Most people would accept that our surroundings influence our mood and outlook. If they didn’t, then we wouldn’t want to make our spaces look nice. A spooky horror movie production team wouldn’t be focused on making interiors look oppressive and limited. Even if we consciously appreciate a space, or think it’s right for us, sometimes our subconscious mind can disagree. For example, if the desk which you work is covered in sparse documents and poorly organised folders, it’s easy to feel lost even if the mess makes some kind of sense to you.
But as for decors influencing mental health for the better or worse, it’s not always easy to come to firm conclusions, outside of “be tidy, understandable and clean.” Are you going to be 5% happier if you place an indoor potted tree in that corner, or this one? None of us can know, and like some artistic criticism, the effort to grade a subjective preference is generally useless.
In this post, then, we’ll discuss, with a fair amount of grounded reality, how home decors might affect your mental health and why:
Light & Space
Natural light and soft ambience will generally cause you to feel more present and connected to where you live. Shadows and dark corners, on the other hand, can leave a place feeling heavy no matter how much you clean. Simple choices like where you place furniture or how you hang curtains can either block or open that flow, and a mirror reflecting daylight can very muc benefit the feel of a room and draw your eye to various highlights, like that picture of your kids, or the kitchen underlighting.
Rehome often helps people see these opportunities during a refit, not solely for the purpose of swapping surfaces, but thinking through how light and space can set the tone.
Colour & Texture
Colours stir up emotions and there’s a long set of studies discussing colour theory and how they affect our perceptions. As far as your home is concerned, a wall painted in a cool shade can calm a space, and consequently warmer tones may bring comfort and familiarity. Textures add another layer, as a soft rug underfoot or a wooden table that feels solid each time you sit down to eat. None of this guarantees happiness, but it does shape how you process the space around you.
It’s good to try and ascertain a healthy balance between function and feeling, making sure a place both look freshers and gives you the comfort of a setting that feels lived in.
Personal Connection
A home doesn’t feel like your own until it carries traces of your story, no mater where you’ve been. So, bring some of the you that you’re proud of here, even if the home isn’t perfectly renovated yet. The obvious will involve photographs, perhaps just a favourite chair, or art you’ve picked up over the years. Without those details, even the most impressive design can feel sterile, and don’t forget mental health often benefits from having surroundings that reflect your identity, which is a kind of mirror that says you belong here. It’s healthy to build a bridge between design and memory, making a home feel less like a project and more like a continuation of your life. Is there anything better for mental wellness than that?
With this advice, we hope you can more easily sustain your mental health for the better through design.