The well-known saying ‛There’s no place like home’ extends further than being surrounded by your loved ones. Our happiness and well-being are closely connected to the aesthetics of the space we inhabit. When we say ‛aesthetics’ we don’t mean simply extra accessories around your house. The home decor is not just something that’s nice to have and it definitely shouldn’t be looked at as a luxury that has the last priority after all of our basic needs have been fulfilled. There have been many neuroscientific types of research that have proven that the design elements of the interior we live in evokes positive or negative emotional responses in all of us. This bond between our emotions and the interior design has gotten the deserved attention only since the last decade, but the roots of this environmental psychology can be found thousands of years back, just to mention Chinese Feng Shui as the most popular proof.
If we look at happiness and productivity as basic needs (and we should) than interior design is one of the most powerful tools that can make us feel truly fulfilled. If you look way back, you could see that the humans have always designed living spaces that responded to a certain place, climate, and culture. But with the ever-growing fast rhythm of modern life and the rise of capitalistic society we’ve started crafting buildings that have cut us off from the outside and therefore our true nature. We can all agree that working at the beach or in a green field could do wonders for our productivity and overall well-being, and the rise of some popular trends such as biophilic design promise the reconnection with these dreamscapes we all long for. But that is not the end of it. Technically, interior design today may have developed into a luxury, but there are a lot of different ways in which you can manipulate decorative elements in your home without blowing your budget to pieces.
The Makeover of Positivity
Receiving positive emotions from your living space doesn’t require a big investment, but simply a carefully planned makeover. Certain surveys have clearly shown that the way in which a room is designed can produce concrete and tangible emotions. This has become a conventional interior design wisdom – you need a sense of romance in the master bedroom, your closet needs to represent the organization, your entry room should breathe with the invitation, etc. All you need to do is to tilt things up a bit in order to dress up your home. The simple monthly habit of reducing clutter and keeping things organized can do wonders for your mood and energy. It is not just for the sake of keeping your home clean, but it also makes the place look more spacious, which is an immediate positivity boost. That’s also why high ceilings are recommendable since they evoke the sense of freedom, making us more creative.
United Colors of Well-Being
Although almost every element and object has a significant impact on our mood, the impact of colors is very deeply rooted in our brains. The proof that they enhance and even generate our emotions can be found in our vocabulary – sometimes we’re green with envy, other times we feel blue, and from time to time the only solution is to think pink. When it comes to interior design, things are not that black and white. The notorious red color is the perfect example – it significantly raises energy levels so it can seem hostile and even produce anxiety, but what about people who lack energy? The trick is to know how to use a certain color. Darker hues such as deep blue or purple can produce a gloomy feel, but if they are used in appropriate places they can also create a sense of comfort. If red is too much for you, go with yellow and orange and you’ll get the creativity you need. Or simply reserve one room for green or icy blue where you’ll easily calm down.
Towards The Light
You can paint your home perfect, but bad lighting can ruin everything. The overall ambiance is enormously affected by the way space is lit. The best light is always the natural one because it makes all the sadness and anxiety disappear. So your happiness level could be measured in the number and size of your windows. Do everything in your power to let in as much daylight as you can. If keeping the curtains apart is not enough, maybe you should consider installing skylights.
Invitation to Nature
It is time to make up for all those decades of driving nature out and invite it back in. It has been proven many times that a simple proximity of plants can quickly reduce stress and improve concentration, mood, even memory. But your invitation shouldn’t end with a purchase of a few potted plants. All the way from Feng Shui to biophilic design mentioned at the beginning, we’ve been given the means to extend this invitation without turning our homes into the Amazon jungle. All you need to do is to employ the textures and shapes that present natural elements. A small standing fountain is a perfect water-based accessory that has a great ability to calm us down, metal decorations will make sure you feel independent and strong, while wooden pieces will guarantee your personal growth and positively affect overall health.
But just piling up natural elements won’t do the job if you don’t know how to organize them right. For example, if you arrange your furniture against the wall you’ll create ‛dead space’ which will accumulate negative energy. The point is to imitate nature, and its most important quality lies in variety. The earth has never created anything monotone – all the shapes and colors are always shifting, leaves are sprouting and falling, shadow moving. Keep that in mind – create separate spaces for sitting and standing, some areas should be quiet and other loud, and make sure to create transitions between natural and vivid colors. Also, try to use some elements with curved shapes because these are the forms we find in flowers, waves, shells, etc.
Into The Green
If you don’t have enough space for additional plants or enough money for natural design elements (which is the more frequent case) there is another solution – simply step outside. There’s no question that spending the time outside is good for our well-being. Just taking a walk or smelling the flowers is enough to make us feel far better. And to do that you don’t have to visit the first forest that’s miles away. It has been proven that the amount of green space is not the factor of our mental health, so it’s more a story of quality than quantity. This means that even a small backyard is entirely sufficient, where you can make a small garden with flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Just keep in mind that this small paradise on earth requires some maintenance. It wouldn’t be productive to turn the place you’ve created to get rid of stress in a stressful choir, so make sure you get your hands on some quality gardening equipment before you start creating this green oasis. With the right tools, the gardening work can become the ultimate relaxing activity.
Stress, anxiety, and depression have become the plague of this modern era. People are spending more and more time at clinics, paying enormous hospital bills, than sinking again to these psychological states to pay off the debts. As you could see, the real cure for our well-being is all around us, we just need to learn how to use it.