styling tips · winter ·

8 Ways to Warm Up Your Interiors This Winter

A lounge room set for winter, with a grey and wood grain couch, wooden coffee table, storage ladder, rattan decor, a sleek corner style roaring fireplace, and faux fur rug. The room is full of various cushions and blankets, with a large floating shelf holding a large painting and decorative plates and vases.

As the season to cosy up indoors, winter is the perfect time to reevaluate your interiors. When styling a home in winter, it’s all about adding a sense of warmth and comfort to your décor.

Whether you’re on the Gold Coast or Geelong, Alice Springs or Adelaide, shorter days and cooler temperatures all around Australia in the winter months can take away some of the joy of the season. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on style.

On wet mornings, when it's grey skies and gusty winds, or even on icy evenings, you can still keep a sunny disposition by channelling warmer tones in your home.

We’ve consulted the experts to compile a list of quick winter interior design tips to help you bring warmth to your space and create a multi-sensory winter haven.

1. Create a cozy reading nook

A grey chair and ottoman set against a white wall, near some light wood grain shelving and a white vase.

Finding the right spot is obviously the first and most crucial step. Take a slow walk around your home and find a space where you may enjoy spending your time. Or think of a room where you already spend most of your time. It could be around your window in your family room, a cozy reading nook, or surrounded by creature comforts in your bedroom. Ideally, it should be quiet and warm.

Once you’ve found the perfect spot, it’s time to start thinking of a seating arrangement. Think a little out of the box. Also, consider what type of seat you prefer – a modular lounge, recliner chair, or maybe a rocking chair. Perhaps an Artiss armchair in jewel tones of dark green or navy blue is just your winter interior style, or if you're a fan of earthy tones, you may like to check out the Artiss lounge chair and ottoman set.

Whether it’s a mug of hot chocolate, coffee, or a glass of red wine, you'll want another furniture piece within arm’s reach. The perfect piece could be anything from a low-lying coffee table or side table to tall-standing bedside tables.

2. Set the mood with the right lighting

Industrial style fairy lights are suspended over a wood grain bed with dark green sheets. The bed is surrounded by various houseplants and a large white window lets in plenty of natural light.

If there’s one thing we really miss in winter, it’s natural light. Natural light is important for your health, helping maintain your circadian rhythm (the body’s internal clock) and brain chemistry, among many other important functions. The right lighting can help improve your mood, energy levels, and sleeping patterns.

Fortunately, when the weather outside is frightful, you can make everything inside feel more delightful with warm, ambient lighting. Whether you're lighting winter days with overhead lighting, floor lamps, or even industrial-style exposed bulbs, you can create a relaxing space on almost any budget.

Use warm lights to illuminate the environment and channel warmth during the day, along with targeted cool lights for important task-focused areas such as the bathroom, your workspace, even an accent wall or statement piece.

An easy way to create atmosphere with light is by adding decorative floor lamps in your living room, fairy lights, or candles in your dining room. Above all, maximise the natural light beaming into your home by keeping your curtains open during the day.

3. Incorporate natural materials

A wooden two-seater velvet armchair with deep green upholstery. Next to it are a wooden side table and two metal and rattan side tables. The room is filled with various flourishing houseplants.

Indoor plants are among the top interior trends year-round, but there's no better time to bring new life into your home than in the thick of winter. Plus, many of the most popular houseplants in Australia don’t even require the care of a greenthumb owner.

When bringing the great outdoors indoors, look for houseplants with ‘easy care’ labels at your local nursery or Bunnings. These plants tend to require less light and water, making life easier to manage through winter. Or, depending on the interior design trends you're looking to emulate in any given room, you may like to choose plants from the succulent or cacti families.

As many plants remain dormant or grow slower in winter, you may want to purchase a more established plant to make an immediate difference to your space. If you don’t like the idea (or the price) of bringing the natural world inside, feel free to embrace faux flora – it will stay evergreen all year round and can be swapped out without any hassle.

4. Layer up the furniture and floors

A deep blue couch placed in the corner of a white living room. The couch is covered in various blue square cushions and two cosy blankets. The couch is framed by a blue rug, a metal coffee table with candles and a vase of greenery, and windowsills filled with houseplants.

It’s time to bring out the blankets! Winter trends are all about layering and fabric selection, so you should pull out all the stops to build the perfect winter nest. Introduce layers with textured blankets, throw rugs and pillows to create a cosy corner in your living room.

In the spirit of Hygge, a top winter interior design trend, layer different textiles in warm tones to not only add depth and create a more interesting space, but a more comfortable one, too. We've consulted our experts at Artiss and they've given their top textile tips for the colder months:

Use a breathable, moisture-wicking layer as the base
Use a breathable but heat-trapping middle layer.
Put your most resistant layer on top to truly keep out the cold.

Don’t forget about curtains and rugs! Winter is an excellent time to swap out wispy window covers for heavy curtains, and lay down floor rugs on bare floorboards or tiles.

5. Embrace the rug

An Artiss Ultra Soft Shaggy Rug in grey placed in a cream coloured living room with a stray cushion sitting on its edge.

On that note, unlike any other, the season calls for a rug. Working with any home style, rugs help channel warmth, and make a great option for a quick home makeover.

With so many choices in materials – from wool blend to synthetic and natural fibres – you should first think about how you want the rug to feel underfoot, the level of maintenance required, and the amount of traffic going through the room.

On top of that, rugs are excellent for preventing damage to your floorboards, reducing noise around your house, and even helping you save on your heating bill through insulation. If you’re looking for inspiration, read the Artiss guide, How to Pick the Perfect Floor Rug for Your Space.

6. Take in the scent

A Devanti 4 in 1 aroma diffuser in wood grain, releasing mist in front of a cream couch with blue and cream textured pillows. The Devanti diffuser is set on a wood coffee table, next to a rustic wood slab candle holder.

Beat winter blues and create your own sensory sanctuary with scent. Scents are deeply tied to our memories, so filling your home with beautiful smells that make you feel warm, nostalgic and happy is ideal on a grey winter’s day.

You can either burn your favourite scented candle or opt for an aroma diffuser, such as Devanti’s 4-in-1 aroma diffusers. Embrace the season with woodier scents – cinnamon, clove and frankincense may spring to mind – or consider choosing sensory summer counterparts such as lemon, orange and eucalyptus.

7. Change up your furniture

In the foreground, a wood and rattan armchair and ottoman set, split between a simple wood coffee table with a white vase, lamp and candle. In the background, a light grey couch with an open book, white mug and grey textured pillow.

Sooner or later, if you’re stuck inside, you’re likely to catch the creative bug and feel the urge for some DIY. Artisanal furniture forms the perfect base for DIY, as it’s usually made from raw, natural materials. It comes in many shapes and sizes, so you can choose exactly the right fit for your home. Plus, there are lots of second-hand pieces waiting to be rehomed, repurposed or refurbished to satisfy your creative itch.

If the artisanal look doesn’t appeal to you, or you have more of a minimalist interior design style, Scandinavian design may be a better fit for you. It’s no wonder this kind of furniture works so well in winter – Nordic countries are known for their cold temperatures. While it borrows a lot from mid-century modern, Scandinavian style is light and airy, helping you create a positively charged winter interior space designed for comfort.

8. Fire up the fireplace

A Devanti wall mounted electric fireplace with a black frame simulating a flame against a concrete wall. In the foreground, a partly hidden brown leather couch with a black frame.

There’s something very atmospheric about a fireplace. These days, you can fit out different types of fireplaces to match any home style. You can opt for a traditional wood fireplace in your living room, or achieve a similar effect with a gas or electric model in your dining room. If you don’t care for the heat but still want the look, you can even get high-quality fireplaces to simulate the flame without the fire hazard.

Your go-to for winter interior design trends

It’s often the little things that do wonders for brightening mood when feeling the winter blues in the cooler months. So, why wait? Whether you're after a jewel-toned velvet stool, armchair, fabric bedframe or textured bedhead, Artiss offers a vast range of new homewares and furniture to help you warm up your interiors and achieve your ultimate winter mood.