Use All Five Senses in Decorating Your Room

Creating a comfortable, inviting home is much more than throwing some furniture in a room and putting your name on the mailbox.  You want every aspect of your home to be cohesive in mind, body and spirit.  All parts of your sensory and emotional being should be considered when decorating your house.

SIGHT

This seems obvious.  You want things to look good.  Well-designed furniture, pleasing art, touches of personality…   But even in your subconscious mind, things like scale, balance, white-space, and color choice can further enhance how a room looks and makes you feel.

SOUND

What music puts you into the mood to cook?  Do the sounds of the outdoors lull you sleep?  From installing a whole-house audio system that links to your favorite satellite radio station to using a simple store-bought mood machine, sound can impact how you emotionally react to a room.  Distracted by outside noises?  Bring in a water fountain to calm the rush-rush emotion traffic sounds cause.  Even something as simple as installing draperies can seriously affect how sound happens in your space.

TOUCH

All-leather dens are boring.  Add rich woods, antiqued brass, plush damask or chenille fabrics and you’ve created  a much more interesting space.  Visual texture is something you can create even if the actual “feel” of the material hasn’t changed from one surface to another.  In contemporary and modern homes, patterned fabrics, plastic that mimics wood or even tile that have a linen aesthetic can trick your eye into thinking there is actual variety in texture. Comfortable seating, soft sheeting, and appropriate heights of countertops can all play a roll in hitting the touch sense.

SCENT

It’s clear when the smell in a room is NOT working, but what scents bring out the best in you in whatever room you’re in?  Is it a cinnamon apple pie candle in the kitchen?  Perhaps a calming beachy scent will create the spa-like atmosphere you’re looking for in your master bathroom.  Or, does vanilla and patchouli evoke just the right mood in the bedroom?  Scent can create a very powerful emotional response in any area of your home.

TASTE

We’re not asking you to lick your credenza to make sure it tastes good!  This sense might not need to be literally addressed in areas such as the laundry room and bathrooms, but when considering how to redecorate your room, you might try to tap into what tastes you might associate with the feeling you want to achieve.  If you’re redesigning your family room, do you want it energetic like citrus, or warm and inviting like cherry cobbler?

If you have a room that is just not working for you, walk through and look at the room through all five senses.  Which one does not gel with the others?  If you need assistance in areas such as furniture placement or choosing new flooring or window treatments, contact me and we’ll set up an appointment to make whole house a pleasing mind-body-soul experience.