It’s that time of year and, even here on the sunny and bright Costa del Sol, days are getting shorter and nights are getting darker. So what better time to upgrade the lighting in your home to create functional and fashionable ambiances to meet your Winter living needs.
Cosy and Bright
Indoor-outdoor living is still an important part of living in Marbella but as winter approaches, the urge to stay home grows stronger no matter where you are. Lighting your Spanish home in the winter then, is less about replicating a faux sun that’s slipping increasingly faster over the horizon and more about creating a warm, comforting and inviting place to hunker down just that little bit more than before. Aim for soft glows and flickering shadows, cosy nooks to snuggle into and romantic firelight that extends throughout your home this winter to succeed at making your home in Spain both cosy and bright.
Setting the Stage
Achieve the inner glow at home you’re after by using your interior design to capture and magnify the emotional aspect of winter. Lighting is more about shadows than light, after all, and never more so than in wintertime.
While it may be true light bounces and reflects off glossy white furniture differently than solid wood furniture, there’s no need to change your entire interior design style to get winter lighting at home just right. Your furniture reflects who you are, so embrace it no matter what it is and instead focus your attention on creating an at-home atmosphere that makes you long to linger there.
Create a blank wintertime interior design canvas in any home and in any room by blocking out the existing natural light. Dark or heavy curtains are an ideal way to achieve this and come in every colour and style you can dream of. Don’t forget to layer them with a lighter layer too though, so you can throw open the curtains and let in plenty of beautiful Costa del Sol natural light throughout the winter as well. It’s all about balance!
To take the blank canvas idea even further, you can also opt for another en vogue interior design trend at the moment and use paint or wallpaper to colour block entire spaces in your home. More summer-style window furnishings can be used in winter if there’s a richly coloured wall behind it. Of if you’re updating your curtains to a darker winter shade or style, consider intensifying their winter effect with a deeper colour wall paired with it opposite.
Over all, think layers, textures, and rich opulent colours when setting up your space for a winter interior design. And that goes double for lighting, which comes next.
Lighting Your Home for Winter
Lighting is an essential aspect of both function and fashion when it comes to your interior design and as such come in a full range of lighting collections that will suit any home’s look and feel. For winter though, it’s all about using that lighting to create ambiance, so bight, bold, overhead lights are often downplayed with lower wattage, warmer light bulbs, and dimmer switches to adjust according to your needs and your mood.
Floor lamps and table lamps really shine in the winter months as they let you play with light and shadow across every space in your home to create the ultimate cosy setting that is completely bespoke to your winter lifestyle. Add lighting near a reading chair for a quiet space to unwind at the end of the day, use floor lamps to highlight dark corners of your living room to invite movement while entertaining at home, and layer floor lamps with table lamps on shelving, and across tables
and side tables for a multi-dimensional look and feel that creates the perfect ambiance for relaxation at home. Try experimenting with placement of lamps near mirrors, glossy furniture, and other reflective surfaces, too, for warm winter sparkle across any room in your home. Candles, natural or artificial, are also a great way to create that flickering glow that makes winters at home warm, cosy, and comforting and are perfect for areas of your home where you want to enhance that feeling of peaceful relaxation and zen-like ambiance.
Mad About Furniture: Here to Help
No matter how you plan to make your Costa del Sol home’s interior design reflect your lifestyle and personality this winter, Mad About Furniture is here to help. With an in-house professional interior design team that can offer tips, tricks, advice, or even complete interior design styling for any or all of your home’s spaces and a friendly sales team that will gladly show you around our showroom or help source anything you’re looking for, Mad About Furniture is here to help you create a show home worthy place to live in Spain.
Visit us in-person at in Nueva Atalaya (between Marbella and Estepona) or get in touch with us via phone or email to ask any questions or discuss your interior design ideas for your home in Spain.
We look forward to helping you use your existing or new furniture, lighting, and home accessories to create spaces at home that you love this winter and beyond.
