Design your space so that it triggers good memories – If you’ve had days where you just wanted to crawl under the sheets of your bed and wish that you could just erase everything from your mind, then you should definitely be able to use your home to calm to your mind and body. Do a nice wall treatment such as wallpaper or a mural of a place – such as a beach scene – to help you bring up some good memories of your visit to that place and also to help you stop thinking about work. Hang interesting photographs to remind you of where you’ve been like this vibrant image of autumn leaves that have just fallen in New York City’s Central Park (or some other lovely green space that you’ve visited) in case that’s a favourite memory of yours that reminds you of the wonderful time that you spent there. You can blow up a coloured image of Lake Louise or Mount Kilimanjaro if you’ve had the chance to climb it. Use a foot-long high white bust resin bust statue of David that you can order from Wayfair to remind yourself of your visit to the Uffizi in Florence. Or you could also buy an 18-inch high metal statue of the Eiffel tower from Amazon to recall that trip that you went on to celebrate a milestone anniversary with members of your family or a loved one.
- Choose furniture that is comfortable, functional and visually appealing – Do you like to sit on an easy chair or sink into a couch when you get home from work just to help yourself relax? Is it comfortable or a bit hard to sit on? Does it have adequate back, thigh, and head support? Being able to transition from work to home is crucial if you’re to relax and be ‘in the moment’ so that you can enjoy the company of your family. And if your house is to function like an effective decompression chamber to help you start the process of recovery from a long and tiring day at work, you need to have furniture that is up to the task. Take a look at design classics such as the Eames leather lounge chair and ottoman from Herman Miller (pictured below) which are particularly comfortable and also look very good in any living room. You can either take a nap in this, read a book or watch TV from this relaxing spot. You can complement these by choosing the highly rated Block Nomad sofa with USB charger built by Burrow which is durable, comfortable and timeless looking. Remember that getting comfortable furniture that helps you to relax more easily is key to helping your body and mind to recover and make you feel good about yourself.
- Create your own spa-like bathroom – Do you enjoy using luxuriously designed hotel or spa bathroom when you’re on holiday? You can enjoy the same experience at home simply by calling an interior designer to help you make your bathroom look and feel like a favourite resort bathroom that allows you to calm down and relax. If you like to soak in a tub, consider getting an antique clawfoot tubs if classical design is what appeals to you. Or you can use a more contemporary free-standing style bathtub (like the one pictured below) that has a sculptural look and feel so that it resembles a modern work of art when it’s not in use. Shop around for plain ceramic wall tile, or one that looks like marble if you prefer a contemporary feel. Alternatively, you can consider a Moorish patterned tile for a more exotic flavour. Consider getting black or dark grey floor so that you can also have similarly dark-coloured grout. The benefit to this is that you never have to worry about your grout turning black over time and having to clean it so that it turns back to white. If you want a low maintenance floor definitely stick to a darker coloured material to maintain that clean and hygienic ‘spa’ look. And for the ultimate in spa-like luxury, consider installing a rain shower head which provides you with the experience of standing under the rain with a much larger volume of water flowing straight down (instead of at an angle) to provide you with a unique bathing experience.
- Keep your home permanently “staged” for the ultimate client: yourself – If you’d like to ensure that your house becomes a sanctuary that is always beautiful, functional, and cozy-feeling, take a page out of realtor’s playbook and turn it into a space that you’ll fall in love with every single day and never want to leave. That means making it look and feel like a place that you would want to buy immediately as soon as you saw it if it were for sale. And then keep your space looking and feeling the same way every single minute of the day to make it feel like you’re on holiday all the time. That means investing in furniture that is attractive, sized properly, and arranged in a way to optimize flow. Make sure that walls & table surface aren’t bare and have been properly accessorized with good art and visually appealing vases, sculptures, and various decorative accessories. You may have to hire a design professional to help you with as they have a trained eye to help elevate your space and to really make it ‘sing’. Make sure that your kitchen and bathroom have been recently updated. Ensure that the exterior of your house and your landscaping also shows well so that you feel a pride of ownership as you approach your home. And then make sure that you have a daily system of clutter control, which consists of keeping everything where they belong at all times and not leaving things strewn about on floors, table surfaces or on top of furniture “to be decided on later”.
- Design your space that will allow you to build memorable ties with loved ones – Do you have a comfortable and well-lighted dining space where you and your family can enjoy a relaxed meal and share stories share stories about each other’s day? The dining room can be a place where you can carefully plan adventures or trips out of town or for you to help your offspring as they do their creative school projects or do their homework. Do you have a family room where you can all gather and not simply watch TV but , also enjoy old-fashioned board games together, have deep and meaningful conversations with one another, read books together or do some writing? Do you have an unused room into a place where family can meditate, pray or even exercise together? There’s no better way to teach your partner or your children the value of keeping healthy and fit by being a good example and having a regular exercise routine. Do you have a room or even just a corner of your house where family members can do visualization exercises, practice yoga, or simply empty their minds so that they can disconnect from their busy lives? If you’d like to come home to a home that really relaxes you, there’s no better way to do this than by disconnecting from your electronic devices for a short while so that you can engage with other human beings. It’s key to being able to recover from a busy and stressful day, be fully in the moment and build warm and positive memories with people that you care about.
