Experts reveal five quick ways to achieve a happy home
1. Heat up your home with mood-boosting colours.
Dopamine decor is about creating interiors that make you feel happy and energised. Colour psychology has shown that colour has the ability to impact mood, so dopamine decor is all about harnessing that theory and knowledge of colour psychology to infuse joy into our lives.
Different dopamine colours also have different effects. Yellows are used in areas where you want to encourage conversation and stimulate energy.
Cooler colours like blues and greens are good for spaces where you want to relax, such as bedrooms or living rooms. Reds stimulate appetite and heart rate and work well in dining and conversation areas.
Regarding home offices, think about how you personally use the space. If you want to focus, consider blues and greens, but if your work calls for more creativity, consider warmer colours like yellow or orange.
If you love a specific colour, buy a big piece like a sofa in that shade. Saturated colours can be hard to live with, so try more toned-down versions, which will still achieve the same effect.
Patterns are a great way to diffuse the impact of a colour or introduce more than one shade; it means that someone else has already done the work for you.
2. Have fun with shapes
Shape plays a big role in guiding how you feel. When a shape is exaggerated, it can be playful, unexpected and sophisticated.
We’ve seen a trend of seventies and eighties design elements making their way into our homes, including chunkier pieces and graphic patterns.
3. Embrace tactile textures and curves
Dopamine decor is also about tactile textures and curvy shapes that make us feel good! Sinking into a sofa after a long day has an added benefit when the texture is inviting.
We first saw velvet and boucle. Now, the boucle trend is being taken to the next level with more exaggerated boucle textures and chenille fabrics.
These textured fabrics and curved shapes elevate the sense of safety and cosiness and are becoming pieces you can really sink into. It’s not just about softness but also about textured fabrics that envelope you in comfort.
4. Swivel your way to happiness
If there’s one piece you’re looking to spend money on to invite more dopamine into your home, we recommend it be a beautifully textured swivel chair.
We like to self-calm ourselves, so swivelling is like the new rocking. Having a soft swivel accent chair would definitely give you a good hit of dopamine!
5. Bring in sunshine and greenery
You can also get a dopamine hit by simply arranging your furniture to make the most of the natural light in a room. Introducing plants can also enhance wellness and produce the mood-boosting effects of dopamine.