How Interior Design Affects Mood & Mental Health

By now, you’ve almost certainly seen a news clip, read an article, or watched a reel about the importance of mental health. Like breathing air, ensuring we care for ourselves emotionally, mentally, and physically is imperative to living a full and happy life. So why is it proving incredibly difficult to get your mental health in order?

You’re not unlike millions of others who struggle with focus and attention as our lives have advanced at a rapid speed into a technological era we could never have dreamt up even decades ago. With cell phones attached to us 24/7, televisions sprinkled across multiple locations at home and around town, dashboard screens, laptops, and monitors abound, we’re ever-ready to be reached and have our focus fragmented, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stay on task. But it’s not only technology we have to blame for our deteriorating health. We’re sure you’ll be surprised to learn that it’s our environment too.

They say “Home is where the heart is” and we know this to be true! Home is where we gather with loved ones, cook delicious meals, nurture our kids, play games and laugh, and it’s where we should feel safe and at peace to relax and recharge. When you enter your home, you should have a physiological reaction for the better, as though your entire body is breathing a sigh of relief; releasing tension and stress simply for having walked through your door. It signifies that on a subconscious level, you know that you’ve reached your sanctuary. If your home is chaotic, upside down, and disjointed, you won’t be able to relax, and this will perpetuate your difficulty in focusing.

In our family, similar to many families, each preceding generation lived in a smaller home than their offspring. We’ve learned from our predecessors that keeping an orderly home is one of the keys to maintaining sanity. If items are strewn about, particularly in a small space, there is no way to avoid them which becomes both hazardous and uber-bothersome. Some of you may have heard of the term “micro-cuts” used for physical injuries as well as small traumas we experience, and it’s applicable here too. Every time you trip over an item, can't find something, or have to venture to odd parts of the house in order to accomplish a simple task, you’re receiving a micro-cut to your mental health. Having a designated home for every item is imperative to living a healthy life, especially when things get busy. Tidiness matters!

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Now we have to talk about flow. When you head to your kitchen for example, do you grab your coffee from the far end only to bring it to your coffee maker on the close end, and then have to put the coffee back in the cabinet at the far end again? How about when you get ready to leave the house, do you head to the laundry room that’s just off of the garage for your shoes, only to remember that you need to grab a jacket that lives upstairs in your closet?

The flow of your home directly impacts not only the time it takes to get things done, but it’s also taxing on your mental health and can dramatically affect your mood. If you’re running behind and have to make an important meeting, hustling back up the stairs for that jacket is going to stress you out, and potentially irritate you. If you’re not on your A-game for that important meeting, how detrimental will a poor result be? Is the consistently interrupted flow at home worth not spending some time and money to create a harmonious living situation? If you just remodeled with a large mudroom that was able to house both your footwear AND your outerwear, how much less stressful would getting ready be? How many more meetings would go swimmingly? These things truly are worth considering.

Finally, but certainly not least, is having a designated space to give yourself the nourishment that goes beyond food and drink. This is one of our favourite parts of our job - creating a zone to relax, read a book, stretch, write, exercise, or any other wellness practice you enjoy or want to get into. This part of our lives should never have been an afterthought, and we’re thankful that it’s becoming a non-negotiable in many homes. And just so you know, you needn’t be daunted, as this part of your life doesn’t require tons of time throughout your week. Just ten minutes here and there add up and you will notice the difference spending that time on wellness makes on your mood as well as your focus and mental health as a whole.

Sometimes we don’t realize how negatively things can affect us until they’re brought to the forefront of our mind, like reading a blog post or watching a show will do. Reading this post is a step in the right direction. It means that you care about yourself enough to want to become better educated on the topic, and hopefully make some changes. They’re things within your capacity to alter that will improve your livelihood, and we think that’s worth celebrating.

Give yourself a moment of gratitude for taking the first step in making a positive change for you, for those you live with, and for the rest of the lives you touch. And just like that, you’ve already participated in a wellness practice. Surprise!

Always remember you’re worth designing a functional and beautiful life for.

Be well,

Margarite & Alexandra