9 Easy Ways to Create A Cozy Home After Holidays

Once Christmas decor is put away, the house can feel empty and cold, so I want to share some of the easy ways I created a cozy home after holidays this year.

It never fails, once I put away Christmas decor the house feels cold.

I love the rest that comes with the winter months.

But I want my home to feel like a warm hug during these months while we get cozy and reset.

Achieving this is a lot easier than you may think.

You can watch me put up my cozy winter decor HERE

How to refresh your home after the holidays?

One of my favorite things to do in the winter is work on some of those small home improvement projects that we don’t have time for in the Summer.

This year, we did a closet makeover in the living room that I’ll share more about soon.

We also added a peg rail to our open shelves in the kitchen.

I’m beyond excited about these small changes.

They seem small and maybe even insignificant, but I always feel I need changes after Christmas.

A handful of changes like this will make your home feel fresh and ready for the new year.

*Tip*

Let the projects you pick for after Christmas be small.

Don’t aim for this HUGE renovation for January.

The closet took us less than 6 hours to complete, and the peg rail was maybe 2 hours of active time.

This does a couple things:

• Gives you a sense of accomplishment and success
• Allows you to find rest during the slow and cozy winter months

When I don’t try to bite off more than I can chew in the winter; it gives the energy I need to tackle the big projects come March and April.

Also, these little “wins” give me the motivation I need to push myself on for bigger projects.

How to decorate for winter after the holidays?

What I do allow myself to do in the winter is decorate to make my home feel cozy after holidays.

Small & simple swaps can completely transform a space.

Cozy home after holidays: warm neutral colors

The first thing I like to do is select a color palette.

This creates the boundaries for my design and helps me stay focused.

If I don’t put parameters on myself sometimes I step back and it looks like the most unorganized chaos.

For a cozy and warm home I selected warm neutrals.

Honestly, this was an easy choice because that’s my foundation color palette for our home.

Random Aside:

I’ve been analyzing my blog and YouTube channel focus these past three weeks that I’ve been on break, which has had me looking at some of my old blog posts.

You guys!!

I used to decorate with the most bright and cool neutrals.

It’s kind of fun to look back and see how I’ve grown and changed as a homemaker.

Cozy home after holidays: Layer Textures

The next thing I did to add warmth and cozy to my winter home decor was add textures.

A perfect example of this is the rug, couch, pillows, and blankets.

I love textured and patterned pillow covers.

Next to the simple crocheted blankets my mom and sister made for me they create a cohesive and cozy look.

Another way to layer texture is to think of the different materials you’re using in your cozy winter home decor.

Think of the entire room as a whole.

I use vintage pottery/crocks, metal (brass, black, copper) textiles, and woven baskets to name a few.

By using all these different textures in my home decor, it adds depth and a cozy that can’t be found without it.

Cozy home after holidays: Greenery

In the cold winter months greenery may feel out of place.

But when you have a room completely decorated without greenery it always feels like something is missing.

So even in the winter I have greenery.

This year I decided to put all the evergreen away with my Christmas decor.

(I shared some simple and organized ways to store Christmas decor in this post.)

Since I did that I decided to use simple eucalyptus stems and these small white flowers.

I think they are an attempt at queen annes lace, but I’m not sure.

Either way, these faux stems are simple enough to not scream summer!!

But at the same time they are just enough to make the our home cozy after the holidays.

Cozy home after holidays: Artwork

I talk about artwork all the time.

I don’t think you could ever overstate the importance that art has.

My personal favorite artwork is landscapes.

But artwork is not just exclusive to that.

Whatever art makes your heart jump should be what you display in your home.

I talked about this a little in the YouTube video this week…we plan to add some original artwork to the this gallery wall this year.

It’s not someone famous to the world, but she was famous to us and oh so special.

I can’t wait to show you the gallery wall when its received an upgrade.

Cozy home after holidays: Soft Room Lighting

Lighting has a dramatic impact on the way a room feels.

My husband has always loved buying “warm light” lightbulbs.

No surprise, it took me a while to transition over to the “warm light” side.

But now that I have, it not only makes our space look warm and cozy, it makes it feel warm and cozy too.

This is the most important thing to me.

I want my family to feel the cozy in our home.

Table Lamps/Floor Lamps

In our family my husband and I have this joke about using the “big lights”.

Basically, the goal is to never ever use the big lights haha!

Table lights and floor lamps typically have shades on them which help to make the light warm.

So even if you don’t have a warm light lightbulb it will help to soften it and increase the cozy feeling.

Cozy home after holidays: Books for Reading

I used to only decorate with books that I thought “looked” good.

They had to be the right color and size.

But recently, I’ve decided there is a certain kind of beauty to a bunch of books that are meant for reading.

Not just for looking.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to make our bookcase look pretty.

But for me, books make me think of snuggling up on the couch with a blanket and some soft music playing in the background.

Not to mention my husband and I are big book people and having them easily accessible is nice for our everyday living.

Cozy home after holidays: Add Scented Candles

Candles are another way to add warm and cozy light to a room.

They look cozy, but if you buy a nice-smelling candle it can also smell cozy.

Honestly, cozy is an experience for all the senses.

Not just your eyes.

When you see a certain thing is may provoke a feeling of cozy.

But the same thing happens when you hear certain sounds, smell certain smells, and feel specific feelings.

I’m thinking about the feeling of my girls snuggling in with me under a blanket while we read a book together.

When you’re working on making your home “feel” cozy, make sure you are thinking about all of the senses.

Clean & Simple

The last tip I have for creating a cozy home after holidays is to declutter.

By removing things you don’t need it helps free up physical and mental space.

This always makes everything more peaceful and restful for me.

Winter is a great time to slowly go through your home and evaluate what you need and what you don’t.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope that this gave you some ideas for adding cozy to your winter home decor.

Cozy Dining Room

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Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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