With the days getting shorter and colder, spending most of your time inside is becoming more and more preferable. It can be a necessary change in routine, but may lead you feeling trapped inside this winter. Focus on enriching yourself with seasonal variety while being stuck at home and brighten even your coldest days. Best of all, you don’t have to completely remodel to make your home feel shiny and new again!
Bring Back the Daylight
If you’re someone who gets the “winter blues” every year, you may want to reevaluate your lighting situation after Daylight Savings ends. If you live somewhere that days are noticeably shorter in winter, you probably aren’t getting enough light – which can have a big impact on your mood. Even small changes can help. Replacing soft white bulbs with daylight bulbs or light therapy bulbs can have a noticeable impact on seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and help keep your mood from winding down early in the day. Similarly, consider switching to whiter or less opaque lamp shades and curtains that let through more light to help maximize the light you’re getting.
Add Bright Colors
Changing the color palette in your home can reflect the changing of the seasons. That said, wintry blues and grays may be colors to avoid if you find yourself feeling down during the holidays. And while bright holiday gem tones have more luster, they might not be worth it if you don’t like the seasonal reminder. Of course, I’m not saying you should paint your walls every time you feel a little down. But bright, warm colors (and even just a little bit of change) can help invigorate you and lift your mood. Colorful throw pillows or curtains are plenty; if you’re feeling a bigger project, consider gifting yourself a comfy new accent chair, or a larger, more permanent color addition like a sofa or rug.
Rotate Your Decor
Speaking of change, have you ever placed an object somewhere “temporarily,” only for it to seemingly disappear into the background months later? This doesn’t just apply to clutter. Even beloved, intentional furniture can feel stale if it never changes, and your brain will just stop noticing it at all. Forcing change into your home can make you appreciate what you already have and coordinate new pieces better. This can be as simple as rearranging your furniture in one room to as complex as having a rotating collection of decor for all the seasons throughout the household.
The Little Touches to Liven Up a Room
Smaller projects can also help make your home feel fresh and new, without being quite as in-your-face as an orange throw pillow or as big a commitment as moving all your furniture. Replacing cabinet hardware is a favorite tip of interior designers, and one I like as a winter project – particularly in the bathroom. Warm metal hardware is quite popular right now, and brass, gold, oil rubbed bronze, or even matte black can stand out beautifully and really make your space pop. It’s a project that’s easy and inexpensive to pull off, but that can have a big visible impact. Bonus points for including winter-friendly upgrades in your project, to help boost warmth or light levels.
Everyone Loves Plants
Last but not least: you’ve gotta go green. Studies have shown that just looking at live plants can help reduce your stress and improve your mood. Bad news for people who live in places with harsh winters, where there’s not a speck of green outdoors for months at a time. But you aren’t out of luck. Having a potted plant or two indoors can help make up the difference; if you really struggle with seasonal depression, it can even help you maintain a daily routine. However, while nothing beats having live plants, if you don’t have a green thumb and all the plant nurseries in your area are closed for the winter, store bought is fine. Fake plants can make your home feel greener while you wait, and will save you having to worry about keeping a plant alive in cold weather.
You may not be up for a big project to tackle inside this winter, but there are plenty of ways to spruce up your home while you’re snowed in. From moving furniture completely around to adding bits and bobs new and old, enrich your home however fits you.
