Utilize a variety of lighting types (including natural, ambient, and task lighting) in every room. “Having a bright, lighted room is an easy way to make a space feel more inviting and put together,” says co-founder and principal designer of BANDD DESIGN, Sara Barney. “Consider adding in some sconces, a floor lamp, desk lamp, or pendants to bring more light to those darker spaces in your home.”
15 Soothing Decorating Ideas to Help You Relax and Unwind at Home
Use these designer tips to create a personal retreat you’ll enjoy every day.
Jessica Bennett is an editor, writer, and former digital assistant home editor at BHG.
Updated on January 3, 2023
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Marcus Reeves is an experienced writer, publisher, and fact-checker. He began his writing career reporting for The Source magazine. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Playboy, The Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. His book Somebody Scream: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power was nominated for a Zora Neale Hurston Award. He is an adjunct instructor at New York University, where he teaches writing and communications. Marcus received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
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Your home is your refuge. It’s where you can feel safe and relaxed when life gets overwhelming. Certain decorating choices help foster that sense of peace, and how you decorate a space can have a huge impact on how you feel while you’re in it. A well-designed space filled with items you love can be calming and relieve stress, while cluttered rooms can have the opposite effect on your mood and mental health. We asked some of our favorite interior designers for their tips on how to transform your home into a personal sanctuary. These decorating ideas will help you create a soothing, stress-free environment you’ll enjoy every day.
Start with a Neutral Palette
Muted, neutral tones are easier on the eye than bright colors. “While I’m definitely one for decorating with color because it can be fun and exciting, I do believe that neutral spaces promote the calmest, sanctuary-like vibes,” says Karin Bohn, founder and creative director of the House of Bohn.
When decorating with white or light-toned neutrals (such as cream, off-white, or taupe), use plenty of texture to create interest. Flat white walls and smooth white furnishings can readily blend into boredom, so layer in a variety of fabrics and subtle patterns. Add shades of warmth, such as gold, pale tan, or faded yellow, to keep white from looking too sterile.
Create a Cluster of Color
For a punch of happiness and positivity, add in a few brightly colored accessories such as pillows (like these Better Homes & Gardens Blue Velvet Blooms Throw Pillows, $19, Walmart) or throws, suggest Meghan Hackett-Cassidy and Erin Hackett of Hackett Interiors. Pottery in a favorite color, vibrant artwork, a jewel-tone vase, and other items of intense color can help attract the eye and focus the mind.
Maximize the comforting effect of favorite accessories by clustering them together to create a focal point. That way, every time you pass by, you can take in the collective joy of the items. Be sure to choose a place you notice every day, such as a fireplace mantel or entryway console table.
Routine Tips, Relaxing before Painting
I find a routine involving 5 senses works great, relaxing me and putting my mind straight into the moment. Being mindful of the present moment, not fearing what could happen, or what someone might say later – is really the key.
The 5 items: hearing, smell, taste, touch and sight
step 1 put on some calm soothing nature, zen type music
step 2 make a cup of nice aromatic jasmine green tea in a lovely ceramic cup
step 3 sit down with 2 types of paper or canvas (very rough and very smooth)
step 4 as you are listening to the music play, sipping the jasmine scented tea, reach out and explore the fabric and textures of the paper/canvas surfaces. Feel the rough pebble like finish contrasting with the satin smoothness of the other surface.
step 5 choose one of the surfaces to use today. 4-5 minutes have now gone by and you most likely are at least 50% less stressed if not more!
By becoming deeply absorbed with each of your senses (taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch) you have effectively blocked out – for that time period – the negative stress factors, leading you into a much more relaxed frame of mind.
If you start to get tense in the midst of the painting…take another Tea and Music break, in the other room. Then return.
A few more tips that I can share with you that I use frequently are:
Choose Cool Palette Colours
I recognise ahead the type of mood I may be in, and choose calmer colours and subjects to help bring me back into a more serene and focused mindset. Cool grey greens, moss, aqua, ocean blues,mauve, etc. are much cooler and calmer than Scarlet, Magenta, Fuchsia, Hot Pink, Fluoro Orange.
One main art basic to focus on per painting
If you are a complete beginner, just focus on one major art basic guideline per painting for a while. As you progress, then add a couple more, per week. Absolute beginners have plenty already to think about: colour mixing, brush strokes, basic techniques, etc. You don’t need to break the camel’s back with 25 more items to remember to get right.
Next, I don’t paint only one painting per session, anymore. For most of us, its a guarantee to tense up, and stress out. I’ve learned to have about 2-3 surfaces “ready and waiting” for paint to be splashed on them. I’m more likely to fiddle and overwork if I expend all my days effort and energy on just ONE painting. If there are 2-3 paintings…I divide my energies. Less fiddling.
This is my mindset: I have papers… waiting for me! It seems to work fairly well.
Be influenced by, be inspired by the masters such as Monet
I really would like to emphasize one of the major reasons we get tense in the first place is that quite often we are trying to copy something. i.e. replicate an exact duplicate of the object. And it is this, that causes the most amount of stress in our neck and shoulders. Heads too.
What to do instead? I like to explore and research great artists: Morandi, Fred Williams, Degas, O’Keefe, Edward Seago, Matisse, Monet, John Singer Sargeant, Corot. I get somewhat acquainted with their colour, subject, tonal, brush stroke preferences as well as something about them personally. Perhaps a pithy quote.
If my inner artist gels, connects with that artist – at that point, I may decide to create an artwork that has been Influenced By this artist. I’d use a palette, subject, brush, canvas they may have liked – whilst keeping true to my own inner artist. By doing this, I am far less likely to become stressed out about Copying…. About getting it to look like a Replica. Yippee!
Take a Break
The other action item I’ll do is to get up every 20 minutes, walk around outside, come back with a fresh eye. And my neck and shoulders feel a lot better too.
Its pretty simple.
It doesn’t take long at all. Its worth giving it a go – ‘testing’ it, to see if these strategies really work, or not!
