Creating The Comfort Of Home

If you are the sort of person who adores comfort and revels in the freedom to do your own thing, then you will love the home setting we are going to share.

We will bring trends to your house, making them up-to-the-minute without being shallow, pretty, without being cloying, glamourous without being intimidating, stylish without being impractical.

The relaxed approach to decorating allows your home to reflect your passions and interests. You can alter the decorations of your rooms as you please to reflect your changing taste and needs. A relaxed simplicity is just giving a coolly paired-down room a sense of softness, warmth, and livability is an injection of heart-gladdening color and one or two sublimely lovely objects. This simplicity is at its most relaxed.

Paint a room in the coolest ice-cream colors, furnish it with the simplest beds and chairs. Add a restrained helping of sun-faded floral fabrics, beads, and flowers, and you have the recipe for today’s relaxed romantic look.

When you long to indulge your senses of sight, smell, and touch, choose relaxed sensuality yourself with a wealth of richly varied colors, fabrics, textures, and patterns. Put a lavish, carved bed in an understated bedroom, a fifties glass vase in a grand hallway, and you have relaxed elegance – the sophisticated, glamourous face of today’s relaxed living.

Flaunt your magpie instinct and make the most of the relaxed home’s laid-back and wholly unassuming it with beautiful displays of all the things you love.

Living room

A warmly welcoming focal point, a generously proportioned sofa, soothing light, and an airy feel – these are the ingredients that will make your living room come alive in a truly relaxing way. A living room usually, sets the tone for the whole house. It is often the first room guests see when they come to visit, so you might feel that you have to be on your best behavior when you decorate it. But if a living room is designed to impress outsiders rather than nurture the people who live there. It will end up feeling contrived, sterile, and formal. Put something warm and welcoming at its heart.

Too often everything in the living room revolves around the television, sofas, and chairs. The sofa is perhaps the most important item of all, and for the relaxed look, the more generous and indulgent its proportion, the more comfortable and inviting it will be. Position one to give the best view of a focal point.

Daybeds or low sofas with a small back and long, welcoming seat – the traditional chaise longue – are variations on the sofa theme. They are perfect for instantly establishing a restful, slightly indolent atmosphere. Armchairs are the next item to consider, and in the relaxed home, these are at their best when they are large enough to curl up in. Pile on the pillows, and place a small stool or table nearby so you can put your feet up if you want. For ultimate flexibility and comfort, beanbag chairs are a great choice. They look stylish and certainly project an extremely relaxed image.

Whatever the size of your furniture, to ensure a sense of space and air, remember to choose as many pieces as possible on legs rather than flush with the floor. In a relaxed living room, furnishing and accessories needn’t all be fitted or structured. As the basic thing we are looking for is relaxation so you will need a place to perch that cup of coffee, the novel you are reading, a vase of flowers, or the Sunday paper.

A simple framed family photo or other images you find pleasing or that have special meaning for you can decorate a room just as effectively as a piece of fine art. Add lights and sparkle to any living room, and the bigger they are, the better. While we do not have much control over the architectural elements in our living rooms, we can make the most of those we have to ensure that they contribute to the room’s sense of a relaxed style.

If you are fortunate and your living room has large windows then your room will be flooded with natural light. Plenty of sunshine is perhaps the greatest asset any room can have, so revel in it by avoiding fussy window treatments that will shut out the sun rays. To light your living room artificially, flexibility is the key. Have several pools of lamplight or candlelight, rather than relying heavily on a central light source. You will be able to light different corners of the room for different effects. The result will be far more soothing.

The colors you use on walls and ceilings will also have a bearing on the ambiance you create in the living room. You can add a splash of brighter, more transient colors in the form of pictures, lampshades, vases, and bowls, throws, rugs, and pillows.

Finally, remember that you do not have to stand on ceremony when it comes to decorating a relaxed living room. There is as much scope for you to express your personality here as in any other part of the house. You should just allow the room to evolve along with the simplest of lines. Pick out one seriously comfortable sofa or chair, combine it with a beautiful, stylish, and sensuous object or two, and you can give a sparse, simple room all the warmth, comfort, and panache you could desire.

Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of the home and should be the hub of family and social life. Although a kitchen is a cooking area, family meeting place, and eating room, as well as setting for more formal social gatherings suit some households. When you have no choice but to put your table in the kitchen, it will have to be of more workday variety than a table in a separate dining room. For inevitably, the kitchen dining table will sometimes have to serve as a work surface, too.

Having a large, versatile work surface such as a kitchen table in the center of your room is also part of the secret of creating a relaxed kitchen. You might also like to have a cart or mobile butcher block in the kitchen. These will provide you with extra space for food preparation, somewhere to place hot pans when they come out of the oven, a spot to hand dish towels and hand towels, and perhaps a drawer for storing small gadgets and kitchen knives.

Don’t hide the food, dishes, and utensils inside the cabinets. Instead put the utensils, dishes, and groceries boldly on show on open shelves, in cubbyholes, and stainless steel shelving, hand the from hooks, or display them inside glass-fronted cabinets. Add glass jars filled with spices, bottles of oil and vinegar, a package of flour and sugar, containers to hold wooden spoons and spatulas, and a stack of cast-iron or copper pans. Using a lot of wood in the kitchen also helps to convey a sense of honestly and relaxation. With its many natural tones and textures, wood always has a restful effect.

The desire for kitchens with freestanding elements has brought a renewed interest in the look of kitchen appliances. For many years they have hidden away behind cabinet doors and decorative panels. Now there is demand for the design of the past – butter’s sink with brass faucets, old-fashioned refrigerator with curved casings and big chrome handles, food mixers with the distinctive retro look of the thirties, and that old cast-iron kitchen range. Kitchen appliances have once again become the focal points, rather than something to hideaway.

Now you can easily find kitchen appliances encased in chrome, stainless steel, or brushed aluminum. Dishwashers, ovens, and washing machines have even become designer pieces in their own right. So these modern kitchen appliances are seen and admired instead of being hidden away.

As a background to kitchen appliances, it is best to keep the colors of the kitchen muted. Lots of white is always a winner and cannot fail to look clean and crisp, but a few soft pale colors can add a touch of charm. If your kitchen tends to be the hub of all activity in your household then a uniform color scheme will help to unify the space and make it feel more peaceful. The more neutral the decor, the fewer the restrictions when it comes to choosing dishes and glassware. A mix-and-match approach will give the room a more carefree feel.

When it comes to relaxed homes with the space for a separate dining room, there is even more scope for your imagination. For if you are lucky enough to have one, a separate dining room is where relaxed elegance can truly come into its own. Whether you have a separate dining room or a kitchen/dining room, remember that you are more likely to focus on the delicious food and the company of family or friends. Everything about the room should encourage you just to kick your shoes off under the table, eat your fill, and enjoy.

Bedroom

A bedroom is the most private space in the home, the one-room you should be able to decorate as you like with whatever that makes you happy and cosseted. You can try whatever you want in your bedroom, soothing colors, luxurious bedding your own special books, magazines, and photographs, and an unashamedly special bed. A bedroom offers no shortage of opportunities to use a wealth of supersoft blankets, duvets, pillows, bolsters, quilts, and eiderdowns.

Pick sheers in hot pinks and reds to cast a warm glow and make the space feel comfortable and sheltering. Add a selection of contrasting fabrics for upholstery, pillows, or bedspreads, and you will find yourself with some wonderful juxtapositions that can give the room unparalleled depth.

If you are short of closet space, you can simply hang your clothing on hooks, so that it becomes part of the decor. Take care for open-plan storage sturdy wooden coat hangers are better looking than wire or plastic hangers, and make sure that your clothes are neat and clean. To make the effect more distinctive and personal you can add a collection of antique lace, or a rack of strappy sequined sandals to your bedroom display.

The type of bedroom furniture is the focal point of the bedroom. With the right choice of good-looking sheets and coverings, even a mattress on the floor could become the perfect bed. Mirrors are another essential, increasing the amount of light and giving the room a dreamlike quality.

Maintain the sense of light and space by keeping your color scheme simple and based on pastel color, using sky-blues, powder-pinks, gentle lilacs, pale turquoises, and white. Window treatments should be as minimalist as possible. Avoid heavy drapes and if your bedroom is open to view, consider Venetian blinds or muslins panels. This strikes just the right balance between providing privacy and allowing daylight in.

Add the rest of your bedroom furniture according to your needs and available space. Import a favorite armchair from your living room to provide you with a comfortable place to sit and read books in peace at any time of the day.

The secret is to remember that a bedroom does not have to be only a bedroom. If you blur the boundaries a little, it can become part-boudoir, part-dressing room, part-private living room. Hang your favorite artwork on walls and decorate windowsills with anything from rows of pretty glass perfume bottles to pots of colorful geraniums. Add vases of simply arranged fresh flowers too, as a delicate counterpoint to all the other precious possessions in the room.

Implement just a few of these ideas, and you will create the perfect relaxed bedroom, somewhere you will want to linger during daylight hours instead of only retreating to at night.

Bathrooms

A bathroom can be as romantic, glamorous, minimalist, or retro as you choose. Just add the personal touches you love most, then lie back and indulge yourself. A bathroom can soak away your stresses and strains and make it a therapeutic room you need to include some deeply personal touches. Only you know which details will help you unwind and feel at ease, so close your eyes and imagine your ideal absolutely restful bathroom.

Let everyone know how much you love life’s pleasures by lining your bathroom shelves with your favorite toiletries and cosmetics displayed in old glass bottles and jars or in a selection of bowls and baskets. This is a place where there is nothing to distract you from the ritual of cleaning your mind and body.

For these, you need a floor that slopes gently so the water can drain away, waterproof walls, a powerful shower, and some basic functional accessories such as a big block of soap, natural sponges, and loofahs. Then just add a simple wooden seat or stool and a row of plain wooden pegs to hang up your bath towels.

Conclusion:

The relaxed and comfortable home reflects your passion and interests. It encompasses everything from family photos, holiday memorabilia, and eccentric ornaments to vintage clothing, flowery china, and piles of books. Your home should have an unstructured carefree look, you can alter the decoration of your rooms as you please to reflect your changing taste and needs.

Suggested Read: Starting a New Life