Making Your Home Cozy
I don’t know about you, but with thoughts of fall and Christmas come thoughts of ways to make my home cozy and inviting.
So, for the next few weeks, I will be sharing some ways to make your home a haven. Actually, I will only be talking about decorating and the atmosphere of home. The real way to make your home a haven is to make sure that its occupants feel loved, welcomed and safe. This should be the place they come when the world has beaten them down, and they need a reprieve. A place where mother will care for them, body and soul.
But, with that said, there are many simple ways to make your home welcoming.
Whenever I enter a space of beauty, whether in a hotel lobby or a fine restaurant, I ask myself, “What is it that is appealing to me right now. What did they do that made this so beautiful?”
In most cases, for me anyway, it is the choice of warm, calming color palettes, great lighting, beautiful pictures and accent pieces and a mixture of textures.
My style may not be your style, and that is okay. Go with what you really love. I tend to love antique, colonial, primitive and farmhousy stuff around here–but we live in New England, so that should explain it. 🙂
When my kids were little, I opened a business called Vintage Needleworks and I sold replica motto patterns. I always loved these mottos.  Marilla had them in her kitchen in the movie Anne of Green Gables (hers read “Labor has sure reward”, I believe), and Anne had one hanging over her bed that read  “Faith, Hope and Charity”.  Both of our mothers had these mottos hanging all throughout their homes, but the antique mottos were out of my price range. So I decided to try to replicate them myself.  I did this because I thought they were so homey and inviting and knew other women would love them as well.
They were sold through national needlework retailers and through a Christian company called Vision Forum. (I decided to close VN when I realized that I could not homeschool well and run my growing business. A hard decision! Someday when my kids are grown, maybe I will take up the designing end of it again.) To me, they were the epitome of home-y.
Right now, my wheels are turning to try these simple pillows using a graphic transfer onto linen. It looks easy enough. You transfer a laser printed image using a cleaning product called Citrasolve. I love the look of this Pottery Barn pillow, but there is no way I would spend $50 for it.
So, I am going to try  making this  myself using this tutorial.
So, that is what I am working on. What are you thoughts? What do you use to make your little nest cozy?
I don’t have a lot of time to decorate, unfortunately. But I find that keeping the house picked up and sorting through the clutter regularly makes our home much more welcoming and relaxing. Thanks for the encouragement to mothers to keep the home! That’s what I’m talkin’ about! ; )
Susanna, when my kids were little, our decorating was simple and not what you’d call magazine quality, because we had so many little ones enjoying life in our home. 🙂 Unless you consider legos strewn across the floor fine decor… 🙂
My husband & I through the years have done farmhouse/barn country puzzles by Charles Wysocki. They are of the 4 seasons. We have 5 daughters which keeps us busy. The puzzles are a way of sitting down together, visiting and decorating our home.