The Great Indoors: 9 Small Ways To Make Home Feel Cosier

Allow us, if you will, to begin with the quickest win of all: step away from the overhead switch. Nothing kills a cosy evening like being illuminated from above as though awaiting minor surgery. Instead, create little pools of light around the room with table and floor lamps, wall lights and candles. A small rechargeable lamp is particularly useful for dark corners, shelves and supper tables – and can move around the house with you.

The annual migration of blankets from cupboard to sofa is one of autumn’s pleasures. Keep a couple within arm’s reach rather than neatly folded somewhere nobody will bother to retrieve them – wool for properly chilly nights, something lighter for these in-between September evenings. A good-looking basket beside the sofa keeps the whole lot contained, another of the requisites for cosiness in our books.

Our noses know the seasons are changing almost before we do. This is the moment to retire anything too breezy and summery in favour of scents that hit notes of wood, amber, fig, herbs, smoke and spice. A candle will do the job nicely, as will incense or an oil burner. We’d just exercise restraint around anything promising to make your house smell like a pumpkin-spiced latte.

The cosiness-generating powers of soup, a slow-cooked stew, baked apples or a tomato sauce left to putter away for an hour should never be underestimated. Cooking something slowly changes the atmosphere of a house as much as any candle can – and better still, supper takes care of itself while you get on with the serious business of curling up.

One or two small changes are enough to make the sofa feel ready for its busiest season of burrowing: a bolster, a little velvet or wool among the summer linens. Texture does much of the work, so look for things that make you want to reach out and touch them.

We are never knowingly too far from our next cup of tea – but the art of glugging it by the gallon load resumes in earnest as from now until at least mid-spring. Gather the tea you like, a favourite mug or two, a teapot and a tin of something good in one place. Sure, it is a small intervention, but one that renders the everyday business of brew-making the more inviting. Coffee and hot chocolate drinkers should, of course, adapt accordingly.

You don’t need armfuls of expensive flowers. In fact, autumn is arguably the best season for bringing home the slightly scruffier things, like branches of turning leaves, rosehips, seed heads, fading hydrangeas or a few apples piled into a bowl. Look to the garden first – or keep your eyes peeled on a weekend walk – and let things be a little wild.

If summer is about eking every last droplet of the evening, autumn brings with it permission to retreat. Give the bedside table a small reset by way of a proper reading lamp, a good book waiting, water within reach and, if you’re feeling fancy (or just dehydrated), perhaps some hand cream. Change to slightly heavier bedding when the temperature calls for it and dig out the hot-water bottle before you truly need it.

Perhaps the greatest cosiness trick – and it costs nothing at all. Homes feel good because of what happens in them, so establish something small to look forward to as the evenings draw in – whether that’s cake on a Sunday afternoon; candles lit at dusk; a Friday-night film; tea at four; or a bath and a book before bed. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or Instagrammable. – in fact, it’s sole purpose is to make coming home feel good.

FAQs: Cosy At Home

How can I make my home feel cosier for autumn?

Start with the small things: swap overhead lighting for lamps, bring blankets back to the sofa, introduce warmer textures and scents, and make a few seasonal rituals part of the everyday. You don’t need to redecorate to make a room feel markedly more inviting.

What lighting makes a room feel cosy?

Warm, low-level lighting generally creates a softer atmosphere than a single bright overhead light. Table lamps, floor lamps, wall lights and candles can be layered around a room to create pools of light, while rechargeable lamps are particularly useful for gloomy corners.

How can I make my home cosy without spending much money?

Shop your own cupboards first. Move throws and blankets back into living spaces, gather branches or seed heads from the garden, rearrange lamps and light candles at dusk. Even putting a cake in the oven or something slow-cooking on the stove can change the atmosphere of a house.

What colours and textures make a home feel cosy?

Wool, velvet, brushed cotton and heavier linens all add warmth and texture. For autumn, earthy shades, deep reds, ochres, olive greens and warm neutrals work particularly well – but introducing just one or two seasonal pieces is often enough.

How do you make a bedroom feel cosier in autumn?

Switch to slightly heavier bedding as temperatures fall, add a good bedside reading lamp and bring the hot-water bottle out of storage. A book waiting on the bedside table and a favourite hand cream can make an early night feel considerably more enticing.