Other than our working environments, our homes are where we spend the majority of our time. The surroundings where we spend our time in can have a surprising impact on how we feel at any given moment. Even something as small as the choice of colour of your interior doors can stimulate an emotional response!
If you think about how good you feel when you’re outside in nature, and then compare that to how you feel in each room of your house, you’ll understand how much of an impact your space has on how good or indeed bad you feel.
Therefore, ensuring that our homes are a source of enrichment rather than depletion can do wonders for our overall health and wellbeing! Just imagine how good you will feel when you enter room decorated with warming tones and luxurious.
Here is what you can do to ensure your home evokes positive emotions which you can use as a source of more contentment in your life.
Mood Assessment
The first thing you will need to do before you begin decorating, is to work out how you would like to feel in each room of your home. For example, would you like one room to ignite upbeat emotions and another to spark a calming state?
The best way to do this is to step into each room of your home and note how you feel, this will tell you what your current choice of décor is achieving. Then ask what emotion you’d like to feel in that room if you’re not feeling it currently. If you are unsure, use the purpose of the room as a guide – for example in a gym or office, a good choice would be upbeat emotions like motivated, focused, energised etc.
A Splash of Colour
The many of us lucky enough to experience a full spectrum of colour vision will likely appreciate just how powerful colour can be. We all have our own associations. However, there are some that are universally more likely to induce a certain type of emotion. These include:
Yellow – Brightens mood and increases energy
Blue – Calming and helps clear the mind
Green – Restorative and uplifting
Purple – Warming and sparks creativity
White – Purity and balance
Orange – Stimulating and energetic
Red – Negativity and rage
Pink – Love and kindness
The simplest way to make an instant difference with little effort, will be change the colour scheme within your rooms. Paint the walls and doors or simply add colour accents through your soft furnishings. Once you do so, you’ll immediately notice the change in how you feel.
Soft Furnishings
Your choice of home accessories can be another way to manage your emotions!
As an example – if you’d like your living space to be a comfortable chill out area that makes you feel relaxed, then your soft furnishings can be a great way to achieve this – candles, cushions, throws all induce comfort and relaxation.
Furniture
If you’ve ever had the pleasure (or in this case displeasure!) of an uncomfortable office chair, you’ll know just how much furniture choice matters when it comes to managing our moods. If we’re uncomfortable, we won’t exactly feel relaxed! Equally, if the pieces of furniture are not in keeping with the overall theme of the room or they aren’t visually appealing, you’ll likely find these small details can sabotage your efforts for achieving a certain mood from a room.
Furthermore, the shape and style of your furniture can also have an impact and needs to match the theme of the room. For example, if you’re going for relaxed and calming, consider rounded edges and soft materials rather than harsh corners and materials like metal or glass.
Bringing the Outside In
Natural settings have been scientifically proven to instantly elevate our mood. Therefore, bringing natural elements into your home can be a great way to utilise the healing potential of nature, inside your home.
For example, use natural items like flowers, twigs, pine cones etc in displays, opt for natural landscapes when selecting your pictures and wall hangings, choose large windows so that when you’re sitting in a room you can seamlessly connect with the outside and select lush indoor plants.
