I recently read about “hygge”, a very au courant decorating trend, and realized: Howdy hudee, midcentury modest and granny ranches deliver the hygge galore. “Hygge” — pronounced hoo-gah — is the Danish word for cozy. I quickly counted 11 things in my own house that wrap me in a warm fuzzy blanket — errr, afghan — of hygge. Can you help me to identify more?
Hygge features and decor in midcentury modest and granny ranch houses:
My list for midcentury houses — including from a few categories:
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- Braided rugs — Any woven textiles are hygge, I think. Braided rugs are so old school. They are super durable. And get them in medium-dark-natural colors and they hide dirt and stains like nobody’s business. Here’s a source for braided rugs made in the USA.
- Pinch pleat curtains and sheers, too — To be cozy you must be warm. Cover up those windows to cut down on drafts! Cover them up with pinch pleat draperies on traverse rods and open and close the drapes every morning and night. Such a lovely ritual. We do it every day! Welcome, morning! Goodnight, moon!
- Wallpaper — Wrap yourself in comforting pattern. I will suggest: The renewed popularity of wallpaper in mainstream decorating today is a hygge thing. Our wallpaper category is full of ideas and resources, vintage and new.
- Low ceilings — The high ceilings so in demand in contemporary houses are, to my taste, overrated. Low ceilings are cozy. They make you feel protected. I speculate that the feeling is built into our DNA. In cave man days, high ceilings would be skary. Ya know what’s up there: Dirty, disease-ridden rats! Give me low ceilings most any time!
- Natural wood including the EPITOME of hygge, knotty pine — The wood wainscoting, trim and cabinetry in my living room dining room was always painted. Now, I am faux-bois painting it. That is: Painting it to look like wood. The transformation has been amazing. My husband loves it. He immediately could feel the rooms were much richer, yes: much more cozy and inviting to sit in. If you have natural wood trim and/or cabinetry, please think twice before repainting it.
- Wood-burning fireplaces — We put in a gas fireplace downstairs, because we really needed to add a heat source to your basement family room that could be flipped on and off with a switch. But upstairs, we have a wood fireplace. There is nothing to compare with the smell and crackling and you-*must*-sit-in-front-of-it-til-it’s-burned-out-or-you-might-burn-down-your-house loveliness of a wood-burning fireplace. Warming drinks and snacks and board games may also become involved, and these home-based activities that force you to slow down and laugh and play and talk with friends and family are very hygge, too.
- Pastel-colored bathrooms — Soft enveloping color is cozy. (Large expanses of white tile are cold, and who wants a bathroom to be cold?) 18 places to find pastel-colored bathroom tiles.
- Percolators — Slowing down and savoring is hygge, I’d bet.
- Afghans — My #1 favorite hygge item: Afghans. The granny square above was made by my grandmother for me when I was about 10. It’s beloved, and I sleep with it every night, summers included. Over the years I’ve also collected a number of afghans from estate sales. The creativity! It’s even better when you get a tag that says who made it.
- Pretty much anything handed down from parents or grandparents — Beloved family treasures keep us connected to the past and remind us to take care of what we have.
- Patina: Lots of things that may have lasted from your original midcentury house — Old stuff is hygge. *BUT environmental and safety hazards are not hygge: so be sure to Be Safe/Renovate Safe, of course*
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Read more:
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Claims to be the original book about Hygge that started it all:
Deborah says
My Hygge consists of grandma’s Colonial maple furniture, oak floors, braid rugs, bookcases and bookcases, wood paneling, a cast iron heater stove (gas fired with realistic logs) with a fat chimney going all the way up to the ceiling, old kerosene lamps, “gone with the wind” style hanging lamps, and for coffee I use an old West Bend Kwikdrip coffee pot. And more bookcases.
For window treatments I went with wood interior shutters and for the upper part of the windows I have a collection of salvaged stained glass windows. Those and the bookcases give the house a somewhat academic look.
Outdoors cozy includes a front porch with a swing and nice shady trees.
Mary Elizabeth says
Deborah, sounds like my kind of hygge! I’ll be over for coffee in a few minutes. 🙂
kddomingue says
Ack! How could I have neglected to add a screened in porch and porch swing to my list!
Cathy says
Joining late, but I have to add pieced quilts to the list! My grandmother made several for me over the years and I still use them each winter. There’s something very comforting about snuggling down under a handmade quilt, each one with its own history sewn in through the colorful pieces. I love knowing that these contain fabric from dresses and shirts that had been worn by my ancestors and then recycled into something beautiful and warm. You can just feel the love wrapping you up!
Amber says
Hey! I know I’m jumping into this post late, but for anymore reading this later I just want to add that if you are concerned with smoke or particulates polluting the atmosphere you can get fireplaces that burn gas or ethanol. These fireplaces can produce actual regular looking flames, they’re not blue like your stove flames. So if you like the idea of a fireplace and watching the flames but a concern about smoke is what is stopping you, consider looking those up.
I have both woodburning and propane burning fireplaces in my house. They’re each nice in their own way, but I have to say the propane is certainly easier to use and more convenient! And it doesn’t put out inferior heat either, it is the only winter time heating source for the living room. My experience is that it’s the fireplace/stove itself that really determines how efficient something will be at heating, not just the fuel source alone.
Mary Elizabeth says
Amber, I agree! I have had in my life several wood burning fireplaces, a pellet stove, and more recently, a propane fireplace. My husband and I fell in love in front of a wood burning fireplace, and the propane fireplace, with its fake logs, is just as romantic but easier to run. No more splitting wood, bringing it in, and jumping up every few minutes to tend the fire.
When we want a wood fire on a summer or fall evening, we use our chimnea outdoors.
Sharon says
I love high ceilings and big windows – I think that is part of a passion for architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. For me, ‘living’ in a home is about bringing the outside in and having big open spaces. It’s hard to do that well in homes with all low ceilings and boxy rooms. But then I live in what is a warm climate for most of the year. The importance of seamlessly moving from the inside to the outside can’t be overstated.
‘Cozy’ for me simply means being warm in winter, and for that crochet rugs, animal skin rugs and wood fires are the best (no coal! And the gas fire I had in another home made the house damp and everyone had asthma – we rarely get it now)
No pinch pleated anything though: yuck. I don’t even like curtains at all, although we have them (or a blind) in the bedrooms to cut out light. My kitchen window has a curtain made of lace doilies stuck together. I put that up because it looks onto the neighbour’s bathroom window, otherwise I would’ve left it bare. No curtains or blinds in the living room.
kddomingue says
I live in the deep, deep South and low ceilings equal hot and claustrophobic to me! High ceilings, lots of windows with white cotton curtains and wide window sills to sit plants on, a fireplace with a raised hearth and deep mantle, a screened in porch with a porch swing, cool wooden floors to walk barefoot on, a rocking chair a caand a in your lap with a dog at your feet, shelves full of good books to read, an oscillating fan whirring, a pot full of rich, dark coffee and biscuits baking in the oven, the smell of bacon frying, a cool bath on a hot bath in a deep, clawfoot tub…..
Pam Kueber says
Yes, regional differences! Good addition!
Jan says
Finally all my favorites are actually in style. I’ve been living this way for many years now! My young friends, (20 somethings) feel like they are in grandma’s house when they come over! “Style” has never bothered me I live with what I love!