What interior details you should pay attention to in order to make your home a place where you feel good and relaxed.
Home affects us
In 2009 in England, conducted a large-scale study on how people are attached to their home and what gives them that feeling of affection. A third of respondents, owners of apartments, admitted that the house has no special feelings, except for the joy of ownership. Those who have to rent housing are even less optimistic about home as a “home” and are more likely to feel stressed and irritated by the place where they have to live. The pace of modern life, especially in large cities, subjects the choice of housing to a large number of external factors beyond our control. For the sake of transport accessibility, proximity to work and friends, we are tied to neighborhoods and houses that are far removed from our preferences.
The place where we live affects our well-being more than we think. Psychologically speaking, home is analogous to a mother’s womb, where we should be warm, nourished and safe. That is, home should satisfy basic human needs. Abraham Maslow’s pyramid clearly explains how home affects human happiness. The closure of physiological needs and security opens the individual to the need for companionship, self-identity, self-esteem and the fulfillment of one’s desires.
Home is where one sleeps, eats, gets sick, builds relationships, has sex and raises children. It is a space for self-expression. When you choose how to furnish your apartment, you figure out how to tell your life story. The perfect home fuels energy, promotes expression of self. Home design is either inspiring – like a well-planned neighborhood with beautiful public buildings – or depressing.
Let’s break down what the look of your home should be to make you feel great in it.
Doors and windows
If we don’t feel safe at home, our well-being suffers. We have trouble sleeping, we are anxious for no reason, and we get tired quickly. A home should be our first refuge: The primal survival instinct requires a place to escape danger for a while.
A true shelter must protect us from uninvited guests and have a good view to see threats, observe the terrain and changes in the weather. We no longer live in caves, but our instincts still require us to take precautions, so we should pay attention to the doors and windows in our homes. Doors to the bathroom and personal areas should be locked, even if no one lives with you. This will relieve unconscious anxiety that there is nowhere to hide in the house in case of an emergency. Your front door should be secure and strong, with a good working lock.
Windows in the apartment give the very “view” of the territory, which our instincts require. If the windows are too big, with panoramic glazing, you kind of become in full view. Even if you live on the 22nd floor, and there are no high-rise buildings nearby. Think about how you can decorate these windows to be able to adjust the scale of the view. The best option is a combination of Roman blinds and ordinary blinds: the first half or completely cover the window with a dense non-transparent fabric, the second creates an aesthetic look and an element of comfort.
It happens that some rooms have no windows at all, or the room is on the ground floor, where windows are small and above eye level. Such rooms cause anxiety, so if possible, it is better not to live in them.
Niches and overhangs
Studies show that people prefer landscapes that arouse curiosity. We like the anticipation of discovering the unknown beyond the visible, which is driven by the pioneer instinct.
The atmosphere of mystery at home stimulates creativity and curiosity, the desire to make innovative decisions. Dutch scientist Paul Pennartz, who studied this topic in the 80’s, interviewed the residents of various apartments and houses and found that most of all on this very “atmosphere of mystery” influence the “wrong” geometry of the rooms. Rooms with niches and ledges encourage the imagination and curiosity to come up with them a special purpose in the interior.
Think about how to add a little mystery to the house. If you’re not lucky with ready-made niches and ledges, you can add texture and convexity: for example, hang something volumetric on the walls. It can be anything from African masks to hockey sticks. The lack of niches can be compensated by “secret” places of storage: a hollow pouffe near a mirror or a window sill with shelves for books.
Flashy and simple
Our innate curiosity attracts us to all that is unusual. In natural landscapes we appreciate height differences, vegetation, trees, rivers and lakes more than lifeless plains. At home, too, we strive for a variety of shapes, colors and textures that give it a unique look and bring us satisfaction. The main rule is to strike a balance between pretentiousness and simplicity. Do not go overboard with the abundance of objects, motley and a mixture of styles on the one hand, and not to fall into radical minimalism, turning the apartment into an empty box.
To avoid this, combine familiar and favorite items with new and unfamiliar ones. Choose the main color that you like and use in your clothes, and complement it with a couple of accent colors. Furniture in the apartment should include items without which you can’t imagine home comfort, and 2-3 more additional items. It is better to decorate the house with personal belongings that are close to you, diluting them with stylish items purchased specifically for decoration.
Things in the apartment should be grouped according to some principle that you have chosen for yourself. When the brain sees logic and structure, it is easier to accept information, it does not feel in chaos and mess. So it is important not to clutter up the space: disorderly and disorderly appearance of the rooms causes psychological discomfort and depression.
The nature of the home
According to studies, the landscape in a photo or a picture has a beneficial effect on the psychological state – it lifts your spirits and invigorates. The use of natural colors in the color scheme of the apartment works just as well – natural greens, warm browns and blues are good for relaxation. Bright reds and yellows are not suitable for the bedroom, but are appropriate in the kitchen to wake up faster for breakfast. Yellow and red are active, stimulating colors. Subconsciously they are associated with the sunrise, heralding the beginning of the day, and the worries associated with it.
A thoughtful interior will help to compensate for the lack of contact with nature. Colored walls of natural shades in the interior are more comfortable than white, despite the current fashion for neutral shades.
Another way to add nature is indoor plants. They clean the air of germs and viruses and increase the amount of oxygen. It is believed that 4-5 flowers in a pot in a room of 20 square meters is the necessary minimum of plants that a person should have. Different plants have their own effect on our well-being: they can alleviate fatigue, stimulate performance, improve sleep.
Status and personal items
Almost every home has items designed to impress guests – to confirm good taste and the right status. We often feel it is our duty to present ourselves in a certain way and hide our true selves. As social mammals, we subconsciously want to be like everyone else and show our social belonging. Try not to seek the approval of others at the expense of self-determination. When this trait extends to the home, it becomes a meaningless set of fashion items and the embodiment of cultural and stylistic trends alien to you.
For a house to bring happiness, it must be an extension of your personality. Only in this way it will give a sense of stability, connect with the past and give balance. A house is not only a place of self-expression, but also a reminder of who we really are. It is not enough to be functional if it is to strengthen your inner core. It should reflect the hobbies, interests, life experience of its owner. So it is worth giving preference to things that are important to you, that have a history and value to you personally, rather than rich acquisitions that reflect prosperity.
Shared space
Living with many neighbors, constant contact is inevitable, occurring unplanned and often at inopportune moments. It turns out that we do not decide with whom and when to communicate. This causes discomfort, and over time, constant stress can lead to physical and psychological ailments.
Not being able to do what you want and when you want – to study, prepare food for friends to come over, watch TV, make a phone call or have a date – causes stress and aggression. To reduce psychological discomfort, experts recommend dividing common spaces so that there are private areas left. These tasks are perfectly solved by any zoning tools – partitions, cabinets, curtains, sliding walls, additional tiers.
