Home is a sanctuary, safe and relaxing quarters where you spend time with friends and family, and where memories are made. You live inside those four walls and sleep there too. So, it’s not surprising that you want your home to reflect your tastes, beliefs, and create positive feelings. Most importantly, being there should help you relax mentally and physically.
The way you construct a house, and the furnishing and décor you place inside, all determine how peaceful and relaxing your home is. Most people focus on the visual aspect of creating a beautiful and relaxing home, but even better is to create surroundings that appeal to all your senses. Let’s look at how to do that using a multi-sensory approach.
Visuals
Visuals are what most people think of when they think of home décor. Visuals are what you perceive with your eyes, the color scheme you choose, the shape of items in your home and how they interact, the artwork on the wall. If you’re trying to create a relaxing living environment, consider painting the walls of your home a soft color. For the bedrooms, a soft blue shade is an excellent choice, since light pastel blue shades relax the mind and help with sleep. For other rooms of the house, you might choose soft shades of white or neutral.
Artwork, paintings, and photographs can also be elements that make a room feel calmer and more peaceful. Nature, scenes of flowing oceans, pristine fields with blue skies, and forest scenes soothe the soul and relax the mind and body. Who doesn’t feel more relaxed when they gaze at blue skies or soak up the vastness of the ocean with their eyes?
Choose art for your walls in shades that are close to the color of your walls and furnishings to create a softer, more monochromatic effect. Soft colors and shades that almost blend together are more relaxing to the eyes than colors at the opposite ends of the color wheel. If you use patterns, make sure they’re small, subtle ones.
Textures
Texture is another aspect of creating a peaceful and relaxing home environment. Texture is the sensation you experience when you touch something. Make a space feel more relaxing by using softer textures that appeal to the senses. For example, select furniture and surfaces with some give to them. For example, choose a softly textured carpet, a couch you can sink your body into, and soft pillows in luxurious fabrics like silk or velvet. These sensual textures make a room feel more peaceful and relaxing.
Sounds
Sound can add a relaxing element to a room in your home. What could be more relaxing than flowing water falling from a small indoor fountain? How about wind chimes on the patio? Another option is to play nature music softly in the background in the rooms of your home. Nature has a calming effect on the mind and will lower your stress level. You can use music as a subtle way to shape your home’s atmosphere.
Aroma
The aroma of something triggers emotion. Have you ever caught the scent of a familiar perfume and thought about a person who used to wear it? You can use aromatherapy to give your home a more peaceful atmosphere. Aromatherapy uses essential oils extracted from plants to affect mood. There’s evidence that the aroma of certain essential oils, like lavender and chamomile, relaxes the mind and body.
How can you put aromatherapy to work for you? Buy a decorative aromatherapy diffuser and run it so it creates a relaxing scent for your home. You can also burn candles with relaxing fragrances, such as lavender. Look for soy-based candles, as paraffin candles are made from petroleum products.
Health
It goes without saying that everything in your home should be made from healthy materials. Choose natural materials that won’t off-gas chemicals that affect your health. Chemicals used in manufacturing furniture have been linked to asthma, eczema, and other inflammatory conditions in children. And the flame retardants used in upholstered furniture have been associated with health problems like cancer and reproductive harm. Since you live and sleep indoors and spend most of your time there, home air quality is important, and the products you use every day, and in-home decor and maintenance, affect indoor air quality. Look for less toxic glues, sealers, cleaning products, and paints. You can also use an air purifier for clean air.
Takeaway
Home is where the heart is, so make sure yours is relaxing. Making your home appealing to all the senses, as natural and healthy as possible, is the best way to do that.
Necessities:
- Paint (soft blue)
- Paint (soft white or neutral)
- Artwork
- Paintings
- Photographs
- Carpet
- Couch
- Pillows
- Indoor fountain
- Wind chimes
- Nature music
- Essential oils
- Aromatherapy diffuser
- Scented candles
- Air purifier
