By Cheryll Gillespie

The idea of warming up' our home means more than simply turning on the furnace . Warming up your home is all about creating an ambience of warmth and comfort throughout the entire home.

Living Room

Fireplace

• In the living room, start with your room's natural focal point, the fireplace.
• Fill a basket with cut logs and place on the hearth.
• Near the hearth stack three oversized pillows made from your favorite winter textile.
• Use lots of candles on the mantel.
• Replace vases of clear glass and crystal with gilded vases. Gilded gold, pewter or silver vases appear warmer than glass and crystal.

Coffee Table

• On the coffee table, stack leather bound books or magazines.
• Place a tray filled with liqueur glasses and a bottle of your favorite winter warmer'.
• A pair of candles is the finishing touch for any tabletop.

Sofa

• On the sofa or your favorite armchair, drape a chenille or fleece throw.
• Replace summer throw cushions with their winter cousins; throw cushions made from faux or real furs, velvet, velux, chenille, cashmere, mohair or a combination of any of these warmth inspiring textiles.
• Remember to create cozy, intimate furniture arrangements by pulling' furniture away from the walls.
• Use angles in your furniture placement to create intimacy and visual interest in a room.

Floor

• On the floor lay an area carpet on top of hardwood, ceramic or even directly over your wall-to-wall carpeting.
• Wool, Persian, faux fur, leather block printed and hand hooked or weaved carpets/area rugs are all excellent winter choices.

Kitchen

Coffee Bar

• On the kitchen counter, create a coffee bar'. It will provide instant warmth in the heart of your home.
• Colourful bottles of flavoring.
• Glass canisters filled with fresh coffee beans, cinnamon sticks, chocolate shavings, raw sugar and a basket of herbal teas
• Add a tray of your favorite mugs.

Bedroom

• In the bedroom, change cotton bed linens to flannel and add a goose down duvet and an extra cuddly blanket.
• This year's hottest' bedding is grey heather (think menswear) and chalk stripe linens.
• When dressing the bed fold a heavy quilt or throw at the end of the bed.
• Replace summer throw cushions with extra forbidden pillows (the ones we do not sleep on). Fur, velvets and chenille's look wonderfully inviting on the bed.

Aroma

Replace summer potpourris, aromatic candles and room fragrances with warmer scents. Do not forget about the bathroom and closet space, every room deserves to smell great. The following are good heat inspiring scents:

• Cinnamon
• Apple
• Orange
• Sage
• Cedar
• Vanilla

Colours

• To warm up your home this fall and winter think red or purple. Deep, rich, handsome reds and purples are hot' shades for the cold winter season.
• Paint a couple of feature walls or simply add a splash of heat with some coloured accessories with two of this years-hottest, heat inspiring accent colours.
• Handsome Latin reds inspire energy.
• Deep, rich, regal purples inspire creativity.

This fall, let the colourful spirit of passionate textures, scents and colours keep your home glowing with the warmth and comfort that makes a home simply sensational!

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Emer Schlosser
		About the author:
		Always a fan of words in various glorious forms – novels, dialogue, lyrics, etc – Emer translated her passion into a writing career in 2005. She has since supplied gossip on celebrities to Canadian Press, interviewed individuals from the arts for Inside Entertainment, expressed her fondness for food for Cheese Boutique’s blog, & co-founded, edited and contributed to iheartthemusic.com. At the moment she’s taking the mystery out of Green Living and providing some great tips on Home Renovation, Decorating & Design and Curb Appeal to the members of casaGURU.com. casaGURU, “the homeowner’s home online”, is a free web community that connects homeowners and local house experts.
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