This article actually started with a paint color.
We are finishing a new healthcare space, and there was one gray paint color I had fought against from the beginning. It went on the walls anyway, and every time I walked into that room, especially the bathroom, I had the same reaction: I cannot live with this color. It sounds ridiculous. It was just paint. But the room felt drab and heavy, and I could feel myself responding to it.
So now that bathroom is getting this gorgeous, moody wallpaper that completely changes the feeling of the space. Ironically, if the original paint had been fine, I probably never would have gone that far. But it got me thinking about something much bigger than wallpaper.
How much do the spaces around us affect the way we feel?
We already know the answer intuitively. Walk through a beautiful garden and notice what happens. Sit near the ocean for a while. Step into a room with warm light, a comfortable chair and a view of something green. Then compare that with being somewhere cluttered, noisy, harshly lit or simply unpleasant. Your body knows the difference.
There is science behind some of this. Our brains are taking in enormous amounts of sensory information all day long. Light helps regulate our circadian rhythms. Noise can contribute to physiological stress. Visual clutter competes for our attention. Studies looking at nature and natural views have found benefits for stress, mood and well-being.
None of that means we can decorate our way out of an illness. But when a body is already working hard, it seems worth asking whether our surroundings are adding to the load or giving us somewhere to settle.
I see this in myself when I work. If my desk has junk mail piled up, papers everywhere and things I haven’t put away, I have a harder time doing work that requires real thought. Sometimes I will actually stop what I’m doing and clean everything up before tackling something difficult. Once the desk is clear, my brain feels clearer too. I don’t think we have to make this complicated.
Beauty also doesn’t have to mean expensive.
Every couple of weeks, my sweetheart goes to Trader Joe’s and spends about $40 on flowers. He comes home and starts making bouquets. There will be one on the kitchen table, another on the mantel, one in the dining room and usually a little arrangement that somehow ends up in my office. I love walking through the house and seeing them.
Our walls are also covered with family photographs and pictures from trips and adventures. They don’t match some grand decorating plan. They make us remember things. We stop and talk about them. They make our home feel like our home. To me, that is another kind of beauty.
It might be fresh flowers. It might be your grandmother’s bowl that has been sitting in a cabinet. It might be opening the blinds so you can see the tree outside. Maybe it’s a chair you actually want to curl up in, a blanket you love, music playing while you make dinner, or finally clearing off the counter that has been making you crazy for six months. Sometimes the thing that changes a space isn’t what you add. It’s what you take away.
So here’s something you might try. Pick one little area of your home—not the whole house. Maybe it’s where you drink your coffee, your desk, your bedside table or a corner where you like to read.
Sit there for a minute and really look at it. What do you see first? Is there clutter you don’t even notice anymore? Is there good light? Is the space comfortable? Is there anything there that makes you happy when you look at it? Can you bring a little bit of nature into it?
Then change three things without spending any money. Put away something that doesn’t need to be there. Bring out something you already own and love. Open the curtains, move the chair, clip something from the yard, pull a favorite photograph out of a drawer. See if the space feels different. More importantly, see if you feel different in it.
A beautiful space isn’t going to cure disease, and beauty is different for every person. But I do believe there is value in creating places where our bodies aren’t being asked to brace against one more thing.
Especially when we are healing, tired, stressed or carrying more than usual, there is something very comforting about coming into a space and feeling that someone thought about how it would feel to be there—even when the person who did the thinking was you. Your home doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. It just needs a few places that make you happy to be home.
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