Softness is creeping back into the modern home. After so many years of the home becoming more bare, rigid and cold, we are seeing a major shift in the culture. Behind the scenes, interior design schools and companies are furiously trying to push forward their ideas for what a modern home should look like. So many things, items, styles, fashions, materials, shapes, sizes and themes are rushing out into the world of interior design and decor. Count yourself lucky, this is the best time to start experimenting. If you’re looking for comfort beyond anything else, then you should try implementing these items into your home.
Not a welcome mat
Welcome mats are a thing of the past. They’re rough, tough and they are beyond practical. They’re so about on doing one specific job that they end up losing out on every style aspect there is. Rather than a welcome mat, how about a welcome rug instead? This will be the same size as a welcome mat if not slightly larger, but it will be softer on your feet. Welcome mats are really for rural places, where mud and wet pieces of grit get stuck underneath your shoes. If you’re not wiping mud and muck off your feet very often, then a rug is far better. It soaks up the rainwater on your shoes, rather than push wet leaves into your soles, it will take them off and your feet sink in so the sides can be cleaned too. If you’ve had a long day, a coarse welcome mat just makes you want to walk over it. Replace yours with a welcome rug instead.
The trick to softness
As aforementioned, softness is making a comeback in the home. Just as your local sofa dealer, if leather or fabric is more popular, he or she will recommend the latter. We would also like our current decor to be soft. We don’t always want to replace things if we can at all help it. Our bedding has been put through the wash so many times, it loses its bounce. The fabric has turned rigid and it has lost so much of its flex. But this is the trick to make your sheets soft again. Firstly, get rid of all the bumps on your sheets with a fabric defuzzer. Those little balls and bumps, really make for a bad feeling over your bare skin. Next, use cleaning vinegar to get rid of the previous washing up liquids which put an artificial softness into your sheets. After a few days, do your clean sheets get hard again? This is because the moisturizing element that conditioners have is merely a mix of water and oxygen. Then put in fabric softener instead and put the sheets into the dryer. This should plump up your sheets for much longer.
The woolly bully
Area rugs dominate any room they enter. That’s their purpose, to take control of large empty spaces. The main reason is that it looks better than having a black hole in the middle of a room. Secondly, they allow you to walk barefoot in the center of a room which would otherwise have cold floors. If you already live in a cold climate and you feel you need more warmth and softness in your home, a shaggy wool area rug is the way to go. With the sheep-like design of the rug, you get many layers that sit on top of each other. This means you can compress the rug under your weight but it will spring back to its original position.
Another woolly addition
Wool really is the best material to build a softer home because it’s more refined than any synthetic you can buy. This means less resistance and more flexibility while retaining as much heat as possible. A French-style cushioned footstool would be a brilliant choice for your living room. This addition is better than an Ottoman because it’s less heavy, it can be turned upside down and it can be moved anywhere without putting marks on the floor. Footstools with knitted woolen covers are quite popular but they are harder to clean. Which is why perhaps you should get a cushioned pouffe so the exterior is rugged enough for you to rest your feet on while wearing shoes, but still has the bounce and comfort of the woolen stuffing.
Softness is something that we often leave for our bedrooms only. Yet, the entire house should have elements of warmth, welcome and comfort. Start off by changing your typical hard welcome mat.
