us joy and have meaning to us, rather than the items that don’t really add any value to our lives.
Give those pieces that make you smile centre stage, and move the things that are just taking up space somewhere else.
Get lost in your books
Books are a big part of hygge life and definitely have a place in any hygge living room. As well as being great places to store books, book shelves and bookcases can also be home to your candles and plants.
If you want to delve into hygge living a bit more, the below books will make a great addition to your book collection:
The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well – Meik Wiking
Hygge: The Danish Art of Happiness – Marie Tourell Soderberg
How to Hygge: The Secrets of Nordic Living – Signe Johansen
Create a hyggekrog
You want me to create a what?
A hyggekrog is essentially a nook in your home that you can use to relax in. Filled with blankets, books and a shelf for a hot drink, a hyggekrog can be a great place to gravitate towards at the end of a stressful day.
A hyggekrog can also be a lovely place for children to chill out in. We have a book corner for Cupar in our living room, and it’s a well loved space for all of us. We have fairy lights, cushions, blankets and a shelf for Cupar’s books in there.
Enjoy some hot drinks
And to top it all off, why not grab a hot drink (or warm milk for the kids) and cosy up together. Curl your hands around the mug, pull the blankets over everyone and play a game of Uno or Boggle.
Get back to basics, live simply and enjoy your hygge living room this winter.
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