Often, we think of interior design as purely aesthetic, but your home is far more than just a collection of attractive objects, it is an area where you spend the vast majority of your everyday life. Intentional interior design is a powerful, yet overlooked, tool for nurturing mental health and emotional balance. Good mental wellbeing is crucial as it impacts everything, from your relationships to work and overall quality of life. This blog will outline some key interior design strategies that can be used to positively impact your mental wellbeing.
Sensory Design
Natural light is extremely important within an interior as it helps to regulate circadian rhythms, impacting energy levels and mood. Making the best use of your home’s natural light can therefore be extremely beneficial for your mental and physical well-being. Mirrors and reflective surfaces can be particularly helpful for reflecting natural light around the rooms in your home.
However, if your home lacks natural lighting LED light bulbs are a great alternative as they imitate natural light. Furthermore, LED bulbs are far safer than traditional incandescent light bulbs as they produce less heat, reducing fire hazards. They are also up to 90% more energy efficient than traditional bulbs, providing added cost saving benefits.
Furthermore, smell can have a huge impact on your day-to-day mood so incorporating certain scents around the home is recommended. Candles and reed diffusers are popular ways to incorporate calming and relaxing scents throughout your home. In particular, scents like lavender, sandalwood or chamomile can promote relaxation, improve anxiety and help sleep.
Finally, colour psychology is commonly overlooked in interiors, but it can have a huge impact on your stress levels and focus. Different colour palettes have different impacts on your mood, for instance, cool blues provide a calming effect, whilst warm yellows and oranges can increase energy levels.
Minimising Clutter
A cluttered and unclean home can create mental ‘noise’ and low-level stress that negatively impact your everyday life. Purposeful organisation is crucial to preventing this stress by ensuring that your home is clean and tidy at all times. Focusing on creating clear zones and dedicated storage areas ensures that every item has a designated home, to prevent a build-up of clutter.
Built-in storage units are highly beneficial for preventing clutter as it provides concealed and easy-access storage areas. However, storage space can be difficult to find in smaller properties which can make them prone to mess and clutter. Furniture pieces with hidden storage, like ottoman foot stools or beds, are great for maximising storage space in small homes, whilst providing easy access to items.
Furthermore, scheduling as little as ten minutes a day to organise and clean your home can go a long way in providing mental clarity. The seamless integration of well-placed recycling and waste bins and built-in storage, can help to aid these micro-habits, so they become embedded into your everyday life. In kitchens and bathrooms hygienic wall cladding can be used to provide easy-to wipe surfaces with anti-bacterial properties.
Prioritising Comfort and Support
There is a strong link between your body and mind, when your body feels uncomfortable, it can directly impact your mental energy and focus. Physical discomfort is common when working from home, commonly due to a lack of ergonomic furniture. Back and neck pain reduces concentration and increases irritability, preventing the completion of work.
It is extremely important that individuals understand the value of investing in health and well-being when designing a home. Ergonomic furniture is crucial for supporting the body, especially for those working from home. Ergonomic office chairs and desks support the body’s posture, preventing long-term muscle strains and helping to free the mind from physical distraction.
Furthermore, for individuals who are aging or have issues with their mobility it can be beneficial to consider the incorporation of daily living aids in their home. Typically, medical equipment can be unsightly and ruin a home’s interior, however, there are a lot of assistive devices and daily living aids are now designed to combine aesthetics with functionality. Incorporating stylish living aids and assistive devices in your home is ideal for enhancing mental well-being and your overall health in the long-term.
Creating a Restorative Sanctuary
There are small changes that you can make to your home’s interior into a space that nurtures calm, rejuvenation, and balance. This can include incorporating biophilic elements and adding personal touches.
Biophilic interior design is a technique that involves incorporating elements of nature into a home’s interior in order to improve health and well-being. This involves incorporating natural materials like wood, stone, plants and water, to mimic the outdoors and create a feeling of calmness throughout your home.
Personalisation is key to creating a comfortable and relaxing home. In order to be fully comfortable in a home it is extremely important to make the space genuinely ‘yours’. This can include adding in personal pictures, meaningful artwork or sentimental items throughout your home.
Interior design plays an important role in fostering mental wellbeing by creating spaces that promote comfort, calm, and a sense of belonging. The use of sensory design, ergonomic furniture, biophilic design and organisation help to reduce stress and support emotional balance. A well-designed environment can positively influence mood, boost productivity, and enhance overall quality of life for everyone using the space.