Is your home bringing you down? Here's how interior design affects your mood

The importance of interior design was recognised long before COVID19. Its basic principles date back as far as humanity. All that’s really changed is the practicalities of implementing them. Now, it’s easier than ever before to have a well-designed home that supports your physical and mental health.

Here, Tara Neil, specialist in bespoke rooms and furniture, share their four tips for how your house can lift your mood.

Light brightens your mood

Brightly-lit spaces promote energy and productivity. Dimly-lit spaces promote relaxation and introspection. This is exactly why most restaurants have brightly-lit kitchens but more dimly-lit dining areas. They want their staff to be energised but their patrons to relax. There’s also a safety element to lighting.

In the home, it’s generally preferable to have multiple sources of light in a room. These will be a mixture of ambient lights, task lights and lights that are purely decorative. With smart lighting, it’s easy to brighten and dim lights. Some lights can even change temperature and/or colour.

Colour has a huge influence on emotion

Are you feeling blue just now or are you in the pink? Are you seeing red or are you green with envy? Colours and emotions have been linked throughout the course of history. In some cases, this is caused, or at least influenced, by culture and social conventions. In many cases, however, it’s simply recognising natural human responses.

The temperature of a colour really does influence whether a room feels warm and cosy or cool and open. Some commercial spaces push this concept as far as it can go. For example, nightclubs may use strong reds to encourage people to dance the night away. This does, however, tend to be done when spaces are only used for a limited time.

In homes, the general practice is to stick to neutral colours for larger spaces. Brighter, stronger colours are usually kept as accents. They will also be chosen to suit the purpose of the room. For example, a bright yellow accent wall can look great in a public room. For a bedroom, however, you’d probably want something more restful, like green.

Space needs to be zoned effectively

Effective zoning serves two purposes. Firstly, it makes sure that the right amount of space is allocated to each of a home’s key functions. Secondly, it strikes the right balance between public spaces and private spaces.

Over recent years, the concept of zoning a home has taken on an interesting twist. Multifunctional furniture now makes it possible to squeeze a huge amount of functionality into a tiny amount of space. This is often enough to resolve the challenges of finding enough space for a home’s essential functions.

The challenge for designers is that modern homes are getting smaller all the time. This makes it increasingly difficult to create physical divisions between public and private spaces. Designers are therefore having to make greater use of visual tricks to create a sense of separation.

One of the most popular (and effective) tricks is to use mirrors to amplify the sense of space in public areas. These areas are generally painted in lighter colours to enhance the sense of openness. Mirrors are less likely to be used in private areas. If they are, they will be small ones. Private areas are generally painted in darker colours to create a sense of intimacy.

Interior design needs to have personality

By necessity, a lot of interior design focuses on practical considerations. In particular, designers will generally try to maximise the useful space in a home. At the same time, giving a home personality is essential to making it spark joy when you are in it.

For this reason, even the tiniest home should devote some space to personal items. Plants and art are both popular additions to many homes. Many people also have sentimental items they like to see. Effective interior design will find a place for these.