13 Psychology-Backed Ideas for a Relaxing Home (Architect Explains)

In today's video, I'll be sharing timeless, psychology-backed design strategies that can help you make your home feel very calm and relaxing. I'll be skipping the basics like creating a yoga mat corner so you can stretch and meditate, decluttering everything that makes your home messy, journaling away your negative thoughts until your hand gives up. No, no, these design strategies are based on theories of architecture, interior design, psychology, and my very own obsession with reading a lot of design books. I'll explain why each one works so you can implement them whatever your budget and whatever your style. You can make your home as soothing as a spa, but better because it's free. Well, except the rent and mortgage payments. When you walk into a room, very often one of the first things you notice is the colour of the space and the colour has a massive impact on how you feel. If we were to analyse colour, we can basically break it down into three categories. Hue, saturation, and value. The hue is the type of colour you have, whether that's red, blue, or green. Saturation measures how intense or muted the colour is. High saturation colours are bright and vivid, while low saturation colours feel softer and more muted. And the value refers to how light or dark a colour is, ranging from white to black. If you want your space to feel calm, choose colours that are low in saturation and value. Soft, pale neutrals like pastel blues, greens, beige. Why does this work? Well, the science of colour tells us that muted tones give our eyes some sort of visual rest, whereas really bright and intense colours energise us and stimulate all our senses. So if you want to create a calming and relaxing home, stay away from super saturated bold colours. They're like caffeine for our brain. Great in small doses, but too much can leave you feeling quite jittery and shaky. Which is really fantastic for spaces like creative studios, gyms, the nightclub. But I assume if you clicked on this video, you don't want to decorate your home like a nightclub. You want it to feel calming and relaxing like a spa. A monochromatic palette is a design approach where you use variations of a single colour throughout a space. By sticking to one colour family, you create a space that looks cohesive and harmonious. And our brain loves a little bit of harmony, a little bit of order. This is why you find this space way more stressful to look at than this space. When your brain doesn't have to figure out why someone paired such crazy colours together in a space, it reduces our cognitive load. Contrast creates energy and cohesion creates calm. To implement this in your home, select a really, really calming shade, make life simple and make everything one colour. Just Google for colour drenched rooms and you'll see so many spaces where this has been done. If you don't want to paint so many surfaces, you can also make do with a lot of fabrics around. Match your curtains, throw blankets or even your bedding to the base colour. Imagine having to choose between these two spas. One that's decorated with lush greenery, wooden textures, flowing water and the other one, well, with none of that. You're already packing your bags for the first one, aren't you? Yeah. For our ancestors, landscapes with trees, water and open spaces meant food, shelter and safety, which is key to their survival. This hard wiring hasn't changed. Psychologists call this the biophilia effect or innate connection to nature that rejuvenates us mentally and physically. Biophilic design isn't a trend, it's a return to the environment we're wired to love. So to bring nature into your home so you feel relaxed and calm, you can incorporate a lot of plants. The best ones have big leaves and curved edges and none of the spiky snake plants. I have a couple of them in my home. You can probably see that in the background. They are really, really easy to maintain, but the shape of them does resemble things like knives, swords, weapons. So if you really want your space to feel relaxing, don't have these plants in your home, especially not in your bedroom. Keep these plants in spaces where you don't mind it being less calm, like your kitchen, your office. If you happen to have a windowless room that you want to redecorate, like your bathroom, you can always bring in some artificial plants. I know it's not quite the same, but just seeing these greenery actually has a similar effect on our brain. So you can trick yourself a little bit. You should also arrange your furniture to maximize any views you have of the outside world. If you don't have a good view, that's not a problem. You can also incorporate high quality artwork or photograph of serene landscapes. Just like fake plants, of course, it's not as good as the real thing, but it does have effects, so it's better than nothing. When you're picking your artwork, not all nature-inspired scenery are equal. We're wired to love open, natural views, because for the longest time, before we all lived in cities and towns in our neat little houses, we were living outside in the wild. Back then, if you could see far into the distance, you had time to spot danger like a predator or a rival group. And even now, seeing those scenes, whether it's through a window or a piece of art, can make us feel calm and grounded. So in your artwork, look for landscapes with similar vibes, like rolling hills, lakes, open skies, because they reduce stress the most. Images like a dark forest or jagged rocks and caves are also natural landscapes, but they will make you feel a bit more stressed. So art with perspective, like a winding path, leads the eye outwards, which makes the room feel more serene. And if you have a picture with curves over angles, you would feel less tense. Keep visual complexity in check. The way your room looks, its patterns, colors, shapes, and how organized it is, plays a huge role in how calm and tense you feel while you're in the space. A space that's too busy overstimulates the brain, while one that's too plain can feel a bit sad and boring. And this balance of elements, how little or how much is going on in the space, is what we call visual complexity. Let's look at some examples here. If you're anything like me, you're probably drawn to the images in the middle column, spaces that strike a balance. But visual complexity is a sliding scale, and everyone's tolerance is different. Look at a lot of different rooms and images, and figure out how much visual stimulation do you need to keep you feeling engaged and calm, but without it looking too boring. Clutter also plays a major role. Surfaces overloaded with items can feel chaotic, making it harder for your mind to settle. Some people prefer to have absolutely no items on their surfaces, except maybe like two books, and some people need to have a whole row of books. So here are a couple of tips to help you get started on creating a good base for a low to moderate level of visual complexity in your home. Incorporate a lot of neutral tones as a base. Arrange furniture so you have enough circulation and open space between them. Don't overcrowd the room. Invest in closed storage solutions such as cabinets or storage ottomans to hide away some of the everyday clutter that could accumulate in your home. Limit your deco and accessories. If you already have a lot of deco, go through a process of clearing them first and then adding them in later. Remove all the items from tables, bookshelves, and countertops, then gradually reintroduce meaningful items to the surface. And every now and then, just step back a bit, look at it, and decide whether it looks too busy for you or is actually very comfortable and soothing. When it comes to picking patterns for your home, size matters. Small patterns look more subtle, and large patterns are more dominating to the visual field, which makes you feel a little bit more stimulated when you're looking at them. So in spaces in your home where you want to cultivate a calm, serene vibe, go for small patterns. If you want to have colorful wallpaper in your bedroom but you want it to feel calm, instead of going for a big print with loud colors, go for something with softer colors and smaller patterns. And in spaces where you have a lot of pattern accessories like your cushions, your rugs, you can also pair them with solid colors just to give your eyes a bit of a visual break every now and then. Natural materials are so soothing to us because we love nature, and wood grains are particularly effective at this. But before you go crazy with wood everywhere, there is too much of a good thing. I mean, look at these two pictures. They both have a lot of wood in them, but one I think just feels a little bit better than the other in terms of feeling calming and serene. Moderation is key. Studies show that limiting wood to around 45% of a room's surfaces keeps things balanced. Any more than that and it starts to feel a bit heavy, dark, and claustrophobic. And another study in hospital environments found that spaces with a moderate amount of wood were preferred by users, while excessive wood coverage made rooms feel repetitive, overly rustic, and just generally less satisfying to us. To create a calm home, incorporate balance, symmetry, and repetition in your home. Symmetrical and repetitive designs reduce cognitive load, leaving you mentally free to relax and enjoy your surroundings. In nature, symmetry equals health and stability. It's why we're drawn to symmetrical faces, well-formed trees, or balanced structures. Repetition, on the other hand, creates predictability, which your brain loves because it's just so much easier to process. So how do we bring these generic words like balance and symmetry and order into our homes? Well, you don't have to knock your walls down and build a house from scratch. Start with what you already have, like your furniture layout. For example, in the living room, you can arrange pieces symmetrically around a focal point, like a coffee table or a fireplace. But it doesn't mean everything has to be mirrored and identical. Symmetry can also be about visual balance. In the bedroom, for example, you can use matching bedside tables and lamps in a classic way. But you can also mix it up. It's about making sure the visual wake feels even, rather than about things being completely mirrored. Picture this, you're standing on a soft sandy beach, watching waves gently roll onto the shore. The curves of the water, the smooth line of the horizon, and then you turn around and face the other direction. It's a jagged cliff. Every sharp edge and spike and rock puts you on high alert. One view invites relaxation and the other demands survival. We find waves and curvy forms so much more soothing. Clouds, the soft curve of a leaf, the petal of a flower, they reduce anxiety. Sharp edges, on the other hand, trigger subtle stress responses. Jagged rocks meant danger. Thorns meant pain. Even today, these instincts guide us in how we feel around an object in space. This is why stepping into a ball pit feels fun, if you don't think about bacteria too much. And navigating a room littered with Legos is like psychological torture. So how do you bring this effect into your own home? If you're lucky enough to actually change the layout and other architectural pieces in your home, can you incorporate some arched doorways? Or maybe even some curvy walls? What about introducing some flowing, wavy wallpaper? Or swapping out hard-edged tables and chairs for more rounded alternatives? Even small accents can make a difference. In a room, people are normally more drawn to spaces where they have a good vantage point and they can lean back against something solid. Our survival instincts as human beings told us a good vantage point So to channel your inner cave person in your home in a modern way, focus on creating enclosures. Pose these zones that feel defined and secure. If you have floating furniture like a sofa in the middle of a room, give it a backstop by placing a console table or even a plant behind it. Position chairs so they face open areas. Avoid seating arrangements where someone's back is left exposed to hallways or walkways. Nobody likes the feeling of being snuck upon, even if it's just a family dog. Matte surfaces diffuse light rather than bouncing it around the room, creating a softer, more subdued visual effect. In contrast, shiny surfaces act like mirrors, catching and reflecting light in sharp, attention-grabbing ways. While gloss can be fun and inject energy and drama into a space, if you want to be a bit more relaxed, a diffused surface is a better way to go. So when it comes to your walls, matte or eggshell paint diffuses light beautifully. For furniture, natural unpolished materials like wooden tables or cabinets with a matte finish can feel a bit warmer when compared to the sleekness of lacquered or glossy surfaces. You're at home after a long day, ready to sink into your couch with a cup of tea. The lights are soft, the room is tidy, but something feels off. You hear the faint hum of the fridge. Or maybe it's the drip from the kitchen tap. It's not loud, but it is persistent. And your brain just can't quite let it go. But don't blame your brain. It was built for this. Our ancestors lived in a world where survival often depended on sound. In the wild, the sound of a snapping branch could mean danger, so we're wired to tune into unexpected noises. This instinct designed to keep us alive now picks up on everything from leaky taps to buzzing, annoying electronics. And while we no longer have to worry about being eaten, these random sounds still trigger stress responses. So if you have sounds in your home that randomly emits noise, fix them. You can also think about how you can reduce disruptive noise by furnishing your home with a lot of soft surfaces that just absorbs the sound and stops them from bouncing around so much. So everything from rugs, curtains, book on shelves, they all absorb sound and reduce echoes. During the day, bright, cool light energizes us and keeps us alert. But in the evening, we're meant to wind down. Warm light mimics the golden tones of sunset or firelight, signaling to the brain that it's time to relax. The wrong lighting at night when it's bright, cool, overly harsh, can disrupt this resting process. Start by swapping out cold white light bulbs for warm toned ones. These emit a soft amber glow that feels cozy and natural. You should also layer your lighting. So instead of relying on a single overhead fixture, add table lamps, floor lamps, wall lights. These create pools of light, adding depth and softness to a space. And here is a super important rule. No odd colored lights, please. Neon blues, greens, or purples might look really fun, but they do disrupt the natural harmony your brain craves. Stick to soft yellows or amber tones that create a soothing environment that feels aligned with how we are wired to relax. If this video was helpful, be sure to check out my other videos which talks about how to create a cozy, elegant, timeless home. And make sure to subscribe before you leave. Thank you. Bye! By the way, no cats were harmed or abandoned for the making of this video. Coco was allowed to be back in after like one minute outside. It's really nothing. I love my cat so much. Bye!