COSY LIVING

Styling: Charl Edwards | Images: Niquita Bento  

Weekend activities filled with markets, brunches, coffee catch-ups and other social obligations are on pause and we're spending time hibernating and making the most of our homes. Let's hear it for shameless inactivity.

Is there a feeling more thrilling than realising you fell asleep before 9pm on a Friday night, only to wake up 12 hours later and you then binge-watch the same series you fell asleep to the night before? And still have another day and a bit to do more of the same? The path to true happiness is only complete when the only time you ever change out of your pyjamas is to pull on some sweats to do a snack run.

This isn't laziness, it's self-care. The Danes have a word for it, "hygge", which can be translated to "every single decor magazine you picked up last winter". However, now that we've surpassed peak hygge, we have plenty of similarly snug trends from the Swedes, "lagom", and the Scots, "còsagach", both of which may sound quite guttural, but are in fact terms used to express the same type of warm cosiness.

We may not have a South African equivalent, perhaps because we don't face the same weather extremes, but it's still a good idea to take shelter from frigid weather and relentless social obligations, right?

Cosy up at home with warm lighting, woolly blankets, plush carpets, comforting textures and that other element of low-fi luxury – choosing to spend your time your way. For us, that's curled up on the sofa, snuggled up in a blanket, steaming mug of hot chocolate cupped in warm hands, eyes closed and listening to the rainfall softly. If you'd like to come up with a similar ritual, consider these additions to your home as the requisite items for radical self-care.

Lighting

Create the perfect ambience using dimmers, lamps and other warm light to set the mood. String lights add a sense of whimsy, while the soft glow of a naked filament bulb will make your heart glow. Otherwise, candles are the next best thing to logs on an open fire and watching flames flicker is almost as entertaining as whatever's on your phone. Almost. 

Cushions

The easiest and most cost-effective way to warm up your space in cooler climes is updating your softs. Buy enough cushions and you'll have a soft spot to sit wherever you happen to scatter them, plus you'll be able to turn a couch into a throne as well as use them to prop yourself up, sit a tray down on top of or spoon with when you're feeling lonely. If you don't build a pillow fort at least one Sunday afternoon, then you lose all of your lazy-bones privileges.

Rugs

Floors can feel icy underfoot and the right rug will solve that while warming up your space from the bottom up. Don't limit yourself to one rug per room when you can pile several on top of one another for interesting textural layers that are perhaps the only force strong enough to keep you off the couch this winter. 

Throws

Don't hide your blankets away in a linen cupboard. Put them on display so that you're always within arm's reach of cosy snuggles. Whether used as an extra layer over your duvet, draped over the arm of your sofa or kept in a rattan basket, throws will catch all the feels this time of year.