Winter Living Room Refresh | After Christmas Decorate with Me | Simple Cozy Cottage Home Decorating

Happy New Year sweet friends! I am so glad that you are here and I'm happy to be back. Today I'm sharing a winter refresh of my living room including some inspiration for how to style your spaces after the holidays. Let's go ahead and get started. I am stepping into the new year very slowly and gently. There is no hurry or timeline for our homes. We can transition them as we feel ready taking as long as needed. I took down my Christmas decor slowly and thoughtfully sorted through my pieces, selling some, giving others to friends, and keeping only the things I truly love. A new year gives you the opportunity to set new intentions for your home and for yourself. While I took some much-needed time off I thought about how I wanted my home to look and feel going into the new year. I am looking forward to sharing some more about my thoughts in this week's cozy chats. But for now let me share a few simple ideas for making your home feel cozy which can sometimes be a bit tricky after all the holiday decor comes down. When I started styling my living room space I was really thinking about how I could create cozy layers. I pulled in a bunch of pillow covers that I already had and I just started mixing and matching a bunch of different patterns just to bring a little bit of life back into the space. One of the goals I have this year is to thrift and source things for my home with intention. I have a mindset of creativity over purchases. When I was pulling together pieces for my living room almost everything I used I already had in my home or they were things that I had thrifted. I have a handful of thrifty pieces that I want to share with you a bit later in the video. By mixing and matching pillow covers I already had I was able to create an entire new look on my couch without purchasing anything new. Whenever we buy something new for our homes we have to consider that the item will take up space. Storing and managing things in our homes takes time. I want to be able to spend my time doing some other things besides managing what is in my home all of the time. So that means I just need to be a bit more thoughtful when I am buying something for my home. The beautiful thing about keeping a home is that you get to decide. You decide how to spend your time and resources, how much space you are willing to devote to certain things. You get to decide how you want your home to look and feel. Here are a few of the thrift finds that I wanted to share with you that I'm going to be using in this space. Now I thrifted some of these a couple months ago and they've just kind of been waiting in the wings until I took down all of my Christmas decor. The first one was that little oil lamp which is just so sweet. I absolutely loved that. I think I only paid $3.99 and then I found two of those small bell-shaped cloches. Those were $2.99 each and then of course you all know how much I love watercolor paintings so when I saw this book I had to pick it up and find a special place for it in my home. I love all of the paintings that are in the book and then it had this beautiful pale blue color which fits in perfectly in my space. Lastly I did thrift the new lamp that you see on the side table there. It is a substantial piece and it makes a beautiful statement here in the living room. I only paid $20 for it. For me I am letting go of this idea that I constantly need to be overhauling and changing my spaces. I have some favorite staple pieces in my home that I turn to and I use time after time after time because they are after all my favorites and it is okay to do that. It is okay to leave your favorite pieces front and center all of the time. You don't have to constantly be changing them out. I have really tried to lean into my style and I think I have finally figured out what my style is and that has made decorating my spaces so much easier now that I have a clear vision of what my style is. I have talked about this before on my channel but you do not have to constantly be buying new things for your home in order for your home to feel refreshed and bright and cozy and inviting. You can do that just by moving simple things around in your home and making easy swaps here and there. It does not have to be this grand thing when the seasons are changing or when you are decorating a new space or refreshing a new space. It can be just a few changes here and there and it makes all the difference. Next I am working on styling this little corner over by my anti-cutch that I refinished. I added some old books and this bundle of baby's breath I tied with some lace ribbon. In this little cozy corner I added my collection of flower pots back into my hutch along with my vintage linens. I kept my handmade doily snowflake garland on the top of my hutch for the winter season. Winter is the season of rest and reflection, a much-needed pause before the busy season of spring. I am taking this opportunity to work on the neglected parts of my home as well as the many projects that have been waiting in the wings. But I also know that the cold dark days can be very difficult in the winter. I am filling my spaces with things that bring me joy like flowers. These peony stems are my go-to stem when I don't have fresh flowers in my spaces. They are neutral but they still have some movement to them. I repeated the use of these stems in a couple corners of my living room. On my coffee table I mixed in some greenery and juniper picks. My advice to you this winter season is to bring in the pieces that bring joy to you, whether that be a pitcher full of flowers, your favorite books, your favorite candle. It's those little things that you can add to your spaces that help make them feel warm and inviting, especially when it is really cold and dark outside. I often find myself reaching for the same pieces, my favorites. With the changing of the seasons, I always take time to edit my home, make sure it has only the pieces that I truly love and use. This of course is a lengthy process and it's always ongoing. With that, this is a gentle reminder to have patience with your home and yourself. Both are always growing, changing, and evolving for the better. When I style my bookshelves, I like to see the story and character in the pages and spines of my books. Everyone is a bit different when it comes to a shelf styling, so I always say please style your home in a way that speaks to you. You live there, it should be the way that you love it. On my channel, I love to share ideas, but I always encourage you to take them, tweak them, and make them your own. Here is the refreshed space, a collection of things I had in my home, just a few new to me thrifted pieces that came together to make this space in our home feel warm, welcoming, and inviting for the winter ahead. In this week's Cozy Chats, I thought I would give you a little behind-the-scenes look of daily life in my home and I wanted to chat a bit about my hopes and intentions for the new year. My word for this year is intentional. It is my focus for everything that I do, how I decorate my home, how I thrift, what I buy, and how I spend my time. It is my goal to create a home that is rooted in thoughtfulness. I want a slower pace this year, more time to just enjoy life, not to hurry, to just enjoy each day as it comes. I'd love to know about some of your hopes for the new year in the comments. Thank you all so much for being here. I will see you all next week.