While spring inspires cleaning and summer is made for the great outdoors, autumn is the ideal time to get your home ready for the cold months ahead. Decorating your home using certain colours, styles and furnishings can warm your spirits and make a real difference to your mood in the lead-up to winter. From cool colours and earthy materials through to lighting fixtures and soft furnishings, let's take a look at some of the best ways to prepare your home interior for winter.

When it comes to winter colours, there's two distinct schools of thought. While some people like to keep it cool, cosy and comfortable, others like to tackle the winter gloom head-on by going bold and bright. Emerald green, navy blue and smoky pink are some of the coolest colours going around, with these tones all about calmness and comfort. If you're not ready to hibernate all winter, however, you can always choose to inject hot hues as a way to add warmth and energy into your home.

Perhaps more than anything, lighting has a huge effect on our mood and energy levels over the winter period. From coloured lighting and playful glass fixtures through to mirrors and other reflective surfaces, there are lots of ways to manipulate the light coming into your home. Whether it’s through a coloured light globe or a bright glass lamp, a splash of colour is the perfect antidote to a dull winter day. While mirrors and other reflective surfaces might seem like a cheap trick, they can brighten up any space by allowing light to bounce around the room.

While winter style means different things to different people, most of us want to relax during the colder months in a safe and comfortable environment. Soft furnishings make you forget about the cold and gloomy world outside and focus on what's inside. Cushions, rugs, bedding, even a beanbag can seem like an inspired choice when you want to get comfy and enjoy the things that really matter. Knitted materials take cosy to a whole new level, with weaved pillowcases and throws taking you back to grandma's house and that familiar sense of belonging.

Earthy materials are the perfect fit for winter, with the raw feel of wood adding a natural and organic feel to any home. While there's nothing like a fireplace or polished timber floors to give you that wood cabin feel, it's amazing what you can do with simple wooden accessories like coffee tables or shelving. Some people like to bring the outside in during winter by adding greenery and flowers to balance the seasonal changes outside. On the other side of the spectrum, stark winter whites can be a great way to highlight interior space when combined with patterns and bright flashes of colour. Regardless of the colours or furnishings you choose, winter is about appreciating what you have and letting your home shine from within.

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