Put those New Year’s resolutions to one side – everything you need to feel calmer and healthier in 2022 can be found in your home, says interiors expert Joanna Thornhill
Use lots of light to complement the calming colours. In this living room, Walls are painted in River Valley and Denim Drift, £31.09 for 2.5l, dulux.co.uk. Sofa.com has a similar sofa. Habitat.co.uk offers a pendant light similar to the one shown.
Want to boost your wellbeing in 2022? You don’t have to make difficult resolutions. Instead, focus on positive home improvements that you can make. This is a great time to think about how you can improve your living space and make it more comfortable. These interiors improvements will make you happy, and they are not like other resolutions.
Open storage in the hall will promote tidiness. clothes rail, £59, shoe rack, £35, and Metal wall art, £14, all dunelm.com
Do a colour check
Our mood can be affected by the colour we choose to surround ourselves. It’s important that our surroundings are not affecting our happiness. While blues and greens can be considered calm, brighter colours or more orange tones are better for stimulating a space.
Overhaul your hallway
You should conduct a thorough hallway audit if you find that leaving your house causes you to feel overwhelmed. You can begin by clearing out clutter, and then set aside designated areas for your daily needs.
To mentally reinforce this habit, visualize how thankful you will feel when you get back home.
Caring for others – including plants – can take our mind off our own worries and even ease anxiety and depression. Dobbies.com offers plants and pots. For a similar desk visit ikea.com. And for a chair similar to this one, go to vinterior.c
Get outside!
Consider this your invitation to grow more plants in your house. These plants look fantastic and fit into the biophilia trend (essentially, bringing out the natural world within your home). However, caring for them can improve mood and reduce stress levels, as well as make it easier to be more productive.
Maintain business and pleasure apart
Do you hot-desk at home? Help create a boundary between your working day and your downtime by storing all your ‘office’ gear (both practical pieces plus decorative extras, such as a scented candle) in a storage box, then make packing and unpacking it each day into a ritual. By focusing the mind on this change of activity, it’ll help transition your brain into (and out of) work mode.
Your personality can help you decorate your space. For example, if you’re an introvert, why not prioritise creating a quiet nook for decompressing after a busy day? If you’re more of an extrovert, make sure your home is conducive to entertaining and being together with your family.
You can create a relaxing retreat filled with luxurious linens to soothe your introvert side. double duvet and two pillowcases, £89, bedfolk.com. Make.com has a similar bed. visit laredoute.co.uk or a similar rug
Think about how you think. room’s layout
A cluttered or awkward room layout is not only impractical to move around, but it can even leave us feeling subconsciously unsafe, with nowhere to hide – a basic survival need for our caveman-brain. Balance this by placing key furniture such as beds or sofas diagonally opposite entrances, with a supportive wall behind them (known in feng shui as the ‘commanding position’).
Feel more touching-feely
Comforting textures don’t just feel good – they’ll do you good too, even helping curb anxiety. Apparently, when we’re worried or in a negative emotional state, we are increasingly appreciative of items such as a warm knitted blanket or tactile surfaces such as exposed brickwork.
Handmade is the best way to make it
Handmade products are more ethical than purchasing mass produced items. Additionally, these pieces increase the sense of community connection and our overall wellbeing. Visit local craft fairs for an even greater sense of community.
Use textural elements to balance hard surfaces. Reclaimed terracotta tiles, from £2.73 each, bertandmay.com. jug, £350, conranshop.co.uk. for similar artwork, try kingandmcgaw.com and for a similar bath, try victorianplumbing.co.uk
Enjoy the fragrances
Certain scents can trigger certain emotions or feelings in our brains. This can be tailored to your benefit, by using sandalwood in a diffuser to focus, or switching to lavender for evening relaxation.
Be sure to follow the lines
There’s no such thing as a right angle in nature, and as such, our brains are naturally programmed to find organic shapes, curves and circles more visually pleasing. Try balancing your home with circular pillows, stool or wall art if it has sharp edges.
This is an edited extract from The New Mindful Home by Joanna Thornhill, which is published by Laurence King, price £14.99 to order a copy for £12.74 until 16 January, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK delivery on orders over £20
Shop the mood
These will make your home feel good with soothing fragrances and touch-me textiles.