5 Simple Ways to Style a Winter Living Room

As the winter cold weather sets in, there’s nothing more satisfying than transforming your living room into a warm and inviting winter retreat. How can you decorate your living room for winter? Here are 5 simple ways to style a winter living room.

I just easily changed our living room from a Christmas scene to a perfect place to enjoy the warmth of a cozy room. You can use these home decor ideas to transform your space and make it the ultimate retreat during the cold winter months.

Winter is a time of year when we often forget about decorating our homes. We’re exhausted after decorating our homes for Christmas. Or we can’t figure out how to decorate for winter.

But if you want to eliminate the cold drab feeling of winter and infuse your home with a cozy feel, then a little simple decorating during the winter months is worth your time.

It’s easier and quicker than you think.

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Why Decorate Your Home for Winter?

Now, you might wonder, “Why bother with winter decor?” Well, let me share a few compelling reasons to sprinkle a touch of seasonal winter charm throughout your home:

1. Mood Booster: Cloudy winter skies can bring down your mood. Winter decor has this incredible ability to lift your spirits in a cold, bare space. Think about it – coming home to a space adorned with warming elements can instantly brighten even the gloomiest of winter days.
2. Cozy Comfort: Winter decor often involves soft textures, warm colors, and plush accessories. It’s like giving your living room a warm hug, making it the perfect spot to snuggle up with a book, a cup of cocoa, or your favorite binge-worthy series.
3. Comforting Atmosphere: Embracing winter decor can bring in the presence of nature into your home. The beauty of winter outside can create a cozy ambiance inside our living spaces.

If you are wondering how to get rid of the winter blues, then I suggest that you decorate your living space for the winter season.

Since our living room or family room are places where we gather with family and friends, that is the first place to add touches of what we think of as winter decorating.  

After packing up all our Christmas decorations, I was able to quickly style a winter living room. I focused on these 5 simple ways to decorate our most used space for the cold months.

What are the 5 simple ways to style your living room for winter?

• decorate your mantel and hearth
• decorate your coffee table
• include candles
• add throw pillows and throws
• use darker color palettes in winter colors, such as muted, dark shades of green or blue, shades of brown, winter white, cream, and taupe

The color scheme for this year’s winter decor is again green and shades of white with natural woods. I’ve used this green and white winter palette in the past.

Before the Decorating Begins in the Winter Living Room

Decorating the living room for winter begins when you are packing up your Christmas decorations. Mixed with more traditional garland, this winter garland provides fullness and a variety of textures.

The first thing in this process is taking down the garland from the mantel and other places in our home. Knowing that I would use some of our Christmas garland for winter decor, I set aside those strands of garland that have a more wintery look. I do with same with greenery picks in various textures.

If you want to save more ideas for packing up your Christmas decorations, read this article with 19 suggestions for storing your Christmas decor.

I also set aside three small trees. I remove the lights from them to let the greenery be the focal point.

The Christmas wreath that I decorated for our front door is one of my favorites. It is a faux cypress wreath that Sweet Shark received from a client a few years ago. It looks so real.

I removed the fairie lights and the big bow from the wreath to use on our fireplace mantel. These pieces of greenery were now the perfect natural elements to decorate our mantel.

Now I add the three main elements of my winter mantel ready to go.

Decorate the Mantel in Your Winter Living Room

The first way to style your living room with winter decor is to decorate your mantel with greenery and natural materials. I’ve shared how to decorate your mantel for winter in previous years.

What are those elements?

• winter-looking greenery garland
• winter-looking wreaths
• natural materials with a warm texture, such as wood, logs, or burlap
• candles

Winter Wreath

The first step was to hang the cypress wreath on the fireplace. To fill out the wreath, I added several stems in different textures.

You might like to make a simple boxwood wreath and use it on your mantel.

Winter Mantel

For the mantel, I left the cord bundle holders that I used for my Christmas mantel garland. These gadgets are awesome and I encourage you to try them out. What I especially like about them is that they leave more space on the top of the mantel for more accessories.

I attached two strands of garland wrapped together as the base for the mantel. These garlands have several pine cones attached.

Then I added several stems of winter-looking greenery for more fullness and a contrast of texture. They also can be used to hide the cord bundle holders.

At the ends of the mantel, I used the two small trees with the lights removed. To add height to the small trees, I set the trees on cupcakes stands.

My favorite new thing on the mantel for winter? These two twig deer.

I’ve had these deer for years and use them every year for Christmas. This year, the deer stood on the hearth with red bows. 

Here is the completed mantel with the simple greenery, trees, wreath, and twig deer.

What better wood element than these deer made of twigs? All I had to do was remove the red bows.

The Hearth

Just like at Christmas, the hearth should be decorated for winter.

Last fall, I found these large glass jars at HomeGoods. I used them as containers for a fall leaf tree.

For winter, I filled them with more winter-type greenery. It’s such a simple way to add extra winter greenery. 

The large glass jars fill in the space on the hearth with a green pop of color. 

Overall, this mantel provides a simple focal point for the entire living room. With the fireplace lit for a feeling of warmth on winter nights, the room has a cozy ambiance.

Styling Your Winter Coffee Table

Winter is the perfect time to decorate your coffee table (or large ottoman). It’s such a strong focal point that it always calls for seasonal or holiday decorating.

I decided to keep the white and gold tray that I made before Christmas to hold my winter accessories.

Once again I reused another small tree without lights set on a stack of burlap-covered books I made.

Then, I added an apothecary jar full of mini pine cones. 

Next came one of my new favorite vintage items – a wood tea candle holder that I bought last fall at an antique mall outside Waco, Texas.

And, finally, a pillar candle on a wooden candlestick.

Next to the tray, I added more wood elements: first, I stacked vintage cutting boards (round and rectangle) and topped them with a rustic container filled with muted greenery. 

True story: that container was one of six freebies I picked out at Joann a few years ago. 

What decor elements do I love on the coffee table that you should copy?

• the soft, muted green colors
• the different shapes – round, rectangle, and even the odd shape of the cutting boards and the container
• the natural woods
• the mini pine cones
• the different heights 

Candles for Warmth in Your Winter Living Room

I usually add candles to the mantel.

Since I used the twig deer instead this year, the candle found a place on the coffee table. 

I believe that I bought this candle stick at Tuesday Morning several years ago. Here is a similar set of white-washed candle sticks.

The candle is battery-operated. I love it when it miraculously comes on about 5:30 in the evening. It gives off a warm soft lighting and reminds me that it’s time to turn on the fireplace.

You can use one candle or a collection of candles to provide warmth and a focal point.

Add Pillows and Throws to Your Sofa and Chairs

One of the simplest ways to add great styling to a room is with accent pillows and throws.

​Since blue is my normal accent color most of the year, I didn’t have any pillows in green. I knew that texture and pattern were just as important as color.

I found this leaf pattern pillow in shades of cream, grey, sage and green to use as the lumbar pillows on our swivel chairs.

I replaced my DIY blue wood box with a vintage wood box that Sweet Shark found when he moved this office home in August.

Then I flipped the pattern to place the green leaves on top of the pillow.

On the sofa, I used my favorite winter faux fur throw. This throw is so cozy and warm for the colder months. The creamy color is perfect for wintertime. It also keeps Nola from getting any spots on the white upholstery. (My throw is no longer available, but I like this other faux fur throw.)

I kept my winter white nubby sweater pillows with the pom-poms. I love their cozy ambiance.

For more pop of color on the sofa, more green was called for. I wanted that muted, dark mossy color of green. Texture was also important.

I found these square green pillows with a bouclè-like fabric.

They are so soft and add a pop of color against the white background.

​Styling our winter living room took me less than an hour to complete. Using the five elements – mantel decorating, coffee table decorating, using pillows and throws, including candles, and soft winter colors – made styling our living room easy and quick. 

We now have the cozy ambiance that we all want during the winter months.

At the last moment, I added another burlap-covered book and a small infuser to the small wood table next to our Bergere chair.

The infuser smells so good and I love the amber color.

I hope that these winter living room ideas inspire you to make your space the coziest room in town.

Not only are these simple ways to style your living room for winter, but the winter decor has a sense of simplicity to it. Winter decor should not be fussy or overdone.

If you haven’t thought about decorating your living room or family room for winter, then I encourage you to take a few minutes and gather some woodsy items in winter colors. Shop your home and add some greenery, candles, pillows, and a chunky knit blanket to the sofa.

Ready to decorate your home for winter with these simple ideas? Want more ideas? Check out my Winter Home Decor Pinterest Board.

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