There is no denying the fact that the place you live in influences you on many levels. You do the same in return, shaping it to your tastes through interior design and decoration. However, people often underestimate how deep this connection goes and how much one can gain by influencing it. Home design is not merely a tool for you to show off your personal sense of style, it’s a tool that can either improve or damage your mental health.
The Importance of the Relationship Between Home Design and Mental Health
Everyone knows that colour psychology is very much a thing and that colours we are surrounded by can affect our moods. However, as some recent studies show, it’s not only the colour of your wallpaper that can affect your mind. Room sizes, in particular, can have a diverse effect on mental health. For example, living in small spaces is associated with a higher occurrence of depression and abuse.
That doesn’t sound reassuring, but the important thing to understand here is the depth of the influence that the space you live in can have on you. The type of that influence is something you have the power over.
Consider this, a famous interior decorator David Hicks said that the best rooms are the ones that have something of the people who live there. Today, Eugenia Triandos from Hibou Design continues that thought calling home a solace where we soothe our souls. Dozens of other designers support those beliefs as well. A home should not be a place of soul-less colour-coordinated style. It’s a place of peace that should reflect the people who live there.
What matters most here is that this connection between a place and a person goes both ways. This means that interior design can help you ground yourself and find comfort and peace you lack in life. Every psychologist out there will emphasize how important it is to have a safe personal space to maintain your mental health. The decor of your home will make your special place not only safe but also relaxing, thus increasing its positive effect on your psyche.
Interior Design Tips That Help Improve Your Mental Health
- Choose blue over green when seeking stress relief.
If you suffer from extreme stress and anxiety, you should paint your walls blue and fill the place with images of water. This particular type of scenery has the moth soothing effect on the psyche. Don’t forget to keep a picture of water on your table in the office as well. That image should be a mix of blue and green as one helps you keep calm and the other promotes motivation and positivity. - Opt for open-floor plans for greater overall mental health.
Remember that study on how small spaces cause mental distress? Well, open-floor plans have the opposite effect. They are especially important for small apartments where space is limited by default. Living in a place that has no restrictions in the form of walls improves your mental health by default. This plan also allows you to benefit from a change in scenery often because you can easily move the furniture and use some space dividers to transform your place. Doing this kind of change once every year helps keep the space fresh and your mind relaxed. - Fill the place with comfort to make yourself comfortable.
Do you know what the true value of that feather-soft cover on your plush couch is? It’s that you feel comforted by it regardless of whether you are actively seeking comfort. That’s why it’s so important to decorate your home for relaxation and comfort. This way, it will make you relax the moment you step into the room. As in many cases we don’t even realize how tense and stressed we are, this ‘forced’ relaxation is exactly what your mental health needs.
