How Your Home Decor Can Affect Your Mental Health

Updated on: January 30, 2023

As more and more people begin to work from home, it has become very obvious for many the impact that your surroundings and specifically your home decor can have on your mental health. In fact, studies have found that the aesthetics and sensory input of a place can affect your mental health and well-being. 

There are many ways you can change your home decor to help your mental health. Having enough cabinetry in your home can help you stay more organized, reduce clutter, and lessen your stress. Allowing natural light in can also boost your mood. 

Your home is where you spend every day and every night. It is where you spend time with your friends and family, and it is where some of the biggest moments of your life happen. It is important that the environment you create in your home has a positive effect on your mental health.

Sleep

Sleep is vital to maintaining good mental health and a strong immune system. If you are having trouble sleeping, then it is important that you look at the environment in which you were sleeping.

Bright fluorescent lights, no curtains, and uncomfortable sheets can all negatively impact your sleep. Choosing comfortable bed linens, heavy curtains, and soft lighting and colors can help to improve your sleep and your regular sleep schedule.

As you decorate your bedroom, try to choose colors and decorations that make you feel comfortable and at peace. 

Stress

Sometimes it’s easy to feel like stress is everywhere. It’s at work, at school, and at home. You don’t have much control over the stressors that exist outside of your home, but you do have control over the stressors that exist within your home.

Stress can impact your health in many ways, including your heart health, your immune system, and your risk of depression and anxiety. Taking steps in your home environment to reduce stress can have a positive impact on your mental and physical health.

Minimizing clutter and developing better systems for organization are two great ways to reduce the stress you experience in your home. 

Comfort

When you are at home, being comfortable is key. Creating a comfortable cozy environment will help increase feelings of safety and happiness. These feelings will have a positive impact on your long-term mental health.

Creating a comfortable environment can also help to improve your sleep schedule, which has been shown to have a positive impact on your mental health and your physical health. 

Self-Esteem

If you are not satisfied with the decor and cleanliness of your home, you may have feelings of shame associated with having friends or family come to visit you. Reevaluating your home decor and organizational systems can help to improve your self-esteem, make you feel more proud of your space, and lead to a more social life.

A higher self-esteem and increased sociability have been found to improve mental health. Research shows that people who engage in meaningful social interaction see benefits for their physical health, health behaviors, and mental well-being. 

Focus

Having the right decor, especially if you work from home, can be vital to your ability to focus. This can include having cabinets and organizational spaces that promote focused thinking and productivity.

If your home is too disruptive, either from noise or visual stimuli from clutter, it will be hard for you to focus on important tasks each day. 

There are many aspects of your home decor and interior design that can have an impact on your mental health. 

From the natural elements you incorporate into your home decor to the lamps you choose to light your living room, everything in your home can have an impact on your quality of life and your mental health. Choosing the right colors, the best cabinets for organization, and creating a welcoming home are all vital to your mental well-being. 

Colors

Marketing professionals and psychologists have long known that different colors can have different impacts on a person's actions, thoughts, and feelings. There are colors that have been shown to promote happiness, calmness, and peace such as shades of green or blue. 

Choosing these colors, instead of colors that symbolize feelings of aggression, such as red, can greatly impact your mental health. When you are choosing colors for your walls, decor, cabinets, or other fixtures, make sure you spend some time looking at your color options and evaluating how each color makes you feel.

Shapes

If you are trying to create a space that promotes comfort and reduces stress, the shapes that are present in your home are very important.

Using shapes with round edges in the art that you place, the cushions that you buy, and any other possible setting can create a softer, more comfortable space. 

Organization

Disorganization and clutter are leading causes of stress and poor mental health. Buying sufficient cabinetry, shelving, and organizational bins can help you to organize your belongings and minimize household clutter.

Staying organized is something that many people with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and other mental conditions may have trouble with. The good news is, there are plenty of household accessories and cabinet organizers like pull-outs that can be life-changing. Clutter can impact your focus and make you feel easily overwhelmed — but by creating a space where it’s easy to organize your belongings, you can improve your mental health and reduce your daily stress

Light

Having too much harsh, bright light or not enough light at all can both impact your mental health. Studies have found that poor lighting can cause eye strain, headaches, fatigue, stress, and anxiety. Taking steps to install comfortable lighting in your home can alleviate the possibility of these physical and mental health issues. 

By buying lighting fixtures that add warmth, softness, and peace to your space, you can reduce stress and depressive feelings. Another great option is to use as much natural lighting in your home as possible.

Space

If your home feels too cramped, it can inadvertently promote feelings of claustrophobia and stress.

By making the most of the space you have, and freeing up as much space as possible, you can create a more open home environment that has a positive impact on your mental health.

Everything from the colors you use to the lighting you pick can affect your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Whether you live in a house or an apartment, whether you own or you rent, there are many things you can do to help your home environment have a positive and lasting impact on your mental health.