How To Make Your Room Cosy: Warm Cosy Living Room Ideas For Winter

With the shorter days and darker nights now in full swing, many of us are looking to revamp our home into a snug winter escape. 

As the relaxation hub of home, the living room is the perfect place to start – but how do you make your room cosy? 

Today, we’re exploring exactly that, offering up some of our favourite warm, cosy living room ideas that will feel like a big cuddly hug.

How to make your living room cosy

Layer up 

Layering-up is a warm, cosy living room idea that’s quick and easy to pull off. 

Better yet, the advantages of layering up are more than just winter design aesthetics. With throws, blankets and cushions, you can keep physically warm and cosy, too. 

To achieve a layered look sure to turn any living room into a snug sanctuary, embrace: 

• Cushions and throws: a simple way to add layers of warming textures, patterns and fabrics without any long-term interior commitment 
• Rugs: not only do rugs provide a warm and welcoming extra layer to any living room interior, they provide warmth and cosiness underfoot, too
• Drapes or curtains: long-flowing drapes or curtains can have a dramatic impact on your interior, so be sure to find the right shade and texture to suit your winter design. Drapes and curtains can also provide a more effective heat retention barrier for living room windows to keep your home better insulated
• Lighting: lighting can be a practical way of layering your living room to make it feel warmer and cosier. To create the ultimate comfy winter retreat, utilise soft-glow lighting and complement with candles, lamps and (if possible) a roaring fire

Use fireplaces as focal points

Home to lazy afternoons spent reading, entertaining evenings socialising and movie nights spent wrapped up all warm and cosy, the living room has a big part to play in any home. 

So, making your living room a snug retreat to enjoy all season long is a must for any successful winter design. Cue the fireplace!

Your fireplace offers the ideal way to make a room cosy and create a focal feature that instantly evokes a sense of warmth and comfort, whether it’s a functioning fire or not. 

There are several ways you can use fireplace tiles to complement your decor and make this staple feature stand out in a cosy living room. Simply opting for patterned fireplace floor tiles can turn a bland hearth into a beautiful, eye-catching feature without the need for a huge renovation budget.

Fireplace design options

If you’re stuck for inspiration, here are a few fireplace design ideas for a warm and cosy living room:

• Comforting colours: for a truly seasonal feel in your home that’s like a big hug on a winter’s day, why not look to feature some of the latest colour trends on your fireplace? We love the idea of using rich, earthy tones like dark green fireplace floor tiles, or brightening up with fireplace surround tiles in jewel tones like teal to evoke a sense of luxury and warmth 
• Granny chic: if you love vintage interiors like the popular Grand Millennial trend, get your granny chic on with some period-style fireplace floor or surround tiles. Kitsch tiles like the Carnation Decor not only tick the retro box, but also boast undertones of on-trend shades like burnt orange. Let’s face it: you can’t get more warm and cosy than with orange, right? 
• Patterned paradise: if you want to steer clear of block colours, pick a patterned option instead. For fireplace surrounds, there are plenty of options in popular classic grey hues (Pantone’s colour of the year for 2021 nonetheless). If you’re just tiling a hearth, pick a classic diamond design with black and white fireplace floor tiles to make a statement

If you’re working with a non-functional fireplace that’s purely there for decoration, pretty much any ceramic or porcelain tiles will do the trick. So, you’ll have free rein on a whole host of colours, patterns, shapes and sizes. Find ones that inspire warm cosy living room ideas by best complementing your existing winter design.

Embrace winter design trends

When it comes to how to make a room cosy, you’d be forgiven for assuming that it’s more about practicality than style.

However, winter design places warmth and comfort at the forefront of your living room’s interior. This means you can embrace this season’s latest trends and achieve all the practical benefits needed for colder days and longer nights. 

Look to pull off this season’s trends by incorporating an autumnal and winter colour palette into your living room interior. 

Go bold with grey

This winter, grey is taking a bolder stance than usual. Dramatic dark greys paired with natural wood and organic materials like wool and linen are very on-trend this winter. The brooding grey is softened with a mixture of textures and neutral hues, leaving you with a comforting layered look that’s hard to resist. 

In terms of where to try this out and how tiles can be incorporated into this seasonal ensemble, you’ll be spoilt for choice. One idea is to use dark grey as the foundation of a feature wall, then pair it with creams, beiges and browns in different fabrics.

Banish the winter blues

Some blues can feel cold – far from what you imagine in warm, cosy living rooms. But with the right mix of complementary colours and textures, blue can go from cool to cosy in no time. For instance, pairing up a dramatic dark blue with mustard yellows and burnt oranges will soften its austerity to create a comforting colour palette. 

This look can work brilliantly in living rooms to create a luxurious space that washes away any hint of the winter blues. Go bold with blue fireplace tiles or blue tiles on a feature wall, preferably with a slightly uneven surface to help bounce light around the room. 

Alternatively, you can achieve this same effect without tiles, using reflective material like glassware and classic chrome finishes on fixtures and features, like light fittings.

For a slightly warmer touch, add a flourish of polished gold and brass to furnishings and accessories for the ultimate cosy winter design.

Don’t let go of the fall 

There’s a reason why your typical autumn hues like orange, yellow, brown and red begin creeping back onto your radar as the temperatures dip – they just make living rooms feel cosy and warm. It makes perfect sense, then, to embrace these stunning hues into your home to muster up a warming vibe, from autumn and beyond. 

One recent trend is to incorporate spice colours like saffron, turmeric and cinnamon into your home, bringing oodles of natural warmth and depth. They also evoke an exotic feel to your average decor, transporting you from the UK to the silk road without having to leave the comfort of your home. 

These shades aren’t for those in search of a neutral oasis, but you don’t have to go all-in. Instead, look to use pattern and texture to deliver a rustic and rich aesthetic. 

However you embrace the fall, don’t forget to layer up with woolly rugs, blankets and plenty of soft furnishings to enhance the natural warmth of your colour palette. The result will be a home that feels like a giant hug the moment you walk through the door. 

Warm from within

For those with contemporary or open-plan living spaces (or simply a home design that transitions from a living room to a kitchen or hallway), underfloor heating can be a viable option to achieve warmth and cosiness from within. 

Back in the day, underfloor heating was seen as a luxury item with a high price point. Nowadays, you’ll find plenty of affordable under-tile heating mat options available. 

Using underfloor heating comes with the benefit of acting like a complete heating system. If set at a constant low temperature, it can offer a cost-effective heat source in place of traditional radiators for any room of the house. 

This is particularly true in open-plan and transterior designs where the living room is within close proximity. To enhance these practical benefits, it pays to consider how your heated flooring solution will complement your warm and cosy living room interior ideas. 

To do this, find a tiled flooring solution that seamlessly suits your living room style. Here are a few suggestions sure to suit the warm, cosy vibe.

Wood-effect floor tiles

Whether warm and cosy means transforming your home into a rustic haven or championing a more classic style, wood-look floor tiles are a solid choice. With a diverse range of colours, shapes and finishes on offer, wood-look tiles deliver on versatility, style and practicality as a no-nonsense alternative to the real deal. 

For instance, the dark, rich hues of our Napoli wood-look tiles will evoke an instant sense of warmth, while the glossy finish and soft hues of our Ligna range will work to bounce light and heat around the space. Find the option that best enhances the cosiness of your living room design. 

Soft stone tiles

There’s something about stone-look tiles in beige, sand and pale grey that banishes the cold from our thoughts, and for this reason, they make a prime option for underfloor heating tiles. 

In some instances, a polished, glossy tile can make a space appear cool, which is why opting for a matt or textured finish could be the way to go. Underfloor heating tiles like the Lounge Rock Light Grey not only make rooms visually warmer – they also add depth and texture.

Tried and tested terracotta

Using earthy colours with underfloor heating systems is always a natural winner for making your home look and feel snug. One option that works to bring depth and colour is the Zeus Caldera, with its pale terracotta tones and patchwork design.  

If you prefer a darker colour scheme, give your underfloor heating a dramatic edge with tiles in a more traditional terracotta brown. With a warm colour palette and heating underfoot, you can make your home feel toasty in no time. 

When it comes to pulling off a successful winter design in your living room, it’s all about striking a good balance between the colours and textures you love. Get this right and you’ll have a living room that feels warm, cosy and welcoming all winter long. 

If you want even more winter design ideas for your home, keep reading our blog.