Baby It’s Cold Outside: Cozy Rooms to Keep You Warm

Technically, it’s still fall, but it sure feels like winter out there!  Temperatures across much the country dipped way low today.  It’s one of those days, ya know, almost time for holiday break, you can hear the wind whipping outside the  window and rattling your Christmas lights, and the temperature inside your bed is at least 20 degrees warmer than the air in the rest of the room so you’d like to stay in it just a little longer…. I thought this the perfect opportunity to share some beautifully styled rooms that evoke that cozy feeling.

First up is a traditional, rustic mountainside lodge-ish living room that has soooo many elements that scream cozy and that I love including wood beams, lovely expansive arched windows, stone fireplace and the clincher…. yep…. turnbuckles!  I can’t resist a good turnbuckle.  My one edit in this room would be to lighten up the sofa color since it sort of blends in to the same tone as the fireplace.  Maybe an ivory sofa draped with a faux fur throw would  be perfect in this room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This room at the Twin Farms Resort and Spa in Barnard, Vermont is so luxurious and cozy.  No tippy-toeing on frozen ground outside necessary, because it’s completely enclosed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This room for Country Homes and Interiors, photoed by David Brittain, makes me think it’s in an English cottage on a countryside farm dotted with fuzzy sheep.  I spy shiplap in the hall, a chunky wood and brick fireplace and varied prints and patterns on all of the textiles which screams warmth.  I could curl up here with a spot of tea, a biscuit and a good book (can you tell I’m doing this in my British accent?) any day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again with the beams, I’m sorry, I can’t help myself.  This interior is stunning, yet simple, which is fitting for drawing attention to the snow-tipped evergreens outside the window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember I mentioned wanting to delay getting out of bed?    This room will make you want to just stay there all day, unless you were going to hop out and curl up on the window seat even closer to the fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whoever said that cozy and modern can’t coexist?  They totally can!  This bedroom is by Sletvoll, a Scandinavian company with exquisite taste and stylists and photographers that are artists.  If you’re looking to kill some time while you’re cooped up because it’s 20 below, go check out their website.  Unless you can speak Norwegian you won’t be able to read it but it’s okay because the pictures say it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This room reminded me of a much more chic version of many of the upper level apartments I saw when I lived in Germany.  It has a mix of modern elements, like light toned wood, sharp angles, glass and rustic touches in the stone fireplace and chunky beams.  Sure enough, this room IS European, designed by Carolina Juanes and situated in the lovely Spanish Pyrenees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did it!  I picked a cozy room that has neither beams nor a roaring fire.  This room is from the HGTV Dream home from way back in 2011.  And look, they were way ahead of their time because they picked “Greenery”, Pantone’s IT color for 2017,  for the sofa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I perused cozy pictures all over the internet, I was surprised that this one spoke to me the most because it’s very modern.  Don’t get me wrong, I like modern design, but it’s usually not the aesthetic I’m drawn to first, nor the one that you’d think of when you think warm and homey.  Regardless, this is it, so simple, yet so gorgeous.  The wood, the stove, the pendants, the windows, the unique angles, I’ll take it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And dare I say, the exterior is even better.  Again, the Norwegians are killing it with combining modern and snug.  True, I suppose they should have it down since they spend half the year in permafrost darkness.  This vacation property is the brainchild of Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where would you like to hunker down during this pre-holiday polar vortex?  Stay warm!

Problem to Perfect Ceilings

The ceiling.  Yup probably the most boring part of the room, right?  Well boring, that is, unless you live in a house with super high ceilings adorned with fancy beams, rustic paneling, or ornate posts.  Alas we can’t all live in a home with ceilings as perfect as these.

ideal-ceiling-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband and I have been lamenting over our lack of an awesome ceiling for several years.  It’s not even it’s absence of awesomeness that  bothers us so much as the readily apparent absence of competent craftsmanship that went into it’s flat drywalled simplicity.  In the expanse that covers our open living room and kitchen area you can see every drywall seam.  Now, the house is about 10 years old and you can not only see the seams, but there is some cracking along them as well.  This problem makes the whole room look shoddy.  The big question is, what to do to fix this dilemna?  We’re serial DIYers, but drywall is one of those things that is sooooo hard to do correctly and quite frankly doing it on the ceiling is even harder than the wall (and a mess)!  So I could pay someone to come in and just fix the drywall seam problem, but that’s about as exciting as buying a washer and dryer…. ya know…. you spend all this money on a necessary thing and after shelling out all that cash… yay…. you’ve got …. laundry.   So if we’re going to spend some cash to fix it then I’d like it to look spectacular.

While we don’t have soaring vaulted or cathedral ceilings, we are fortunate enough to have 10 foot tall ceilings.  So there are a number of options out there that we could try and we’ve each spent too many hours on Pinterest and Houzz trying to decide which idea is best for fixing our wonky ceiling.  Here’s some of the ideas we’re considering (note: our house is a modern colonial so we’re looking for an idea that doesn’t stray too far from the style of the house.

First up, this coffered ceiling, would be something that we think we could DIY right over the drywall seams, the only challenge would be the existing recessed can lights would need to be moved because they wouldn’t be centered (so, ultimately, more drywall patching necessary).

coffered-ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or maybe even this more simplistic version of square panels?  You can see here in this photo below that they also had to even out all the ceiling mounted lights.

simple-panelled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture is intriguing to me because my kitchen cabinets are the same grey as these, but I worry that the rustic beam and shiplap is a little too farmhousey for my colonial?

shiplap-ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this option might be the way my husband would want to go, cover the ceiling in wood, but I fear that if you picked a wood that is similar to the wood floor (a medium gloss Brazilian Koa), it’ll look too much like a church, and if we pick a wood that is too different from the floor it’ll just clash.

wood-ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tin or faux tin in a simple pattern might work, provided it was painted white or a distressed white, otherwise I think it’d be a tad busy.  This pattern below is too ornate for my taste.

tin-ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could achieve a similar look with an embossed wallpaper applied to the ceiling.  Undoubtedly a real neck breaker, so I can’t say I’m looking forward to applying any of these finishes myself.

wallpaper-ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d love to hear other unique ideas for hiding ceiling seam problems.  What do you think?