Some of us have been staying at home rather more than we’d have liked in the last couple of years thanks to a number of lockdowns. Here’s how staying at home hygge can really change your life. However much we now long to get out of the house to mix and mingle with others, we’ll always need somewhere to call home.
And however bored we are with the place or find it impossible to imagine we’d ever enjoy staying at home again, there are ways to really turn the place from being filled with bad memories or general stuff that has come to annoy us. Home can be turned into a fabulous space which we long to return to after time out and about. Before we know it, we won’t want to leave and our home will become a focal point for family and friends.
Staying at home Hygge for one
But how do we make that change? Well, we Scandis have a word for it: Hygge. Although we love a party as much as the next person, we also love staying – and entertaining – at home. Being happy and entertaining at home is important when the weather stops you from going out. Hygge is about comfort and a good time – the feeling, as opposed to the surroundings.
Hygge doesn’t require you to have a dining room that seats 24 or a drawing room and staff to serve drinks and tea. All it requires is a spirit – the will and imagination to create a nice atmosphere, sometimes out of almost nothing. So how to create an atmosphere in a room that’s just a square box, with little space even? How do you fall in love with your home again, enough to want to spend time there on your own and invite friends over?
How do you fall in Love with your Home?
Falling in love with your home is a little like falling in love with a person. It’s about how it makes YOU feel and creating a space where you can enjoy your own company.
Why Love being at Home is Important
Scandis are homebodies – staying at home hygge is our thing. The winter climate for one thing but also for another reason that bars and restaurants are famously expensive in the Nordic countries. It is a luxury most people can indeed afford, but not every day and night.
Fine dining has only become specially popular in the last decade or so with world class chefs and restaurants popping up mainly in Copenhagen. Our tradition is still home entertaining, yet still the Scandi nations have featured regularly at the top of the Happiest People in the World lists. That’s what Hygge is: being able to find and create joy out of the small things, starting at home.
Must-Have Pieces to create staying at home Hygge
The books on Hygge and the glossies tell you candles, cushions, blankets and lots of tea and maybe some red wine are what’s needed to create hygge. That is partly true. but to really re-design our home to make it cosy and make us love staying in, we have to look at every corner, the floor, the ceiling, the windows and every space where we can put something – or leave as is….
What curtains, if any, do I need to get the amount of light coming in that I want? Where am I going to sit and relax and what sofa or chair would I need for that – and would fit into the space? What painting or picture do I have that brings back good memories that would also look great on the wall by the dining table? And so on…
To create hygge is not just about filling a space with the right stuff we’ve seen in magazines (it is about that, too) – it’s much more about creating something with love.
What does it mean to Love your Home?
Once You are happy in your own home, others will see your joy and enjoy being there too. Soon you’ll discover you are spending more me-time at home. To find out more about Hygge – check our blog post here: What is Hygge? How to live like a Scandinavian anywhere.