Can Your Home Make You Happier – Or More Stressed?

Your home isn’t just the place you live – it also quietly shapes your emotional wellness and overall wellbeing. The spaces we wake up in, work from, and relax in every day play a huge role in our mood, energy and stress levels, and sleep quality. Thoughtfully designed interiors can support wellbeing almost without you noticing. And poorly considered spaces can leave you feeling drained.

Research shows that everything from natural light and colour choices to clutter and privacy affects how the brain processes stress, rest, and stimulation. Small interior design decisions really do add up – and they can make your home a sanctuary rather than a source of stress.

How to Make Your Home Support Wellbeing

Maximise Natural Light 

Daylight affects mood, energy, focus, and sleep quality. Homes that maximise natural light – through layout, window placement, lighter finishes, or sheer window dressings – tend to feel calmer and more uplifting. Dark, shadowy spaces, on the other hand, can make even a tidy room feel heavy and stressful.

Quick tips: Choose blinds and curtains that will filter light while keeping rooms bright and airy, place mirrors to reflect daylight, and avoid blocking windows with bulky furniture.

Create Cohesive, Calm Interiors

You don’t need to live in a beige box to feel relaxed. Calm interiors are all about cohesion – a limited colour palette, materials and textures that work together, and fewer visual interruptions.

When a room is full of colours and patterns competing for attention, the brain never fully switches off. Cool blues and serene green colour palettes are widely associated with calm and emotional balance, while warm neutral shades can help the mind relax. High-contrast schemes and too many competing colours can have the opposite effect, creating subtle mental fatigue.

Quick tips: Repeat tones and textures across a space instead of introducing something new in every corner. Sofas, cushions, and rugs that work together will create a sense of harmony and calm.

Bring Nature Inside with Biophilic Design

Natural materials like timber, stone, woven textures, and plants help make interiors feel grounding and restorative. Even small, subtle touches can reduce stress, boost focus, and improve mood.

Quick tips: Add at least one natural element per room – a plant, wooden furniture, or linen cushions – to bring texture and nature indoors.

When Your Home May Be Undermining Your Wellbeing

Clutter Increases Stress

A messy or overfilled home doesn’t just look chaotic – it keeps the brain in a low-level state of alert. Piles of ‘stuff’ everywhere act as unfinished tasks, draining mental energy even when you’re not consciously thinking about them. Reducing visual clutter supports calm and allows the mind to rest. Smart storage solutions, like wardrobes, cabinets, and shelving units keep spaces tidy and serene.

Quick tips: this isn’t about being tidy for guests. It’s about giving your brain fewer things to manage so it can properly rest.

Over-designed spaces can feel exhausting

Bold interiors can be brilliant, but there’s a fine line between characterful and overstimulating. Too many patterns, harsh lighting, and high-contrast finishes can make a space feel busy rather than cosy – especially in rooms meant for rest.

Quick tips: balance statement furniture pieces with quieter areas for the eye to land.

Noise, privacy and blurred boundaries matter more than we think

Open-plan living looks great, but without quiet corners and retreat spaces, it can feel draining. Constant background noise, nowhere to escape, and blurred boundaries between work and rest all add to daily stress – particularly as more people now work from home.

Quick tips: create small spaces to unwind – a reading chair by a window, a quiet corner with soft lighting, or a screen-free spot to sit and relax. A comfortable snuggle armchair with a side table and floor lamp can turn even a small corner into a restful retreat, giving the mind somewhere to switch off.

The Rise of Wellbeing-Led Interiors

There’s a growing shift away from trend-led design towards homes that feel more personal, slower and emotionally supportive. People are prioritising emotional and mental wellbeing, increasingly asking “does this make me feel good?” rather than “Is this on trend?”.

Wellbeing-focused interiors aren’t about perfection. They’re about:

• spaces that adapt to real life
• rooms that feel restorative, not performative
• homes that support how people actually live now

Emotional wellbeing at home isn’t just about calm and quiet. Homes that encourage connection – shared meals, conversation, and time spent together – play an important role in happiness and positivity.

A home doesn’t need to be expensive, perfectly styled, or bang on trend to support wellbeing. It just needs to feel considered. When a space feels light, calm and easy to live in, it does something quietly powerful – it makes everyday life feel a little lighter.