How To Feel Better Every Day

by Elena T. Manager

Your mood and well-being can be dependent upon your physical surroundings and how they interact with your senses. Where are you reading this right now--are you comfortable? Would you be better off reading this in a dingy office, or on your cushioned living room couch? That’s the effect interior design can have on your mood, mentality, and even productivity.

What can good interior design do to make you feel better? It can improve your mood, make you feel comfortable, make you more organized, increase your productivity, make you feel motivated or inspired, and incite confidence.

An interior space is reliant on sight and touch the most out of all our senses. The key to unlocking the ability to feel better is through interior design amplifying these senses. Since your surroundings affect your perception, you want to immerse yourself in a space that makes you feel good and improve your mood simply by being there. This is particularly important for those who work from home, or have a designated office space that they use daily. Work can be tiring, overwhelming, and sometimes pretty mundane. It’s important to keep yourself in a positive mindset in order to be more productive, and actually enjoy working.

The attractiveness of a space is not the only determining factor that affects how you feel. The amount of physical space you are able to occupy can help you to relax, feel more comfortable, and aid in allowing you to do activities that make you feel better. Someone who finds they feel better after yoga might see a stark difference in their mood if they are able to do it in an open living room vs. being too cramped to do anything in a tiny apartment. More open space allows you to feel less constrained and more relaxed. A breakfast table by a sunny window surely has a better impact on your mood than using a TV dinner stand on your couch for a morning replenishment.

Design your home in a way that allows you to free up the most possible space for things you know make you feel better, like the aforementioned yoga or relaxing breakfast. Make sure your living room or bedroom has the space where you can stretch out in warrior 1, or your kitchen has the ability to fit a small table by the window for a soothing view.

So now that we’ve explained the importance of interior design in relation to your mood, what can you do to your space to find yourself feeling better when you enter the room?

Clear out your space.

Remove any excess items, furniture, or decor from your space. Freeing up more space makes it appear bigger and less constrained, which will give you more room to move around and feel less stagnant, especially if you have a smaller home. Rid yourself of anything you no longer need, and you’ll feel the weight lifted off your shoulders. This will also help you to be more organized, which is a plus for anyone who regularly works from home. When you are more organized, you’re undoubtedly more productive. Plus, once you see how good your space looks when it’s neat and tidy, you’ll want to routinely keep it clean. See how good it feels for yourself.

Add more organizational units for anything unsightly that takes up more room than it should. Nowadays you can find storage pieces that serve as functional, decorative items as well.

Hire an interior designer.

Some were just not born with the design bug, and that’s okay! Interior design firms like Décor Aid are here to help you bring your vision to life, even if you don’t know where to start. Tell your designer how you want to feel when you enter your home, and they’ll figure out a game plan to get you there. Once you see your space re-designed by a professional, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. Think about the rush you get when you make a new purchase, and then apply that to an entire living space. You’ll find your mood instantly lifted every time you set foot in your new space that was customized to fit exactly what you needed.

Choose pieces that provide comfort.

Instead of pieces that just look nice, choose something that’s actually comfortable. Sometimes we sacrifice comfort for style (we know those structured acrylic chairs are great, but how comfortable are they?), but if you choose pieces of furniture that you can actually settle into and relax in, you’ll find yourself feeling better.

Fill your home with pieces that provide comfort on an emotional level too. Things like family memorabilia or heirlooms, precious mementos or favorite photographs, original artwork that expresses your personal style. Believe it or not, the attachments you feel to these things can really boost your mood and make you feel at home.