Making Your Home Your Retreat
The past couple of years have been really tough on so many people. Not only emotionally, physically, and in business, but in our homes as well. For many, we’ve had to spend more time in our homes than ever before. But our homes shouldn’t be a place of strife and stress. Our homes are supposed to be our safe space, a retreat from the hard things of this world. A place where we feel comfortable, relaxed, refreshed, and completely ourselves.
So how does this impact interior design? Interior design plays a crucial role in whether you enjoy being in your home and whether it works for you. Interior design not only determines whether your home is a beautiful reflection of you, but also whether it is functional and serves your needs.
For example, colour plays a huge role in whether your home invokes a relaxed state of mind, or whether it causes you stress. Interior designers are colour experts, and not only can we help you choose colours that you enjoy, but we will help you create an entire colour scheme that reflects your tastes and gives you the home that makes you feel how you want to feel. Colours have the ability to change your mood. They can be relaxing or energizing, soothing or invigorating. The way that colours play off the other colours in the room also have this impact. Using high contrast complementary colours (opposites on the colour wheel) such as blue and orange will give an energized and lively feeling, while using a soft palette of creams and light blues will provide a soothing and relaxed feeling.
The lively colour palette of the Upper Hillhurst Main Bathroom Renovation by Marianne Elizabeth Design
Creating systems for proper organization is another example. Having a place for every item, and every item in its place will help ensure your home stays clean and is easy to clean! This goes hand-in-hand with space planning, another area of expertise of interior designers. We can help you create the right storage systems, as well as provide ideas for where further storage can be incorporated. If you know where everything goes, then it’s easy to do a quick 10-minute tidy at the end of the day. Keeping your home clutter-free and organized will not only make you feel less stressed, but it will help you enjoy your home and give you more time to do the things you love!
A custom desk solution in the Coopers Renovation by Marianne Elizabeth Design
Another way for your home to be a retreat is through greenery and flowers. We’ve talked about decorating with plants before and many of their benefits (read it here), but it was important to mention it again in this post because plants really do add life to a space! We all love looking out our windows and seeing a beautiful view outside, or being on vacation at a cabin in the woods and you’re surrounded by trees on all sides. That is nature therapy! From an interior design perspective, styling with plants is both an art and a science since there are many things to consider. To name a few, the size of the leaves, the way the branches bend, the colour of the plant, and the vase or pot to put it in are all things to consider. Faux plants and stems can contribute to the beauty of the space as well. It’s nice to use both! We love giving our clients fresh flowers when we style a space. We used both fresh flowers and faux stems in the images below from our Tuscany Renovation.
Using artwork and family photos is another example of how to make your home your retreat. Family photos can remind you of amazing memories and the people you love. And when it comes to artwork, it can have the same ability as colour to impact your mood. Whether you love or hate a certain piece or style of artwork can be very personal, and as interior designers, we are always happy to incorporate pieces that you love and help you find the best places for them. We often help clients create a collage of family photos and this can bring a lot of joy to a space! We are experts at determining the right size, style, and locations of anything that goes on your walls!
A family collage from our Bayside Beauty Project by Marianne Elizabeth Design
I hope this post gave you some ideas on how to make your home a retreat and provide a much-needed break from the stresses of the world! As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need help in any of these areas. It would be our pleasure to turn your home into your own personal oasis!