Make Your Apartment Cozy

No matter the time of year everyone wants a cozy home. After a long day, there is nothing like coming back to a warm feeling when you open your front door. Here are a few tips that are so easy to accomplish with a big impact. Living in an apartment I find it harder to make it feel cozy, but there are always things you can do to have your home be a reflection of you. You can paint the walls and nail large pieces into the walls but it makes moving that much more complicated. Here are some easy ways to have that relaxing feeling in your apartment that wont cause more work when you move. 

1. A front door mat. When you see your front door with something in front of it, it feels like home. You can change it per season or keep one year round. Practical and an easy way to have your apartment feel welcoming to others. 
2. Candles. It's so easy to buy candles. The hardest part of this step is to remember to light them!
3. Books. I've always had some sort of bookshelf in my apartment. If you can find an apartment that has built in shelves, perfect! If not, you can buy a basic shelving unit and make it uniquely you. One tip I've learned over the years is, either you have to have the "cluttered but put together" look on a shelving unit, or you have to have the "simple and beautiful" look with only a few items on each shelf. If you try to do something in between it looks unplanned.  
4. Comfortable pillows & a throw blanket. Because nothing says cozy like a blanket.
5. Hang pictures on the walls. Blank walls are sad walls, adding a collage or even one statement piece adds your personality to your home.
6. Mugs. I love the feeling of a warm drink in a mug. A few years ago I kept looking into different glasses to buy for my home, but then I noticed how many mugs I had. I used the mugs more than I used glasses anyway. Why not use the mugs, that make me smile, rather than a bunch of glasses that would be sitting on the shelf.
7. I've said this in other posts but it's probably my favorite secret to having my apartment feel like home. Curtains!! Mainly in the living room is where I notice the greatest impact of having curtains. If you have any outside area you probably have sliding glass doors. Yes the blinds that they come with them are practical, but having curtains warms up that wall so easily and by such a great amount. I really could go on forever about how much curtains add to a room. 
8. White lights are an every season option. Turn off the overhead lights and break out the twinkle lights. Now if you're reading, be nice to your eyes, but if you're doing something that you can have a little less light on, white lights are the way to go. I would suggest buying the white lights with the white string, if you buy the ones that are white lights with green string it will look like you just left your Christmas lights up. 
9. A place to hang up your coats. I have this thought in my brain of walking into a home in the 50's and everyone having a large iron coat rack. You shake the snow off your jacket and grab some hot chocolate. Now, I know for sure my small apartment can not fit an iron coat rack. However, it can fit a wall hanging that I can hang my jackets on. 
10. Make your apartment a reflection of you. If you're wanting to have your home be cozy it has to be your definition of cozy. If you love having five rugs on the floor or no rugs, whichever feels more comfortable is what you should do. You're the one that has to live there, make sure you like it!