Design for Well-being: How Home Design Impacts Your Mental Health
(Photo : Design for Well-being: How Home Design Impacts Your Mental Health)

Stress is a part of everyday life, and this naturally affects our mental wellbeing. For most people, the home serves not just as shelter but as a place to unwind and de-stress after a rough day. All you look forward to is a cool shower or soaking in a warm bath. However, the state of your bathroom can determine how your mood becomes. A cluttered, disorganized, and imbalanced space is more likely to make you feel irritable and exhausted. A spacious and elegantly designed bathroom can make you feel lighter and refreshed. 

Mental Health and Home Design

A bathroom is typically supposed to provide comfort, convenience, and a means of relaxation. However, all this can be affected by the interior design of your home. When there is a lack of cohesion or balance in your immediate environment, your brain is aware, often affecting your overall mood. On the other hand, a well-defined and modern bathroom boosts your mood and improves productivity. 

Ways Your Home Design impacts Mental Health

Here are a few ways by which your mental health is affected by the interior design of your home.

1. Windows and Natural Light

Walking into a well-lit space is a great way to improve your mood. Natural light can reduce depression, uplift your spirits and make you feel refreshed. Also, if you have a small bathroom, allowing natural light in is beneficial to make a bathroom look bigger. Simply install large windows or skylights in your bathroom and create an uplifting yet elegant design.

2. Colors 

Colors can have been well known to affect your mood, emotions and senses. Colors have a lot to do with the ambience of a room which in turn affects the kind of emotions you experience. Bright colours like yellow, red and orange can be stimulating and evoke feelings of warmth or happiness. While colours like blue, purple or green are cool, soothing colours that make you feel serene. 

3. Spaciousness 

Rooms with plenty of space to spare are preferred to cramped places. Aside from the tidiness, spacious rooms stimulate creativity, reduce anxiety and enhance your mood. Walk into a balanced, organized and spacious room after a stressful day and notice how relaxed you'll begin to feel. It is also a great way to make a small bathroom look bigger. You can check out other bathroom design inspirations to see how best you can manage your space. 

4. Flowers and Plants

Adding a touch of nature to your bathroom design is a good way to improve your mental wellbeing. The presence of greens in your home can reduce your stress levels, improve your concentration and evoke positive emotions. It also has the added benefit of filtering the air, maintaining humidity and making your space look aesthetically pleasing. Modern bathroom designs incorporate pot plants, flowers and other botanicals in them. Check out more ideas on how best to incorporate plans in your bathroom design. 

5. Art on the wall

Decorating your space with beautiful and creative artworks is another way to improve your mental health. If you're an art enthusiast, adorn your room with various artworks that make you feel good. Whether it's a painting, sculpture, glassware or pottery, viewing art is a soothing activity that reduces anxiety, depression and elicits emotions. 

6. Avoid Clutter

It is one thing to have space in your living area and another thing to make conscious efforts towards avoiding clutter. Many people believe that the secret to a clutter free space is having all the space in the world. But they very soon find out that more space, more times than not, means more clutter. So, you need to be creative with your storage options. You can hang baskets overtly or covertly around your house and intelligently introduce fittings and fixtures that would ensure your space is and stays clutter-free. 

Final Thoughts 

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health, so considering this when designing your bathroom is a must. Create the illusion of space with colors and large windows while decorating it with flowers and your favorite artwork to make you smile every day.