For two years, most people have been spending a lot more time at home than ever before. Homes have become where we not only live but work, our kids learn, we work out, and pretty much everything else. While the pandemic seems to be subsiding a bit, you might have realized during this time that you’d like to make your home feel like a relaxing oasis.
You want your home to create a sense of serene calmness. You want the space to be a place where you feel happy and at ease.
A lot of this comes down to your design choices.
With that in mind, the following are décor and design tips to ensure your home feels like a soothing, restful, and restorative oasis.
Get Rid of Clutter
If your home makes you feel edgy or anxious, look around and figure out if it could be due to clutter.
Clutter is bad for our mental health, and it creates unconscious chaos, in addition to the more apparent physical chaos. When you have a home that’s cluttered, it makes it harder to find things, and you can feel unorganized overall. If you’re trying to work in an environment that’s cluttered and disorganized, that’s going to affect your productivity and focus.
If you do nothing else, spend time tackling the clutter.
You’ll be amazed at how it makes you instantly feel more comfortable and settled.
Incorporate Plants and Greenery
Living plants are a wonderful way to make your home feel calm and serene. Think about how you might like to be outdoors when you’re feeling stressed or want to recharge.
Bringing plants into your home can give you the same benefits as going for a long walk after a long week.
Plants can also remove toxins from the air in your home, so they have some real health benefits as well.
If you’re worried about your lack of a green thumb, certain plants are very easy to take care of and require little maintenance, like a snake plant, for instance.
When you’re in a natural landscape, it has therapeutic effects, promotes healing, and has been shown in research to reduce stress and mental fatigue, so bring the outdoors into your home.
There’s also a term—biophilic design techniques. This means you’re exposing to natural light, water, air, plants, and landscapes.
Be Mindful of How Colors Affect Your Mood
There is plenty of research on the psychology of color, and you want to keep this in mind in your home. Certain colors like orange and red can be energizing, but they can also create anxiety. Choose colors that make you feel calm and at peace.
A monochromatic color scheme can work well for a lot of people, with soft shades of white, cream, or light gray.
Then, you can add more visual interest with things like texture as opposed to going overboard with color.
When we look at texture, it stimulates sensations that are similar to interacting with it. Having richly layered textures also helps you avoid your home looking too sterile, which can be unappealing in its own way.
Rethink Lighting
Natural light is always best. When you can take advantage of natural light flooding into windows, do so.
In the evenings, don’t use harsh overhead lights. Replace your bulbs, so they’re soft and ambient, and use things like lamps and layered lighting concepts to match the activities you’re doing at that time. For example, if you’re reading before you go to bed, you want a very soft glow from your bedside table rather than a glaring fluorescent light coming from overhead.
Consider what the sun does. The sun is cooler and bluer during the morning. Then, as the day progresses, it becomes more golden and warmer. These changes in the sunset your circadian rhythms, so remember this with your lighting.
Other Ways to Improve Your Sense of Relaxation
There are other things you can do to make your home both cozy and relaxing, including:
- Get fresh flowers and display them when you have the chance. They’re visually soothing. Displaying fresh produce on your kitchen counters can have a similar effect.
- Add candles, which are calming and relaxing.
- Use area rugs on hard floor surfaces to make the space feel softer and calmer.
- Make your living room inviting with throw blankets and pillows—you don’t want it to look like a display.
Finally, surround yourself with things that bring you joy, no matter what those are. It could be antiques or family photos, or perhaps reminders of your travels.Â
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