The heart of every home is the living room, a space designed for the community where families can lounge on couches, talk after long days at work and school, and relax in one another’s company. It can also be a place to retire and relax by yourself, a good book in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, and a lamp lighting the pages over your shoulder as you recline.

Living rooms serve many functions in the home, being spaces where you can entertain guests, host family game nights, crowd around the TV to watch something together, and more. However, if you aren’t getting the mileage you feel you deserve from the space (if, for example, you tend to find that your living room feels cold, far from the relaxing image described above), there’s certainly room for improvement.

The state of our living rooms has been known to affect our mental health significantly, as several studies (including one from Princeton’s Journal of Neuroscience) have established correlations between cluttered conditions and impairment of cognitive function. Clutter has also been known to produce other negative effects, such as :

• A sense of dissatisfaction with life (this has been shown to be especially prominent in older adults).
• Increased levels of anxiety brought on by spikes in cortisol.
• Making it impossible for the homeowner to focus.

We thus owe it to ourselves to ensure that our living rooms are as comfortable and cozy as possible, giving us an organized space where we can decompress after a long day.

As such, renovations may be in order. Read on to discover renovations you can make to increase the coziness of your living room, and therefore, how much mileage your family gets out of it.

Revise Your Floor Plan

If your living room feels fenced in by a bunch of unnecessary walls, your first major step might be to convert your floor plan into something a little more open-concept. Open-concept floor plans help open up available space in areas that feel claustrophobic, allowing the previously-enclosed area to breathe.

You don’t have to hire a contractor to accomplish this, so long as you make certain of one thing: the walls you’re looking to tear down aren’t load-bearing. If the offending wall is load-bearing, it’s integral to the structure of your house, and tearing it down could cause serious property damage. Any other walls are functionally unnecessary dividers and can be torn down by you with impunity.

Let Some Light In

Once you’ve opened up your previously-cramped living room, your next step is to check and see if enough sunlight is getting in. Take a look at your existing windows and drapes; older windows have been known to grow less effective over time, letting more energy out and not letting the proper amount of sunlight in. Your drapes can also have an impact on the psychological impression you get when you enter your living room, especially if they’re ancient, worn, or out-of-style.

Consider investing in new windows and choosing new drapes. New windows tend to recoup their own costs, saving consumers quite a bit of money as well as letting in more natural light, giving your living room a brighter, airier atmosphere. Investing in new drapes might go a long way towards making your living room feel like it’s your own as well, as by modifying the décor, you’re claiming the space as your own, putting your own personal stamp on it.

Invest in New Furniture

Then, of course, there’s the furniture. For you to get the maximum value out of your living room, the couches and chairs that you stock it with need to be both comfortable and durable; and, of course, you’ll also need to make sure there’s enough seating area for everybody. You want enough furniture in the area where everyone can have their own seat and feel comfortable as well as support the people lounging on it.

If your couches don’t meet that criteria (or even if you think your current furniture is on its last legs), you’ll want to take a look at strong, comfortable Amish furniture. Amish furniture is made entirely in the U.S. and is well-known for being among the finest-crafted products on the market; moreover, the furniture can be custom-built according to your specifications, with the craftspeople making a unique piece that will belong entirely to you and yours.

A living room is meant to be a space where your family can relax and enjoy spending time together. If you haven’t been getting the proper use out of yours, or you feel as though when you enter your living room, you’re looking at something staged (like you might see in a furniture store), it might be time to put a more personal touch into it and make the place your own.