Your house, as a location where you go to unwind after a long day at work or the stresses of everyday life, should inspire a peaceful atmosphere and help you recharge. However, its potential to do so is frequently neglected, resulting in an environment that, if not intelligently furnished, can exhaust you.
“Your home either fosters and supports you or depletes your vitality and leaves you fatigued,” explains Home and Harmony Lifestyle’s interior designer, founder, and CEO. Christa O’Leary is an Irish actress. “It is more vital than ever in today’s busy environment to create a tranquil and peaceful space where you can recuperate.”
It begins with basic, thoughtful habits that help you to feel stress-free, and it extends beyond your design aesthetic and objects within a room. Here are 10 easy methods to make your house a balanced and tranquil getaway, regardless of your lifestyle.
Get Rid of the Clutter
Clutter creates physical and mental disorder, whether you follow the KonMari method religiously or consider yourself a self-proclaimed maximalist. Unkempt piles and disarray can sometimes result in a 20-minute search for those bothersome car keys, as well as a general sensation of worry. Take some time to clean out your closet or deal with the heaps of old mail that are weighing you down. As you chuck those unnecessary stuff out of the room, the tension will quickly dissipate.
Experiment with Color
A single bright wall or standout piece may completely change the vibe of a room. A bedroom with silky white fabrics exudes elegance and tranquillity, but a family’s living room with a daffodil shade of yellow may exude just the appropriate amount of excitement. Choosing the appropriate color scheme can be difficult, so play with different tones and combinations to see how they affect the atmosphere of your room.
Plants Have Power Embrace the Power of Plants
People flock to their nearby botanical garden or hiking trail to immerse themselves in nature after a hectic week. Why not bring the calming properties of emerald escapes inside? Plants not only offer a green pop to your design scheme, but they also remove toxins from indoor spaces, re-oxygenating your home, according to a Nasa study.
Try minimal-maintenance types like https://guides4homeowners.co.uk/, parlor palms or snake plants for maximum serene effects at a modest price for individuals with a less-than-green thumb.
Don’t Forget About Your Bedroom
The bedroom, being one of the most private places of your home, should inspire you to unwind from your hectic schedule while still exuding refinement. Miles Redd, a New York–based decorator, adds, “You always want to come into a bedroom and be astonished.” “However, it must also be a location where you may relax and unwind.” Incorporate colors that resonate with you and entice you into the room, whether you prefer neutrals or lovely pastels. You might also want to skip the television and instead invest in some relaxing weeping figs or aloe vera plants, which emit more oxygen at night.
Consider the room’s function.
You are subconsciously allowing yourself to move with ease and purpose within your home by allocating places for specific tasks. When planning a design concept for each room, keep the function of the space in mind. To reflect the young mood of the family’s gathering space, Meg Braff’s Long Island estate’s media room features a colorful wallcovering by Katie Ridder.
Strike a Good Middle Ground
Feng shui is a Chinese practice that emphasizes the balance of opposing but intertwined forces known as yin and yang. The underlying concept of the old tradition encompasses a wide range of decorating characteristics and methods. Look for ways to achieve perfect harmony in your area, from generating complete symmetry in a dining room to experimenting with dark and light pieces.
Natural Light Strokes
A swath of natural light adds clarity and exposes the delicate design aspects of a room like nothing else. In comparison to an artificially illuminated setting, a naturally light space increases productivity, improves mood, and produces a more serene ambience. Try introducing reflective surfaces into your home if you live in an apartment with few or no windows. Allowing sunshine to reflect off strategically positioned huge mirrors or lacquered objects will instantly quadruple the amount of natural light.
Make Use of Natural Textures
People have a natural desire to admire and be drawn to the captivating beauty of nature. While houseplants aren’t for everyone, natural textures and pieces emanate the same sense of calm and help to ground the overall mood of a room. Earthy elements like original woodwork or a woven side table can help you achieve a sense of inner serenity in a variety of ways.
Sara Hillery, a Richmond-based decorator, favors softer materials that serve to create a more relaxing and inviting atmosphere. “Rather than layering opposing colors and patterns, covering hard floors with rugs and layering textures to create depth creates a calm environment,” Hillery explains.
Aromatherapy is an option to consider.
Candles, despite their modest size, have the power to generate a warm, inviting glow and fill an entire space with a nice perfume. Scent memory is a great tool for transporting people to happy locations or wonderful trips. Invest in a eucalyptus-scented candle with soothing, spa-like properties or look for a candle that reminds you of your favorite travel spots. Not a fan of candlelight? Essential oil diffusers are an excellent alternative because they allow you to create your own own aroma blend.
Seek out movement.
Outdoor spaces are crucial to a home’s overall balance and should not be disregarded. Just steps from your front entrance, opulent, manicured boxwoods and luxuriant beds of fragrant roses provide the ideal peaceful hideaway. Try to incorporate moments of movement throughout your extravagant mazes to elevate any garden into a reflective refuge. The subtle gurgle of a storied fountain, for example, imparts a soothing yet exquisite aspect to any situation.
The same concept applies to the interiors. Look for natural methods to add movement into your design. As Hillery points out, this may be as simple as choosing light, airy drapery that sways in response to the cold breeze coming through the windows.
Palmer Weiss created this upholstered banquette to be used for meditation and relaxation.
Creating Wellness Environments
In the last year, our homes have become not just a site of rehabilitation, but also a place of employment. Consider creating unique locations where you can escape for quiet moments and prioritize your mental health to help create a sense of separation between work and life. This isn’t to say you should turn your spare bedroom into a mobile spa or a home yoga studio. Take inspiration from designers like Mark D. Sikes and Palmer Weiss and turn a little part of your home into a comfortable nook with plenty of soft materials where you can meditate or simply relax.
Each and every room is vital.
It’s frequently easier to close the door on these spaces and deal with them later, whether it’s a little powder room in need of a refresh or a less-than-cozy home library. Even these small voids, unfortunately, weigh on your subconscious and drain your energy—they are essentially a task left undone. Make each place in your home inspired to create a sense of home togetherness.
