Living Room Winter Decor Decorating Ideas

How do you turn a living room full of Christmas color and decor into a soft and cozy setting? Learn to create a warm and cozy winter palette with a few home decor guidelines for color, materials and texture. I’m showing you my living room winter decor decorating ideas.

After packing away the Christmas decorations, getting your home ready for the short winter months is the first task of the new year.

Now that the house is mostly bare and stripped-down, it’s time to decorate our dining room, living room, kitchen and breakfast room, and bedroom with a warm and cozy look.

Until a few years ago, I had never purposely decorated our home with a winter palette. I didn’t know if I would like it – I am such a spring and summer girl.

Happy to say that I actually loved the results. The house had a different look, but one that I’m so pleased with. So here for all the world to see are my winter decor decorating ideas – with a little help from Pinterest.

Since my first attempt at infusing our home with winter decor, I’ve continued the practice. (I first wrote this post two years ago. Some of our furniture has been updated since then – new sofa and chairs and the bookcase – but the concepts and guidelines are still the same.)

The basic elements of winter decor haven’t changed much in the past few years. I continue to follow old and new winter decorating ideas, as well as my own decorating intuition. I surprise myself by the results.

Last week, I did some searching on Pinterest and found 15 great new ideas for winter decor that I know you will love.

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Winter Decor Decorating: Ideas for the Living Room

Since the living room is the largest space and where we spend most of our time, it’s the first space to focus on. I recently shared how to style a winter mantel in 7 easy steps.

To be honest, here in North Texas, we don’t get much snow. We are more likely to get ice, which is awful. We can have beautiful, sunny days in the 30’s in the morning and by afternoon, it’s in the 60’s.

There have been times when I had tennis drills in January at 9:00. I wore long tights, a tank top and a fleece vest over a heavy windbreaker. After 30 minutes, the vest came off; then the windbreaker came off, and I played the rest of the drill in a tank top. Then we can have days that are cold, damp, and bone~chilling.

When I think of winter, I imagine beautiful snow, tall pines and firs with snow drifts around them. It creates a sense of calm and quiet.

That’s the sense of warmth, coziness and quiet time that I want to create.

Happily, almost everything I used for our winter decor decorating we already had.

Winter Decor Guidelines

In browsing multiple posts and a few magazines, several common themes emerged and fortunately, they were easy to implement in our living room. Why?

• the color palette is simple
• the esthetic is casual
• the materials used are natural and readily available
• accessories you already have will work in the winter decor

You will see that some of the elements of a living room dressed in winter decor overlap with color, materials,

Winter Decor Color Palette

When it comes to color in winter decor, minimal is the way to go. From September through December, we are inundated with color – reds, gold, orange, metallics, greens, and whatever your Christmas theme is. Our brains are on color overload.

For winter, we want a calm and minimal color palette. And that means white – lots of white. There are so many shades of white:

• cream
• ivory
• ecru
• beige
• tan
• eggshell

Think of all the elements that lend themselves to white.

• pillows
• throws
• candles
• flowers
• dishes
• accessories
• candlesticks
• baskets
• trays

Places to Use White

White ceramic vases on the mantle hold cotton stems.

White vases with white cotton stems.

On the coffee table, I used more white cotton bolls in a white stone planter. That adds lots of great textures from soft to rough.

More white candles pair with a stack of natural-colored books. I used them everywhere I could.

White “sweater” pillows with pom-poms add color and texture.

More white ceramic pitchers and white books.

A white bird cage.

Natural Elements in Winter Decor

Next to white, natural elements lend themselves to this seasonal winter decor.

• wood
• baskets
• signs
• burlap
• fabric
• paper
• candlesticks
• ceramics
• planters

Here are some natural elements.

Vintage wood spindle candlesticks. Books covered in adhesive-backed burlap. I love this stuff.

Rustic stone planter with cotton balls. A little bit of green moss for filler and color contrast. I love the different textures.

A rectangle wood tobacco basket with gathered twigs tied with a natural fabric bow provides texture, shape and a natural look.

Jute twine-wrapped books. These have been on the coffee table and are now on the bookcase. I never get tired of them.

A brown craft paper covered book paired with a white candle.

Vintage stained wood box with winter greenery. One of my favorite things ever and this is my most favorite way I’ve ever used it.

White birdcage inside green cypress wreath.

All these things are naturally in shades of beige, ecru, taupe, cream, browns, and natural wood tones. These elements have warmth to them.

For winter decor, I stayed away from metallics. We love silver, gold and copper for the holidays, but they can have a cold vibe. I either put away my metallic pieces or moved them to the background.

The only metallic I included was this vintage galvanized “crate” because it has a warm matte finish.

Greenery in your Winter Decor

I read in an article that you should pick one extra color besides white in your winter decor. The exception was no red since we just had our fill of that color during the holidays.

As my extra color and as a natural element for my winter decor decorating, I chose green.

Both real and faux greenery gives a little pop of soft color to winter decor. The shades of soft greens give just enough contrast with the whites, creams and browns, but don’t jump out at you.

I did mix faux greenery with real. I had several pieces of greenery (not garland) that I did not use during the holidays. Throughout the living room, I mixed the two together to get the fullness I needed.

On the mantle, I mixed some greenery that I did not use from Christmas with real eucalyptus, tied with more of the natural ribbon.

More faux greenery leftover from Christmas fills my favorite wood box. This is the easiest arrangement to make.

This faux wreath was a lucky find a few years ago. I have used it every year because it looks so real.

I like the idea of a birdcage in the wreath plus the contrast of white with green and the different textures.

This year I used it in our master bathroom window with a blue bow and fairy lights.

Mantel Winter Decor

Here is the mantle after all the Christmas decorations were removed and before the winter decor. Poor thing. Bare and so sad.

We first returned our Tarkay painting (one of my favorite pieces of art) to the mantel. Since this picture was taken, the Tarkay painting is in another place and we have new art here.

You can see how the elements of white, natural materials and greenery work together. Shape and pattern play a role here.

• Ceramic vases – flea market finds
• Cotton stems – on left, from Roundtop 2015; on right, purchased at Hobby Lobby (I think I’m going to combine the two and mix them up for a more equal look.)
• Books with burlap covers – DIY project, on hand
• Glass vase with wood bead handle – Kirkland’s. I can’t find anything like it online, but you could make one.
• White candle – battery-operated pillar candle from Rutherford’s, a local design store 2014 – it still works!
• Vintage wood spindle candlesticks – Ballard & Blakely, Dallas, on sale
• Greenery – faux from Hobby Lobby, eucalyptus from Trader Joe’s

Bookshelf Winter Decor

After removing all the Christmas decorations, the bookshelf looked like this. Plain Jane and Bare Betty.

A bookshelf is a such a big focal point that it has to be decorated for winter. It is a major part of any living room decor. The greenery adds that winter decor style that I love.

Winter Bookshelf Accessories

• Books – on hand
• Burlap bags on top shelf – a freebie
• Wood frame, ChalkArt and stencil -A Maker’s Studio. (Chalkboard stained wood frame with ChalkArt in Peace & Joy and stencils. I used 4 different stencils to create this sign.) Any chalk sign adds a natural element to your decor.
• Cypress wreath – Mary Cates and Company, Dallas, on sale
• Birdcage – flea market
• Remington Sure Shot Vintage Box – estate sale
• Greenery – Hobby Lobby, on sale
• Lamp – I think Target, but might have been At Home, 2017
• Tobacco basket – Joann, on sale, 2017
• Twig branches – Joann, on sale, 2019
• Natural ribbon – in my Christmas wrapping box
• White ceramic vases – flea market
• Galvanized metal crate – I think Roundtop 2015

Coffee Table and Sofa Winter Decor Decorating

The coffee table called for a simple arrangement. I brought out our coffee table books and added the stone planter, cotton bolls, and white candles.

Nothing was new here, but I love the textures and candles. The white sweater pillows are from a few years ago (Target, but I added the white pom-poms.) add white, texture, coziness and comfort.

On the sofa, I also added a big white throw.

Confession: the throw is actually two yards of fabric from Joann that I have occasionally used as a tree skirt. Once I removed our Dicken’s Village, I just shook it out really well. It is so soft.

If you are in the mood to create a calming, cozy winter decor for your home, I hope these winter decor decorating ideas and photos have given you some inspiration.

Here are a few more winter decorating ideas:

• Green and White Rustic Winter Decor
• 5 Ideas for Master Bedroom Winter Decor
• 15 Winter Decor Accessory Ideas

And please, PIN it for your winter decor decorating inspiration. For more winter inspiration, visit my Winter Decor Pinterest Board.