5 Ways ToTake Your Home From Bleak To Chic This Winter

With the temperatures plummeting and blizzards pounding the Midwest, now is the best time to escape indoors to your own private winter hide-away. It's easy to cozy up your home with some chic and affordable finds to suit your family's lifestyle and your design style.

With this outdoor fireplace you can cook marshmallows at night or even cook some hot dogs as if you are at camp over again. If a fireplace is not for you then you can always opt for a fire pit - which will commonly sit in the heart of the patio.2. Furniture Layout. If you're lucky enough to gather around your living room or family room fireplace this winter you may want to consider a quick change to the furniture layout or floor plan - cozying things up a bit. If your fireplace is centrally located within a wall and is flanked by windows or bookcases that are the same dimensions on each side, then you're dealing with a more traditional space and personality - which speaks to a more traditional furniture layout. Pairs are important here. To take advantage of the roaring fire flank a pair of comfortable and inviting chairs on either side of the fireplace which will keep you and your guests warm and cozy. Place your sofa directly facing the fireplace for a comfortable conversation area and a great view of that crackling fire. After all it's the focal point of the room.Both cast iron and stainless steel firebacks dramatically increase the room-warming capacity of your wood or gas fireplace fire. The addition of this simple fireplace accessory to your hearth can mean warmer toes and lower heating bills.The traditional cast iron fireback, popular in earlier times and making a revival now, is a sheet of heavy, black, cast iron. Often they are cast with a design, such as a fleur de lis or eagle, to add a decorative touch to this functional fireplace accessory.A more modern fireback design, one that is growing in popularity, is made of a sheet of very gently curved, tempered stainless steel. These stainless steel firebacks warm your room in two ways. First, like the cast iron firebacks, they radiate the heat of the fire forward into the room. But they also reflect the heat, as well as the light, of the fire into the room.

So light that fire, grab some hot chocolate and enjoy cozying up in your winter chic home.

Author: Lori Gilder