On a cold winter day, there's nothing better than a cozy room that invites you to sink into a comfy chair and snuggle up with a fuzzy blanket.
“No matter what type of home I'm working on, whether it's more contemporary or more traditional, my goal is always to create something that is welcoming, warm and inviting,” he said Shawn Henderson, an interior designer based in New York. “Most people are looking for that feeling of comfort and security.”
David Jimenez, an American designer based in Paris, has different words for that feeling. “You can call it comfort,” he said, “but you can also call it making a space seem more layered, more comfortable, more casual. It all comes down to the same idea: you feel like you want to put your feet up.”
What's the best way to create that welcoming atmosphere? We asked the designers to share some tips.
Wrap the walls
When you walk into a cozy room, you should feel like you're being hugged.
“Comfort starts with the feeling of being surrounded, and like the walls are closing in a little bit instead of going out,” said Jenna Chused of Chused and company., a Brooklyn interior design firm. “Painting a room a rich, dark color or using wallpaper helps create that feeling.”
For a living room in her own home, Chused wrapped the walls in a scenic wallpaper depicting trees and clouds in various shades of gray.
Wood panels are another option.
“We're big fans of the panels,” said Shana Sherwood, who runs Sherwood Kypreos, a Los Angeles interior design studio, with her husband, George Kypreos. “It offers a lot of visual interest compared to thoughtless expanses of drywall.”
In one kitchen, they used V-groove panels on the ceiling and walls to make the space feel more intimate. “It's the architectural texture that reduces the scale of the space a little bit,” Kypreos said. “This makes him feel more comfortable.”
For the ultimate in softness, try upholstering your walls with fabric. That's what Mr. Henderson did when he was designing his country house in Hillsdale, New York. “In every room, there is some level of upholstery on the walls,” he said.
A guest room cleverly uses a section of the wall covering as a generous headboard. “It's an acoustic baffle that's also soft to the touch,” she said. “Talk about cozy.”
Soften the floor
Rugs are an easy way to add warmth and comfort to a room. Look for thick, shaggy rugs, or consider layering two or more rugs to expand what a single tightly woven rug can offer.
Tamara Honey, founder of the Los Angeles interior design firm honey house, used both strategies in a recent project. In a room with a bar that had a hard terracotta tile floor, she layered antique Afghan, Turkish and Indian rugs on the floor, using pieces of other rugs to make cushions and floor pillows. “That way, people can rest on the ground,” she said.
In the living room of the same house, Ms. Honey used a shaggy circular rug to define a seating area on more terracotta tile floors. “It's almost like this well of conversation,” she said. “It just feels good.”
Use atmospheric lighting
“Lighting is very important for a welcoming space,” Ms. Chused said. “Table and floor lamps are the most important and you want soft, shady light.”
Try to place lamps exactly where you need them, so that you can bring functional light to specific parts of the room without having to brighten them too much. In his living room, Chused mounted a swing-arm lamp with a shade on the wall behind the couch and placed a floor lamp to the side.
Ceiling fixtures that bathe the entire room in light are less desirable. If you have them, look for diffusers and bulbs that offer warm colors (for LEDs, the color temperature should be a warm white of about 2700 Kelvin) and make sure you have dimmers. For her living room, Chused chose a Viscontea pendant lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni that is wrapped in a fabric-like resin veil.
Embrace the warmth of wood
A cozy room is a great place to highlight natural materials, including various species of wood and natural grasses.
When Mr. Henderson was designing the living room of his Hillsdale home, he painted the wall panels a greenish-gray, but left the original rough-hewn wooden posts and beams unfinished for their rich visual character. He later added antique furniture made from other types of wood, such as oak, rosewood and pine.
The designers of Sherwood Kypreos often take a similar approach. “Mixing woods gives you a warmer, more inviting feeling,” Sherwood said. His company also frequently uses window shades and lampshades woven from natural grasses to provide visual warmth.
Create places to snuggle
Choosing the right furniture is essential for a cozy room. Sofas and chairs should not only look comfortable: they should be comfortable. That means finding pieces with lower seat heights, deep seat cushions, and comfortable fillings that sink to encourage lounging and napping.
Ms Chused has used oversized leather armchairs covered in sheepskin to create nests by the fireplace. Mr. Jiménez likes a backless sofa or daybed placed in front of a fireplace, so people can admire the flames by facing one side and turn to chat with others in the opposite direction.
Mr. Henderson has a low, armless sofa in his living room with a soft bench cushion, which he placed next to a wing chair. “The seat of that chair seems a little higher, but you sink into it,” he said, and his wings offer a tender embrace. “A wing chair is one of the coziest pieces of furniture you can have in a room.”
Add soft accessories
Pillows and blankets are a must: A cozy room is the place to go a little overboard with soft, woolen textiles, to soften the look of the room and give people the option to customize their comfort level.
“Use plenty of pillows and have blankets on hand,” Chused said.
You can mix colors and patterns for an updo look, and look for options that are luxuriously soft, she advised: “I use a lot of velvet, super soft mohair, and alpaca.”
It is almost impossible to have too many soft accessories or ones that are too soft.
Layer with abandon
Overlaying a space with art and decorative accessories will make it feel more homey. Mr. Jiménez likes to decorate his homes with objects that he has collected over the years: framed art, small sculptures, interesting plates and boxes, and many, many books.
“There's something to be said about welcoming spaces that are filled with things that have meaning to you,” she explained. “It's about what you get. What do you love, what are your passions, and how do you project that into your space?
Make a room personal and it will be comforting every time you enter. And that's the best kind of comfort.
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