Home Decor, The Buffalo BurrowTop 5 Ways to Cozy Up Your Kitchen May 5, 2020 This is a sponsored post by Lowe’s Home Improvement. All opinions are 100% my own. If I had to pick one word to describe the main goal of my home, it would be COZY. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise any of you! I love for my home to feel collected, layered, textured, but all in the name of cozy. Ahh, exactly why I love all things home. Renovating, building, designing…they’re all just forms of homemaking to me. That’s what it’s really all about isn’t it, friends? Making a home, a retreat, to welcome us and our loved ones in from the world. One that offers comfort, warmth, and relaxation for those who enter. What a beautiful goal and job we have, homemakers! While our personal journey has been filled with quite a bit of renovating and now building all in the name of using our gifts to pay off debt, your journey may look different. While I share a lot of large-scale projects we do, I want to be intentional about sharing the making of a cozy home because we ALL can do that. As you know, we’ve been building a new house and I’ve talked a lot about our new kitchen. It is by far my favorite space I’ve ever designed. While it’s new and we got to choose everything from scratch, my number one goal for it was COZY. And the ways I tried to achieve that are something every single one of you can do, regardless of your budget or current kitchen state. While you can go all out, buy new of each of these, and cozy your kitchen up, you don’t have to. You could use these tips to bring cozy in your kitchen just by taking things you aren’t using from other spaces and re-imagining them as kitchen decor. After planning and renovating four kitchens in the name of coziness, here are my TOP 5 WAYS TO COZY UP YOUR KITCHEN: Y’all know I’m a rug girl. I absolutely love how bringing in a unique patterned rug with a punch of color can radically change your space. Even though we had a lot going on in this kitchen with the Escape Gray cabinets and the wall of patterned tile, I couldn’t give up on my unique, statement-making rug. I absolutely love this Kaleen Boho Patio Rug. It’s indoor outdoor, so it’s much more durable than rugs I’ve used in the past, but it has the look and feel of a very expensive vintage rug. I still can’t get over the quality of this one! I went with a mainly blue color palette, so I wasn’t introducing too many additional colors into our space. And I love that there’s a lot of copper in it as well. I absolutely love it with all of the other elements in the room. While our brick tile is GORGEOUS, it felt cold to have no rug. Lay out this beautiful runner and what do you immediately have? COZY. There are a lot of rugs from this Kaleen Boho line that I love that I’ll share some favorites in a rug post this week. Regardless of the state of your current kitchen, a statement-making rug can cozy it right up. Hate those bright colored cabinets, but not ready to paint? Choose a rug that has that color in it’s pattern, but introduces other fun colors you love. My other big rug tip is to go as big as you can. The tendency in a kitchen is to do a small rug in front of the sink and that be it. And while that is better than nothing, a runner or larger area rug depending on your space makes such a big statement. Nothing brings life into a space like plants. They have color, texture, and even huge health benefits. So often when I’m stuck in an area, I add a plant. It’s always my go-to. Add them to windowsills, shelves, any nook and cranny that needs a little something. Lowe’s has a huge section of house plants. Before you head into the store, take a look at the area you want to add some plants. Pay attention to the light there so that you can get the right plants that will thrive in your space. I love having herbs in the kitchen or regular house plants. I want to bring in some herbs, but started with some of my favorite house plants. Ferns are my absolute favorite. I love their delicate, textured fronds. I have a few small ones and this large one out on the counter. You can go as fun as you want with pots, but I will say that I love the classic feel and warmth of terracotta. I’ve yet to see a space that it doesn’t look good in and add a needed dose of warm adding to that cozy factor. And I also love that basic terracotta pots are probably the most reasonable option out there! I was able to outfit this kitchen with new plants and pots for what one decent size pot can cost. A collection of plants immediately makes a space feel collected to me, like it grew and was settled over time. And again, that screams cozy! No matter what your current kitchen looks like, adding plants will make a huge difference. Add them to shelves or even sit them right on the countertop! In kitchen design, everyone thinks about the obvious elements: the cabinets, the countertops, the appliances. But art is not always a go-to thought. And y’all, it totally should be! Art makes every space feel more welcoming and inspiring. I love the color, pattern, and personality it can bring into your kitchen as well. Kitchens can also be impersonal. There isn’t as much room for meaningful items as there usually is in say, a living room. Art is a great way to bring in something you really love that’s going to brighten your day every time you look at it! Tuck a small painting under the cabinets or lean one on a shelf. Or, use an empty section of a wall to bring in art instead of additional shelving (if you don’t have to have the extra storage!). We took this wall that’s nearly three feet wide just for art. We had enough shelves in this kitchen and I really wanted to add in some personality and color through art. I’m always inspired by vintage landscapes and I especially love the greens and golds in this old one I found at a thrift store. The vintage-style chalkboard is really functional for lists or quotes, but I also love that it’s unexpected. A chalkboard is another great way to make your home feel personal and cozy for you. One quick tip is that if you have an old framed photo that you’re tired of, grab some chalkboard spray paint and you’ll have a new chalkboard to hang in half an hour! My go-to recipe for decorating a home is a mix of new and vintage. I love the age and character that even the smallest vintage touches can add. In a kitchen, I especially love bringing in vintage items because so much of the space is new (if you’re renovating your kitchen). Even if have a really outdated kitchen that feels pretty old to you, bringing in a few really special vintage touches that are going to draw the eye and inspire you can go along way in changing how you see your space. I got these vintage copper canisters on a yard sale seven years ago and they’ve been in four kitchens since. I love the warmth they bring, how they draw the eye a bit, and how functional they are. There are some really fun vintage canister sets out there, whether you want something more classic like these or something patterned or kitschy…that would be a great place to start. I found this vintage brass plant mister at an antique store and love it here on our windowsill. Another great way to cozy up your kitchen and add in a lot of meaning for your family is to bring in vintage items from family members you love. While I don’t keep many knick-knacks out anymore, most of what I do have are things I love from both of my grandmothers like this small etched brass pitcher. It brings so much meaning every time I see it. Add a tray to your countertop and congregate a handful of vintage items you love on top of a stack of cookbooks. It will immediately bring a lot of personality and cozy into your space! For me, lighting might be the biggest way to add some cozy. Obviously, your kitchen will have lighting. But the typical lighting of cans overhead or even statement-making pendants doesn’t necessarily up the cozy factor. One thing that really makes my home feel cozy is a lot of lamp-like light at night. Bringing unexpected subtle lighting to your kitchen packs the biggest cozy punch. The last three kitchens I’ve designed have all had sconces. I’ve become obsessed with sconces in a kitchen because they’re more unexpected, they feel collected and aged, and having just them lit at night feels so welcoming and pretty to me. These copper barn sconces just KILL me. If you’re able to bring sconces into your kitchen, I say go for it all the way! But if you aren’t renovating and don’t have sconces or new wiring in your budget, bring in countertop lamps! Even though we have sconces, we have two lamps on our counters and I love how cozy it feels even when they aren’t lit. We already had both of these lamps, but got a new tapered shade for this one. I’m so glad that tapered has come back – I love the classic lines of it! I think lamps in a kitchen feel so cozy because a lamp sitting out on the counter is just not expected. And at night, having this little pocket of light over here is a joy bringer. We have a small lamp over in our dry pantry area and it’s so small and cute. It’s tucked in a little corner and just makes me so happy each time I see it. We already had this mini little lamp, but this cute little one is very similar. Alright, y’all, time to make those kitchens cozy! Those are my Top 5 Ways for Bringing Cozy in Your Kitchen. And regardless of the current state of your kitchen or your budget, you can bring some of these elements in. Take a lamp from your attic or even from another room if you aren’t really using it and sit it out. Take some art you have stored that you love (or from another wall!) and lean it on the countertop. Happy Homemaking, friends!
Janine says May 18, 2020 at 9:02 pm I love your style and your thoughtful outlook on living! Your home building and design decisions center on your love of family. It shows in so many lovely ways. As I looked at your beautiful kitchen reveal so many wonderful things caught my eye. What a perfect place to have as the heart of your home! I noticed a few things as well that nudged me to share a blog I came across over the last week that quickly changed what I’ve allowed on some of my shelves for health reasons, especially concerning for children and levels of lead on vintage and even a few relatively new pieces-which took me by surprise! You are such an advocate of wellness, and well being, so, from one mom to another, here’s the link that I’m in no way affiliated with, Lead Safe Mama https://tamararubin.com/ Wishing you all the best! Reply