One of our favorite parts of helping clients absolutely LOVE their spaces is in the furnishings. Truly. Our team enjoys getting to know your likes and dislikes, your passions, and your “rhythm of life” to better understand how your furniture, lighting, accessories, art – every part of your home – needs to work together. If you’ve ever been in a room – in your own home or in someone else’s – and something just felt off to you, that’s your internal sense of harmony and balance saying it’s out of whack. The same can be true if you’ve been in a room that just felt “right.” And what’s amazing is just how much that inner balance affects your day-to-day life…that is, your mood, your ability to concentrate, and even your sense of well-being.
There’s some actual science behind this notion of craving inner balance. The Different Functionalblog entitled The Psychology of Environmental Beauty, explored the science behind those feelings of “off” and “on,” starting with Abraham Maslow, the father of positive psychology, back in the 1950s. He set up an experiment that involved three rooms: one beautiful, one neutral, and one that was…well…ugly. He then asked participants to judge a series of headshots for “energy” and “well-being” while in one of these rooms. Even though all participants got the same photos, there were noticeable differences. Individuals in the beautiful room showed much more positive rankings. There were even noticeable differences in the behaviors of the scientists administering the study. Those in the ugly room were much more likely to be irritable, tired, and complaining.
Interestingly, over the years, this idea of environmental aesthetics’ impact on our psyches has been widely explored and confirmed. Essentially, experts have boiled it down to three main categories: Sensory-motor experience, knowledge-meaning, and emotion-valuation. The sensory-motor aspect says, in short, that we are drawn to environments with fluency. We prefer the objects in an area to flow well together. Fluency creates stimuli that the brain can more easily process. And the less hard your brain has to work to understand the environment you’re in, the more it feels at ease and comfortable. For example, some of us have a strong need for symmetry and order; others of us relish chaos. There isn’t a right or wrong way to approach it, but it’s more in how it works for you and your life.
In the knowledge-meaning category, we tend to value environments that we have associated a learned appreciation for the objects in it. One way to look at that is to think: Grandma’s favorite Queen Anne chair; your father’s favorite duck picture, or your sister’s handmade afghan. We are drawn to those things because of their assigned meaning, not because we necessarily love mid-1700s style furniture, paintings of ducks, or couch quilts in general. That’s why getting to know you is so important to furnishing your perfect space.
The last category, emotion-valuation, is all about that subconscious or automatic response we all experience in our surroundings. While some can feel lost and uncomfortable in open rooms with less furnishings, others feel free and unencumbered. While some can feel claustrophobic or crowded in smaller spaces with lots of accessories and furniture, others can feel cozy, warm, and protected. Basic principles, such as these, as well as lines, patterns, colors, and textures have a discernable, direct, subconscious effect on our physical bodies, raising or lowering our cortisol levels (stress hormones), releasing or reducing dopamine levels (reward hormones). That’s why we often say it doesn’t matter if these two things “go together” in the design world, as long as they make you feel good every time you see them. We can add elements of great design to that feeling in such a way to maintain your inner sense of balance, harmony and function.
Our design team strives to help you achieve pleasing, comfortable and fully functional spaces you absolutely love. I mean, seriously, why shouldn’t you love being in them everyday? After all, many of us are going to live in our homes for many years to come. Life’s too short to not find your bliss. We know each space is going to be as individual as you are. We’ll help you find just the right zen in whatever way we can – all within a budget that doesn’t rob you of that bliss. So if you have one or more of those unhappy rooms in your home, let’s talk!