How to Winterize Your Living Room In Style
BWS Design • October 9, 2018

The way we use our homes changes from season to season. In the summer, you want the lightest possible decor. Plenty of room to move around in, breezy curtains, and furniture that’s comfortable in warmer temperatures. You’re more likely to leave your windows open, lounge on deck chairs in the back garden, and use indoors as more of a staging point for warm-weather activities. However, as the seasons turn and the days get colder, so too does how we use the home. We stay inside, turn on the heat, and curl up with hot cocoa instead of lounging on the deck. Even the way we decorate changes as we draw the curtains against the cold and blankets start appearing draped over the backs of chairs and couches, not to mention actual holiday decor.

Most people go through this transition without noticing. They get colder, the holidays approach, and their behavior changes, but why not optimize the yearly reconfiguration? With a deft hand and a stylish vision, you can winterize your living areas and make them seasonally beautiful at the same time.

Custom Thermal Curtains
The curtains you want up in the summer and winter are very different. Films and bright, cheerful patterns are great when your goal is to let in the sunshine but windows take on an entirely different nature in the winter. Even insulated windows can get cold and the best solution to keeping your home warm is heavy thermally insulating draperies. While you can find off-the-shelf thermal curtains, if you want the winter window treatments for all your public rooms to match or complement each other, try ordering a set of custom drapes instead. You can choose a cheery holiday red theme, dark blues for a more somber tone, or pick a pattern that looks elegant in your home design.

Thick Carpets on Smooth Floors
What your floors are made of makes a big difference both in how cold they are to walk on and how much cold they can transfer into the home. Stone and tile floors may be nice and cool in the summer but they can become uncomfortably cold in the winter. Wood and linoleum are more resistant to cold but nothing keeps your home cozy soft, thick carpets. While you may not want them down all year long, the winter is the perfect time to put down some beautiful patterned rugs in any room with hard floors. Long rugs can be used for hallways and walk spaces, larger ones for open areas or even rearranging to be underneath your regular furniture. The best part is that, by working with your custom drapes team, you can find rugs that look superb when paired with your thermal curtains.

Matching Throw Blankets
Throw blankets or “throws” are those soft blankets that look nice draped over the back of a couch and can be snuggled under on a cool evening. They can be knitted, quilted, crocheted, or simply a double-layer of something soft and warm. They often feature fringe or accent colors and are best when used to compliment the design of the room. A dark gray blanket, for instance, might set off the blue-gray tinges of a subtly designed living room while a cheery red with tassel-fringe would look fantastic in a living area decked out for a family Christmas. These blankets are nice when you’re alone but are especially welcoming to napping children, blanket sharing, and older relatives when family comes to visit for the holidays.

Everyone makes changes to their living space in the winter, from putting up heavier drapes to decorating for the annual family holiday. Why not do it all in one stylish fell swoop with matching curtains, warm rugs, and comfortable throw blankets that pull the entire interior design of your room together? For more great winter style tips or to consult on making your decor dream a reality, contact us today!

Expert Advice by Just Blinds

May 29, 2025
Windows give a home warmth, light, and a view of the outside world. But with the right treatments, you can also use your windows to make your home feel cozy. Coziness is a semse of comfort and familiarity. It defines a charm that feels like home, whether it's the coziness of a warm room in winter, your movie den in the summer. When we think of coziness, we often think of couches, candles, and throw blankets. But your windows play an equally important part. After all, it's your window treatments that frame the light, add softness to your walls, and set the mood for every room. The right window decorations can make your home feel warm and inviting. Using Windows, Drapes, and Shades to Create Coziness  Window treatements create a vibe for your entire room. Drapes, shades, and shutters can be used to create a backdrop of texture, color, and style. They also allow you to control the light levels in your home and even the color of the light. This means that your windows are the best place to start when making a room feel cozy. Layering soft drapes in rich colors is a great way to add that sense of comfort and warmth to a room, while cheerful blinds in soft neutrals can help a room to feel relaxed and welcoming. You can also use drapes or blinds to add a splash of color as a bold accent in any room. These touches combined with glowing sunshine during the day create a cozy and comfortable space. Plants as Cozy Window Decor You can use other types of decor to evoke a sense of coziness, too. We particularly love plants. Leafy green plants love the sunshine as much as you do and thrive when placed in a sunny window. Place an elegant snake plant in the windowsill or hang creeping ivy from a hook near the top of a window frame to make your room feel cheerful and alive with green energy. Plants make a home feel natural and vibrantly lived-in which is perfect for your cozy vibe. For a cozy kitchen, you can even grow fresh herbs in a box on the windowsill that add a delicious aroma and tasty fresh seasoning along with their natural visual appeal. Enhance Your Space with Aromatherapy Speaking of aromatics, you might be surprised how much your windows can take part in cozy aromatherapy. Window treatments like drapes and blinds are fabric that can help purfumes and essential oils linger in the room for days. Cozy scents are often warm aromas like cinnamon, vanilla, lavender, almonds, and coffee. But fresh fruit or floral scents that smell like "home" to you can also add a sense of coziness to each room. Simply spritz your curtains with your favorite scents and each room will subtly carry that comforting smell of home that makes you want to snuggle into the couch and relax at the end of each day. Moody Shade and Maximizing Light When we visualize coziness, light levels often play a role. Your minds eye may see a sun-drenched cottage or a gently lit library as your mental idea of a room that is perfectly cozy. Window treatments allow you to set the mood by reducing or maximizing light to the perfect levels. Well-designed shades and drapes can pull back attractively to maximize light, bathing your room in the warm welcoming glow of sunshine. Or if you prefer a more relaxed coziness, you can use translucent drapes or cellular shades to filter the light exactly the right amount. Diffuse and reduced light filtered through fabric of a warm color can make you feel safe and at peace. Increase Your Happiness with Window Design Your home should feel welcoming, relaxing, and cozy. The right window treatments can help set the stage for a delightful welcome home each night, rejuvinating weekends, and an overall feeling of at-home coziness when you are relaxing in your favorite place. To achieve this goal, you can experiment with home decor changes, including your windows, to achieve your ideal at-home bliss. Contact us today for custom drapes and blinds to complete your cozy room design.
April 23, 2025
Your selection of window treatment products and services is not merely about getting a job done. Rather, if you look hard enough, you can find direct correlations between the type of person that you are and the window treatment that you select. We have created this personality-based guide to help you best discover what kind of window treatment truly matches your spirit. The Dependable Type: Wooden Blinds You are the person that all of your friends can count on. You are the type of person who truly sticks to your plans when you make them, and you are the type of person who will choose wooden blinds for your home. Privacy is important to you when selecting your blinds, and that is why you find yourself pulled into the idea of putting up wooden blinds. Besides that, they happen to be highly functional, and that's not something that you are willing to pass up either. The Planner: Blackout Curtains Those who value truly getting the most value out of their blinds or anything else that they install in their homes will think very carefully about their options. For those people, going with blackout curtains makes a lot of sense. They want to gain as much value as possible out of their options, and they know that they can significantly improve their quality of sleep and so much more when they opt for blackout curtains. These also happen to be a great option for those who work night shifts or other odd hours and yet still want to enjoy their sleep. They need blackout curtains to help increase the quality of that sleep and allow themselves to get their day started right. The Tech Enthusiast: Smart Shades They roam among us: The type of people who are quick to adopt any new technology and get to work figuring out how it can improve their lives. These people are great because they are not afraid to take a risk and because they help to move our society forward. They simply want to get more out of each day, and they often do so by adopting and using the latest technologies. These individuals will gravitate towards smart shades for the following attributes: Innovation - Who wants to stick with the boring old ways of shading one's house? Smarter options are now available, and you better believe that the tech enthusiasts among us are willing to latch on to them. Efficiency - These shades are a more efficient option for those who care about that kind of thing. They can be easily activated and set up to open or close automatically (how cool is that?!). Progressive - The "cool" factor is a big deal for people who fall into this category as well. They might not admit to it right off the bat, but they care deeply about what others think about them. As such, they want window shades that have that cool factor attached to them. The Dreamer: Sheer Curtains Finally, we land upon the dreamer. This is the person who views every day for the possibilities that it can bring. They are not scared off by those with a negative attitude. If anything, they believe that they can change those people! Instead, the dreamer wants sheer curtains because they bring in soft light, open spaces, and bring about a feeling of possibility all throughout the house. Sheer curtains are the ideal option for someone who classifies themselves in this way. They will receive plenty of compliments on their curtains, and they will appreciate how open they are to the world.  Which kind of person are you and which window treatment option makes the most sense for your personality? For more inspiration and ideas, reach out and contact us today.