Not all decorative elements are purely decorative. They also serve purpose. Some, in the case of furniture, provide you with places to sit or to store your belongings. Others, like the items on the list below, allow you to regulate the temperatures in your home.
Wall-Mount Gas Fireplace
Many modern home builders now design homes with dens or living rooms that have a large wall-mount gas fireplace set into a focal wall. This cozy home feature not only warms the house with heat, it also provides family and friends with a cozy place to sit and chat. Fireplaces are easy to decorate as they are usually accompanied by a mantle, allowing you an extra place to display pictures, ceramics, and other decorative objects. What’s more, these fireplaces burn gas. As a result, your heating bills may go down in the winter, because gas costs less than electric heat.
Shutters and Blinds
Shutters and blinds help you to regulate the temperatures in your home year round. During the summer months, closing the blinds or shutters allows you to trap cool air inside. During the colder months, these window coverings prevent heat from escaping. Aside from this, they make your windows look beautiful and provide you with privacy. While thermal curtains may be even more effective at keeping out the cold, however, they tend to block all natural lighting. This can be depressing during the colder months when sunlight is scarce enough as is, so shutters and blinds tend to give a better balance of heat retention and light allowance.
Decorative Afghans and Blankets
Decorative throw blankets or warm afghans bring bursts of color to a room. Most home decorators throw them over the back of a couch or a chair. This keeps them within arm’s reach on cold days. They’re also relatively inexpensive as far as home improvements go, which means you can add colorful elements to your rooms without going broke. Some people even use them as wall hangings, which provides further insulation as the blankets trap the heat from disappearing through the walls.
Rugs and Carpets
Floor coverings, like carpets and rugs, even out your home’s temperatures during the colder months by covering bare floors, which can get cold as temps drop. They also warm up the concrete floors you often find in basements. Not only does this warm the room up, it also covers an unsightly floor. People lose a lot of heat through their feet on hard floors, and throw rugs help act as an insulating barrier to prevent this.
Additionally, rugs offer you flexibility. If you want to quickly change the look of a room without having to do a major remodel, drop a new rug on the floor. This is actually an easy way to slightly change your decor with each season.
The savviest decorators know that the best decorative items serve more than one purpose. The items on this list not only allow you to beautify your home, they also help you to keep the temperatures regulated. As such, they also save you money, because your energy bills will be lower in the long run.
Author Bio
Meghan Belnap is a freelance writer who enjoys spending time with her family. She loves being in the outdoors and exploring new opportunities whenever they arise. Meghan finds happiness in researching new topics that help to expand her horizons. You can often find her buried in a good book or out looking for an adventure. You can connect with her on Facebook right here and Twitter right here.