Designing Family-Centered Spaces for Fall

Warm, Welcoming Design for the Coziest Season of the Year

As the leaves change and families settle into fall routines, our homes become more important than ever. At HyggeHus, we believe fall is the perfect time to design spaces that foster connection, warmth, and togetherness.

Why Fall Design Should Focus on Family

The transition from summer to fall invites more time indoors, whether it’s cooking together, helping with homework, or cozying up for movie nights. Designing for this season means thinking about how your home supports these daily rhythms and family rituals.

Design Tips for a Family-Centered Fall Home

• Create a Cozy Shared Living Room: Incorporate layered lighting, plush textiles, and warm natural materials. A central fireplace or built-in book nook can serve as a focal point for gathering.

• Warm & Functional Entryways: Mudrooms and drop zones help manage school bags, jackets, and boots. Custom cubbies and hidden storage keep clutter contained while maintaining a welcoming feel.

• Family-Friendly Kitchens: An open kitchen with an eat-in island or breakfast nook becomes the heart of the home. This is where fall baking, family dinners, and morning chats happen.

  
  

• Flexible Bonus Rooms or Basements: Convert underused space into a playroom, craft room, or cozy media room where everyone can unwind together.

• Same-Level Bedrooms: Keeping family bedrooms on the same level, when possible, supports a sense of safety and closeness, ideal for families who value attachment-style living.

Let’s Design With Intention

We’d love to collaborate with families looking to remodel for the season of connection. Whether it's rethinking the flow and storage of your home's layout or renovating a kitchen and bathroom, we can help you create a space that feels warm, timeless, and truly lived in.

Cozy Fall Recommendations

We believe home extends beyond the walls we build, it includes the rhythms, relationships, and resources that support daily life. We're recommending a handful of thoughtful, Twin Cities-based businesses that share our values around family connection, simplicity, and seasonal living. Whether you're looking for natural goods, wellness support, or meaningful activities, these local favorites can help you deepen the sense of hygge in your home.

Local Favorites for Cozy, Connected Living

A well-designed home is just the beginning. The materials we use, the businesses we support, and the rituals we build into daily life all contribute to a sense of comfort and connection. These local businesses inspire us in our own homes and may offer a little inspiration for yours too: (click names for website link)

• Slowburn – With hand-poured beeswax candles that cast the softest glow, Slowburn encourages quiet evenings, meaningful meals, and the ritual of lighting a candle to mark the end of the day.

• Evergreen Collective (St. Paul) – Offering sustainable, zero-waste household products, Evergreen is a go-to for families wanting to simplify their routines with beautiful, functional items that align with slow living.

• Tare Market (Minneapolis) – A refill-focused market committed to low-waste living. Their clean, minimal packaging and earth-minded mission support habits of mindfulness and intention in the everyday.

• Heartfelt (Minneapolis) – This beloved shop overflows with natural, Waldorf-inspired crafts that invite families to gather around a table and create together through the seasons.

• Heart Space Art Studio (Minneapolis) – Providing art classes and therapeutic support in a safe, inspiring environment, Heart Space helps both kids and adults process emotions through creativity.

• Fireweed Workshop (Minneapolis) – Offering handwoven basketry classes rooted in tradition and nature, Fireweed helps participants slow down and reconnect with the tactile joy of making something useful and beautiful.

• Ingebretsen’s Scandinavian Gifts & Foods (Minneapolis) – From wool slippers and handcrafted mugs to lefse griddles and birchwood spoons, this family-owned gem offers a little taste of Nordic coziness in the heart of Minneapolis.

• Wild Rumpus Books (Minneapolis) – A magical children’s bookstore that invites you to linger and read together. It’s the kind of place that inspires bedtime stories and builds lifelong reading habits.

• The Yarnery (St. Paul) – A longtime fiber arts hub in St. Paul, The Yarnery nurtures makers with its wide selection of natural yarns, workshops, and community-focused atmosphere.

• Mother Earth Gardens – With locations in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, they’re a go-to for native plants, garden education, and the kind of outdoor inspiration that helps bring biophilic design home.

• ArtStart ArtScraps (St. Paul) – Creative Reuse Materials And Idea Center. It's an innovative concept that combines waste management with art making, ArtStart’s ArtScraps is a unique partnership with individuals, businesses and manufacturers, in which the organization collect scraps, overstock, factory rejects, and other items normally destined for the landfill.

• Thrift Stores to Explore: It takes patience and fortitude to shop slowly and intentionally.

  • MyThriftStore (St. Paul - Thrift Store) – Clothing, home goods, books, bikes, tools, and more located not far from highway 36 brings in donated items from many neighborhoods, resulting in a wide range of quality and brands. It's where Shelley has found most of her vintage woolens and linens!

  • Missouri Mouse (St. Paul – Antique shop revival) – The ​store’s unique charm and eclectic selection of antiques and ​vintage items make it a must-visit destination for antique ​enthusiasts.

• FoxMeetsBear (Online & Local)– Known for their seasonal rhythm workshops, FoxMeetsBear gently guides families toward slower, more intentional days. Their resources make it easy to align home life with the changing seasons.

• Love Fest Journey – This breathwork studio holds space for presence and peace. Val's classes foster deeper emotional awareness, a gift for anyone trying to create calm within a busy household.

These partners and places remind us that building a beautiful home goes beyond architecture, it’s about intention, rhythm, and living well, together.