When the weather outside is frightful, and in some places, temperatures drop down to dangerous lows, the winter months are a great season to spend some extra downtime just hanging out and relaxing around the house. In fact, with so much indoor time to spend, it might even be the perfect time in your life for a few do-it-yourself style home improvement projects.
Sure, improving and designing interior spaces can certainly be a daunting and difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be as bad as you think! We consulted with a few of our interior design school experts and got some fun and fairly simple tips for cozy home improvement projects to spend time on while you’re locked inside your house during this crazy-weather winter.
One great way to achieve a cozy feel inside a room or a house is by mixing and matching different design elements. Many interior design school students and professional decorators alike will affirm that mixing and matching often creates a sort of artfully cluttered, cottage-like feel in an interior space. Of course, depending on one’s individual taste, there are many different style elements in a room to mix and match. However, we have collected a few popular ideas to get the ball rolling anyway. Try selecting different prints for any cloth elements in the room and throwing them all together.
For instance pick one print for the curtains or blinds, another for an area rug, and perhaps another for a tablecloth or blanket. Don’t shy away from bold, noticeable colors or prints even if you think they absolutely won’t match. Another great example straight out of interior design schools is to mix and match your kitchen-ware. Instead of all-matching sets of silverware and dishes, get thrifty and collect different stuff from all sorts of different places. Use mason jars as cups, oversized mugs as bowls, and if a fork or spoon in your silverware drawer gets slightly bent out of shape, who cares? It will only add even more character to your cozy kitchen.