One of the hottest interior design trends for 2025 is cozy homes. Previously an adjective to describe a small space politely, it’s now an aspirational aesthetic. After all, shouldn’t your home be your haven of peace from the bustling world, where you relax in cozy comfort? Here are the top design features that will create a cozy home you’ll want to retreat to, over and over again.
Cozy Minimalism
Although adopting a minimalistic approach seem at odds with Maximalism, which is heavily influencing several of 2025’s new home trends, Cozy Minimalism, with intentionally curated warmth is the key to coziness.
Cozy Minimalism builds off a lifestyle choice, upon which aesthetic elements fall in line to create the desired vibe. For example, the earthy, grounded, woodsy styles of Japandi, Scandi and Hygge all support Cozy Minimalism, where furnishings, decor and accents are pared down to include only pieces that are meaningful to the homeowner.
The idea is that removing the visual clutter enhances the emotional connection with the pieces that are there, delivering joy, nostalgic warmth, comfort, or all of these.
In Cozy Minimalism, wood and natural wood color is abundant, because of its inherent aesthetic warmth, appearing in cabinetry, flooring, and live edge furniture.
Bask in the Glow of the Fireplace
The fireplace is a powerhouse design feature, in that it contributes heavily both to physical and visual warmth in a room.
Often a fireplace is an anchoring focal point in a room, and serves as a center around which to cluster seating that suggests intimacy.
Make your fireplace feel and look that much warmer with a mantel fashioned out of fieldstone, brick or natural wood, and make it more sustainable by fueling your flames with ethanol or water vapor fireplace options.
Defined Spaces in the Floor Plan
While open-concept floor plans are still enormously popular thanks to their efficient use of space and generous sightlines, if cozy is the goal, defined, snug spaces serve better.
You can, however, have both. Choose a floor plan that promotes open-concept living in main areas, such as a kitchen or family room, but with enclosed rooms tucked off to the side, such as a den, hobby room, or reading room.
Soft, Warm Lighting
The right mix of lighting is essential to create a cozy ambience. Not only does the distribution of light influence the aesthetic of a space, the presence and type of light will send the proper signals to your body and mind to relax. This taps into the Circadian rhythm that regulates our sleep-wake cycle.
Natural light should be your main source of ambient light, but when night falls, turn on table lamps, and have task-oriented lights, such as pot lights, on a dimmer switch, so that you can control how much light you need for specific tasks.
Twinkle lights cast a soft glow, as do candles.
Be mindful of color temperature as well. Choose bulbs that cast warm white, yellow, orange and red glows, as opposed to cooler blue-tinged bulbs.
Color Schemes for Cozy
Color is an important component of creating cozy. Color palettes not only set the style tone, they resonate emotionally, with psychological response, not only with the hues themselves, but in how they are applied and combined.
Ideally, to create a cozy environment, colors should be subtle and warm, as opposed to bright. In context of current color trends, that would mean choosing from earthy, warm, nature-inspired colors, as opposed to some of the bedazzled jewel tones..
Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2025, Mocha Mousse is a good choice for cozy. It’s a warm, down-to-earth hue that they describe as providing cozy comfort, supporting harmony and wellbeing, and is both approachable and aspirational as a “low-key chic” color choice.
Another paint color that is well-suited to create a cozy environment is also from 2025’s Paint Colors of the Year roster, Stainmaster’s Truffle, another warm brown, which Stainmaster recommends for color drenching, where an entire space, including the walls, floors and accents are done in variations on a single color. They liken the experience of being enveloped in the color to the cozy comfort you’d feel in a cave.
Remember natural wood tones serve as color in a room too, and are undeniably cozy.
Monochromatic color schemes tend to lean closer to cozy, because they are innately calming and also support the concept of cozy minimalism. The eye settles in quickly and rests, rather than negotiating focal points.
Focus on Tactile Decor
Take advantage of trending textiles to make your home feel extra cozy. Boucle, velvet and tufted furniture are plush and comfy.
Opt for a sofa with stuffed cushions, or a nest or tub chair, where you can curl up comfortably.
No cozy space is complete without a selection of woven or knitted throws, casually laid over an armchair, or a plush throw rug underfoot.
You can extend the tactile, cozy experience by applying texture to the walls, whether with embossed wallpaper, upholstery, limewash, plaster, grasscloth, or texture-effect paint works, too. The bonus of some of the thicker wall treatments is that they also offer soundproofing, so you can relax peacefully.
Layer Textures
Practice the art of layering textures, adding depth and warmth to the room.
Layering isn’t just about stacking items one on top of another, but about strategic use of space from multiple vantage points.
Mixing metals is on trend, and will gently nudge the eye in different directions. Mix metal tones and finishes. The general advice is to stick to two metal choices in a space, so as not to overwhelm.
Combine textures for subtle grit that sets a down-to-earth vibe, perfect for relaxing. For example, combine throw blankets of varying materials: cashmere, cotton, or faux fur. Mix colors and patterns for additional visual texture.
Layer throw pillows of varying sizes, being mindful of scale.
Window Seats
Is there anything cozier than curling up on a window seat with a good book and a warm drink, basking in the glow of sunshine, just outside the window?
A built-in window seat can be a cozy addition in various rooms around your home, most commonly placed in a family room, living room or bedroom.
Make your window seat more functional by adding additional storage (i.e. a lift-top bench, or cubbies in the seat).
Style the window seat with plush upholstery or cushion in a soft palette or pattern. Don’t forget to include throw cushions and pillows in classic, calming hues.
Keep window treatments to a minimum to take advantage of the view outside, a principle of the calm that Biophilic design delivers.
Even though most of your light is naturally delivered through the window, make sure to have a table lamp or floor lamp nearby, so that you can cuddle up to read or relax after the sun goes down.
Gentle Curves
Gentle, undulating curves are preferred to hard angles to create coziness. They are less jarring to the eye, and gently guide along a visual path with nuance as opposed to overt direction.
Curves can be present in a number of ways in a room, from architectural features like curved doorways, or arched built-in cabinetry, wooden fluted detailing, furniture, accents, or artwork.
If you really want to embrace the calm that curved lines provide, consider a curved wall, ideally in an open-concept floor plan, or in the foyer. A curved wall partially hides what lies behind it, but offers a subtle sneak peek to the viewer, which creates calm on a subliminal level.
