How to use interior design to boost your mental wellbeing and make you feel calm and comforted
Colour drench
Homes that have been ‘hushed’ have a cosiness to them, which is often achieved by colour drenching. Colour drenching is taking one colour and painting everything from your walls to your woodwork in it. Think skirting-boards, radiators, doors, window frames, picture rails and ceilings. Colour drenching your home creates less contrast to distract your eye, which can make you feel like you’re being enveloped in a big hug. Avoid colours that can make a room feel visually cluttered and overstimulating, such as bright reds, oranges or primary yellows. Instead, opt for colours that don’t ask too much from you.
Give furnishings room to breathe
Hushing your home means adopting a more minimal approach to living. Although ‘minimal’ may trigger associations of restrictive living or dull decor, hushing your home in practice offers the complete opposite — it gives furnishings room to breathe and shine. In hushed spaces, every item is chosen based on its level of usefulness, beauty and the amount of joy you get from it. Anecdotally, at least, it’s true that a cluttered home creates a cluttered mind. A hushed home, by contrast, helps to hush a busy mind so you can switch off.
Create a tactile space
The key to hushing your home is creating a visually minimal but tactile space. Layering natural materials adds texture, warmth and depth to rooms with more paired-back colour schemes. Opt for soft textures such as bouclé and linen in your upholstery, wooden tables with an earthy appearance and thick pile rugs that feel soft underfoot.
• Tips from Tash Bradley, Director of Interior Design and Colour Psychologist at Lick (lick.com)