How Interior Design Can Boost Wellbeing

We spend a significant amount of time indoors, much of it in our homes or places of work. In fact, a recent study estimated that on average, British adults spend up to 90% of their time inside. It’s well documented how being outdoors can boost wellbeing and improve our mood. However, as we spend the majority of our time indoors, maybe more attention needs to paid to how our home and work environments can improve our wellbeing.

In recent years a movement called Neuroarchitecture has started to grow. This is the coming together of two unlikely disciplines, Neuroscience and Architecture.

Neuroarchitecture aims to understand how our built environment affects our wellbeing. With the aim to improve buildings in the future, so they are better places for humans to be.

Give Your Home a Wellbeing Makeover

Rather than waiting for architects and neuroscience to design the home of the future, why not take matters into your own hands, and give your home or office a wellbeing makeover. We’ve compiled five ideas to help you get started.

Smell Your Way to Wellbeing

Perhaps the easiest of our tips to implement is to embrace smells and scents around your living space.

When we breathe in scent molecules, they pass through the Olfactory bulb which is connected to the hippocampus in the brain. The hippocampus is responsible for many things, including emotions, memory and learning.

Different scents and smells can affect the brain in different ways. Some will relax you; others can give you energy and others can invigorate you.

Buying essential oils and a diffuser will allow you to experiment with different scents and see how they alter your mood. Some of the best known essential oils, along with their effects are shown below;

Lavender – Relaxing and Calming

Rose – Reduces Anxiety

Grapefruit – Invigorating

Rosemary – Reduces Fatigue

Peppermint – Cooling

Create a Relaxation Spot

Your Zen spot is the place in your home where you feel most comfortable and at ease. It might be the place where you perform your favourite hobby, it could be the spot where you curl up after a long day at work, or it could simply be a comfy chair where you can read a book.

The spot doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy. It just needs to be a place where you can relax and unwind and where you can let the stresses of the day ease away.

Let There Be Light

Natural light is becoming one of the most important elements of interior design. Not only do homes look better when they allow natural sunlight to flood in, but we also feel better by our increased exposure to daylight.

When we are exposed to natural light, our bodies produce vitamin D. Known as the sunshine vitamin; it has many ways to boost wellbeing, from improving our mood to helping us sleep, and even reducing the risk of cancer.

Many homes, particularly those of an older design, are pretty poor when it comes to letting sunlight in. However, with some relatively small home improvements, you can transfer even the dreariest room.

Bifold doors effectively transform a wall of your home into a giant window that can be folded away. Bifolds work beautifully at the rear of a property where they help create a seamless transition from inside to outside. On a warm summers day, they can simply be pushed back. On a winters day, their efficient insulation will keep the cold out but let natural light flood in.

If you have a flat roof extension, chances are it’s one of the darkest spaces in your home. By installing a Skypod roof lantern, you can convert your extension into one of the brightest areas in your home. Lightweight and easy to fit, Skypods have an innovative design that captures the maximum amount of natural light.

Declutter

Mess and clutter can make you feel anxious and cause you stress and discomfort. By employing a minimalist approach to your home décor, you can keep your home organised and clutter-free at all times.

The key to a clutter-free home is storage. When renovating or decorating your home, consider how you can add storage into the designs. Try and identify unused or awkward spaces in your home and then consider how a storage solution could be added.