Your home should be the place where you feel most comfortable and relaxed, as you have your own private space away from the outside world. However, there are certain things inside the home that can negatively affect your mood and lead to you feeling more stressed. These things include clutter, outdated decor and poor colour scheme choices. All of these can make you fall out of love with your space and put you in a bad mood.
Finding ways to design your home for wellbeing is very beneficial for your mood, as it can help to reduce stress. There’s a few different changes you can make to your home that are proven to enhance your wellbeing, such as biophilic design or a change of lighting. Sometimes the smallest tweaks can be the most effective, so it’s important to take every idea on board.
This guide will highlight some of the best home design choices you can make to boost your mood and reduce stress while in the comfort of your own home. Continue reading to find out more.
Wellbeing Design Ideas
Bring the Outdoors In
Biophilic design is a growing interior design trend that homeowners are using to improve the aesthetic of their home. Having plants around your home is proven to boost focus, enhance productivity and reduce stress, as plants naturally filter certain airborne toxins, contributing to a healthier living environment. It feels much better if you have elements of the outdoors in your home, as it doesn’t feel like you’re cooped up indoors due to a closer connection to nature.
If you don’t want the constant maintenance of real plants, you can purchase faux plants that still give the same benefits without the need to water or care for them. This can eliminate extra stress in your life.
Use Natural Materials
Opt for sustainable materials like wood, stone and bamboo for your decor if you want to feel more comfortable in your home. Having an eco-friendly home can make you feel like you’re making a difference in the world and natural textiles in furniture can add to the overall aesthetic. The warmth and texture of natural materials will give you a better looking interior, as well as offering you a more relaxing environment.
You can design an entire room using natural materials, giving you a log cabin feel by using repurposed wood. Almost any type of furniture can be made from this, giving you a great choice.
Maximise Natural Light
Natural light in the home is good for balancing our circadian rhythms and boosting our energy levels. The circadian rhythm is our body’s internal clock that lets us know when it’s time to sleep and wake up, keeping us feeling in good condition during the day. When you allow more natural light in your home, this will be balanced so you should find yourself getting a better night’s rest.
There’s a few ways that you can improve natural light exposure in your home. Position furniture to take advantage of windows and use sheer curtains or light-coloured blinds to allow daylight to penetrate deeper into rooms. You can also hang up more mirrors to reflect the light.
Colour Psychology
Your choice of colour in your home can impact your mood and influence different emotions. Warm colours like red and yellow can be energising and stimulating, while cool colours like blue and green are calming and relaxing. Neutrals such as white and grey can create a sense of calm or provide a versatile base for other colours to be used. Understanding the psychology of colour helps you choose hues that align with the feeling you want to evoke in each room.
For your bedroom, you’ll want a colour that helps reduce stress to give you a better sleep. We recommend that you paint your walls blue or green for that calming feel that will help you to relax during the night.
Improve Scent
Use diffusers, candles or fresh flowers throughout your home to introduce calming aromas. Scents like lavender, chamomile or eucalyptus in restful areas can be great for helping you relax and calm yourself from any stresses you have felt during the day. Citrus or fresh herb scents can invigorate active areas too, which is perfect if you have a home gym that you use to boost your mood and wellbeing.
Having a different scent in each room can be beneficial, as you can then use each room for a different activity depending on the scent used.
Control Temperature
When your home’s at a nice temperature that feels balanced, your wellbeing will benefit from it. You don’t want a home that’s too cold in the winter and warm in the summer, so it’s important to make upgrades that will enhance your living space and give you more control over the temperature. Roof upgrades can be a good place to start, as this is basically the wooly hat of your home. Use plant hire machinery to get up there and install proper insulation systems for the best effects.
You can also hire a professional to improve the overall insulation of your home, so that you’re not shivering away during the winter. While the initial cost can be high, you will save money on heating over time.