Carpetright: Tips on how to make your home a mindful space
At Carpetright, we know that moving into a new property is always a thrilling yet strange experience. Once the post-move excitement settles, you enter the period where you have to get accustomed to the new house. Its feel, size, smell and even the surrounding area may take some time to get used to. So, it’s important to make sure your new living space is a mindful one, especially to allow yourself to feel your new home really belongs to you.
If you’re after that Zen feeling in your house, check out Carpetright’s top tips on how to make your living space feel like a relaxing oasis.
Make it all about you
Surrounding yourself with things associated with great memories and things that evoke positive feelings is simple, but often overlooked in interior design. Although it’s an obvious one, it’s important to stress how much this changes the feel of a place. Photographs of happy moments, trinkets and memorabilia from your favourite places and even incorporating an old piece of furniture can shift the mood of your living space.
Marie Kondo, host of Netflix show ‘Tidying Up With Marie Kondo’ and organising consultant, has a trademark de-cluttering method of discarding items that do not ‘spark joy’ in us. This way of thinking can be applied to what goes on your walls, on a shelf or on your window sills – displaying only the things that evoke the most pleasant feelings within you. By making your surroundings all about you, you are bound to feel happier and relaxed.
Bring the outdoors in
Recent research carried out by us, revealed that 81% of people thought having an outdoor space is important and that 44% of people associated relaxation with gardens. With some properties on the market not having access to a garden per se, a lot of new-builds are designed with this problem in mind and receive outdoor space in the form of a balcony.
Balconies are a great place to create a small ‘urban jungle’ but if you do not have one, you can still bring the outdoors into your home with carefully selected houseplants. Besides the health benefits, such as air purifying properties, improving humidity levels and even negating toxins from vehicle fumes – plants are also a great benefit for your mind.
According to Hotology.co.uk, the indoor plant experts, plants have been shown to “improve memory, creativity and accuracy” when placed in home studies. Horticulture therapy, as in the use of plants in treating mental illness, has been used by psychologists as “plants have generally been linked with improved well-being, optimist, calmness and … reduction in stress and anxiety”. If you want to find out more about bringing nature into your home, read Share to Buy’s article on the matter.
Include natural materials
The use of plants and natural materials in home design for mental wellbeing, is known as ‘Biophilic design’. Hortology.co.uk said it stems from an idea of American biologist Edward O. Wilson, as he thought that “humans have developed a genetic connection to nature and natural processes as a result of hundreds of thousands of years of cultivating land”. According to him, the vast and rapid urbanisation of society is believed to have created “an adverse disconnection between humans and nature”.
By including raw materials such as wood and stone in our living spaces, it could be said that we reconnect with the materials our ancestors used. Marjut Wallenius, an environmental psychologist, researched the effects of wood on our mental health. She found that wood really does have a positive effect on mental health. She said this effect “is based on the positive emotional experience that wood causes, such as proximity to nature, warmth, homeliness and its relaxing effect”. So, opting in for wooden furniture is a great way to bring more positive vibes into your new living space, further improving your mind’s wellbeing.
What are your top tips for a mindful living space? You can let us know at @SharetoBuy over on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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