Our homes are our shelters from all the demands of life — even if we also work from them. That said, designing your home to cultivate a sense of safety, peace, and positivity isn’t always easy. The stresses of life can seep in, impacting our mental health and taking the enjoyment out of our time at home.
Fortunately, you can design your home to improve your mental health with the right approaches. From getting rid of the clutter (Marie Kondo that junk!) to incorporating art that makes you happy (Bob Ross it up!), these tips can help boost your mood in an ideal living space.
Declutter
First and foremost, decluttering is a great way to enhance the vibes in your space for a better mood. That’s because clutter can impact mental health to an extreme degree. You may not think those piles of clothes in your bedroom, stacks of junk on your table, and excess thrifty furniture are doing you harm. However, the reality is these things can contribute to high stress and low energy.
Clutter has a way of infiltrating mental health, creating distractions, and impacting our ability to focus. To avoid these challenges, build a home design with the potential to minimize clutter and open up your space. These are some simple ways to get started:
- Toss out things that don’t “spark joy,” Kondo-style.
- Organize and streamline built-in closet and storage space.
- Consider renting a storage unit for things you want to keep but don’t want taking up space in your house.
From here, maintaining a clutter-free home is a simpler process. You can even go the extra mile by completing home DIY projects that add built-in or retractable storage compartments. In turn, you can keep a clearer space and a clearer head.
Bring The Light In
Next, look for ways to boost the amount of natural light in your home. Sunlight is vital to our health and well-being. Exposure to sunlight boosts serotonin production, which is crucial to maintaining positive mental health and a good reason to move to a sunny state.
However, not everyone can just up and move to a place like Austin, Texas, where the sun shines 300 days a year. Instead, your priority will be to maximize the amount of natural light in your home to support a healthier, brighter environment. Here are some tips for designing your home around natural light:
- Paint in light, bright colors that will reflect the light coming in.
- Place mirrors to align with windows and spread more sunlight throughout your space.
- Keep all windows clean and clear.
These design elements will boost the brightness of your space without consuming more electricity. In addition, the natural power of sunlight will enhance your mental health with boosts to serotonin and Vitamin D production in your brain.
Add Plenty Of Greenery
Another fanatic design choice for enhancing your mood is to bring nature indoors. Doing so can lead to all kinds of mental health benefits, from stress reduction to the therapeutic effects that often come from caring for living things. Biophilic (nature-loving) home design is a compelling trend of 2022 and beyond because it brings us closer to our roots (pun intended).
However, there’s a balance to be struck. You want your home greenery to elevate your space without being overwhelming or dangerous to your pets. Here are some tips for adding greenery safely and pleasantly:
- If you have pets, do your research on which plants are safe for animals. Yucca, for instance, is common but extremely toxic to cats and dogs.
- Use architectural plants like cacti and snake plants to achieve a modern look.
- Organize your plants to achieve the design you want while ensuring that your plants get the sun they need.
These tips will help you design your space with greenery that brings you peace and comfort. By applying them, you can create a thriving environment for you, your pets, and your plants in a biophilic and relaxing home.
Use Mood-Enhancing Colors
Don’t forget the power of color in elevating both home design and your overall mental health within a space. Paint colors can improve your wellbeing, helping to relax you or even give you energy as you go about your day. But to incorporate these effects into your home design, you’ll need a better understanding of how color impacts mood.
While your feelings about color can be deeply attached to your personal and cultural experiences, certain tones tend to have specific effects. Explore these colors and their impact on mood:
- Incorporate blues, greens, and neutral tones for a relaxing or biophilic vibe.
- Consider purples, yellows, and whites for a flair of inspiration.
- Try reds, oranges, and yellows for a bold and energetic feel that might stimulate creativity and conversation.
Investigate how various paint shades make you feel, then design a space that lends you the energy and creativity you need to maintain positive mental health.
Find Art That Makes You Happy
Art is the next step in a healthy home design. Our spaces reflect who we are and can remind us of what we care about most. Art in these spaces can evoke certain emotions and help us focus on what’s most important. From photographs of friends and family to huge abstract pieces, what we choose to display is a part of us.
That said, find art that makes you happy to hang in your home. This tip is too subjective to give specific recommendations. Every person will have their own preferences and styles. The important thing is to think about your budget and to let the art speak for you and your space. The result will be an environment that reminds you of who you are and helps you become (and show off) the best version of yourself.
Use these tips to design your home to improve your mental health. From taking out the clutter to expressing yourself through art, a more comfortable and appealing environment awaits in which you can truly relax and find inspiration.