A cozy home has less to do with how much you own than with how you layer it. That is the thinking behind Liz Marie Galvan’s blog, her shop and her book, Cozy White Cottage, and it is advice anyone can use, whatever their style.
Ellen Gefen sat down with Liz at the Atlanta market to ask for her top three tips for a cozier home, how she lives with white while raising a baby and keeping dogs indoors, and how to choose a white paint that actually works in your house.
Key Takeaways
- Liz’s three tips for a cozy home: add texture, play off your paint colors, and bring the outdoors in.
- Her formula for an instantly cozier vignette is two new items plus one antique or vintage item.
- White is livable with wipeable or slipcovered furniture and an off-white shade in place of stark white.
- Paint looks different in every home. Check the undertones and sample it on your own walls.
- Paint large swatches and live with them for a few days, in different light, before you commit.
Meet Liz Marie Galvan
Liz blogs daily at LizMarieBlog.com about her farmhouse, farm life and “everything in between.” She started the blog ten years before this interview, while her husband was deployed and she was in school for interior design. It has since become her full-time job.
Her book, Cozy White Cottage, offers 100 simple tips “to love the feeling of being home.” She describes her style as “cozy cottage farmhouse”: cozy first, with a cottage element that keeps it eclectic and not strictly farmhouse.
Three Tips to Make Your Home Feel Cozy
1. Add texture
Think baskets, different metals and mirrors, and textures people do not always consider, such as glass. Liz suggests looking at every vignette and every spot in your home and asking where texture could come in.
2. Play off your paint colors
Many people want bright walls, but Liz encourages thinking about white paints as a backdrop. You can play off them and add color through pillows and accessories such as candle holders.
3. Bring the outdoors in
“I love adding greenery to every space, whether it’s faux or real,” she says. Not every room gets enough sunlight for real plants, so faux greenery is a practical way to add that cozy element anywhere.
More ideas: How to Make Your Room Feel Cozier in Five Easy Steps.
The Two-New-Plus-One-Vintage Formula
Liz likes rooms to feel eclectic. Her approach is to take new items and add one vintage piece to the vignette, which she says “amps up the cozy factor.” She uses the same idea in her store, where different vendors and styles are displayed together.
The equation is simple: two new items with one antique item. In her words, “it just is instant cozy.”
Related reading: How to Mix Vintage and Modern Interior Design with Philip Gulotta and Modern Farmhouse Interior Design.
Can You Really Live With White?
Liz is quick to say that you should not live with white if you do not love it. But with a new baby and a lot of dogs in the house, she has found ways to make it work:
- Choose wipeable or slipcovered furniture. She calls this a lifesaver.
- Use porch and floor paint on painted floors. Her floors are painted white, and this type of paint makes them easy to clean.
- Skip stark white. A beige or off-white shade “hides a lot more than you think.”
How to Choose the Right White Paint
There is no single right white, Liz says, because every house is different. Her own floor color is called Tapestry Beige, and the same color looks purple on the walls of her neighbor’s home.
Her advice:
- Look at the undertones and understand which colors work in your home.
- Paint big swatches on the wall.
- Live with them for a few days.
- Look at them at different times of day and with different light bulbs.
And one more: “Don’t just randomly pick a paint color because a blogger said so. Really test it out and live with it in your home first.”
For more help, see How to Find the Right Paint Color and Best Black and White Paint Shades: Interior Designers Weigh In.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make my home feel cozier?
Liz Marie Galvan’s three tips are to add texture, play off your paint colors with pillows and accessories, and bring in greenery, whether real or faux.
Is a white home practical with kids and pets?
It can be. Liz relies on wipeable or slipcovered furniture, easy-to-clean porch and floor paint, and off-white shades that hide more than stark white.
How do I pick the right white paint?
Study the undertones, paint large swatches on your own walls, and live with them for a few days in different light before deciding.
