Your home is more than just a place where you live, it’s also a place where you relax, feel at ease, and escape from the world. The decor, sounds, and smells inside your home impact how you feel while inside your space.
Do you feel like rooms in your house are more functional than anything else? Maybe you wish your decor served more than a perfunctory role. Here are a few ideas to transform your home into a sanctuary.
Focus on Proper Lighting
Residential lighting can do more than help you see, it can also help you relax and create small pockets of mood throughout your home. For instance, topping lamps with silk lampshades adds subtle style and visual interest. Imagine feeling a sense of calm every time you glance at the lampshade.
If you have a chandelier, consider your options for chandelier shades that manipulate the temperature and direction of the light underneath. Look for out-of-the-ordinary lampshades that invite the eye to linger. That way, even when you aren’t using the chandelier, you still have something beautiful in your home that makes you feel serene.
Let the Seasons Guide You
When the seasons change, change your decor along with them. For example, switch to heavy curtains in the winter that help your home retain heat. If you have a fireplace, build a crackling fire to fill your space with heat and coziness. Not only can these two minor changes make your space more enjoyable, but they can also help lower your energy bills during colder months.
In the summer, switch to lighter curtains that waft in the breeze from thrown-open windows. You can also add summer plants and flowers throughout your home, so it feels like you live in a botanical garden.
Add Some Music
Whenever you walk into a coffee shop, restaurant, or store, are you immediately shifted into a different frame of mind because of the music? When paired with thoughtful decor choices, music adds “seasoning” that elevates a space to one that’s deeply personal and intentional.
To use music to transform your home into a sanctuary, think about artists and music genres that make you smile and ease into the groove. You can create a special “Home Sanctuary” playlist you put on when you want to unwind and feel grounded. Stress has no choice but to be banished from your space when the opening notes of your favorite song fill the air.
Add Soothing Scents
Do you have a favorite scent that transports you to a place of peace when you smell it? If so, bring that scent into your home. Try scented candles, incense, and air fresheners that contain your favorite scent to find products you like. This is also a great way to find new scents that help turn your home into a sanctuary.
This tip can also tie into your seasonal decor. For instance, you can go with woody, musky scents during fall and winter, and bright, citrus scents for summer and spring. Even if you don’t care much for cold or hot weather, it’s easier to not mind the season when your home smells great and puts you at ease.
Tidy Up Your Space
Your home need not look spotless 24/7, but putting everything in its place gives you one less thing to worry about. Setting aside five or 10 minutes a day to organize and clean spaces can help you keep your head above water. Keeping your home tidy is easier and less stressful when you break cleaning tasks down rather than try to tackle everything at once over the weekend. Try it and see how it helps you maintain your sanity and sanctuary.
You deserve to have a place where you can rest your head, set down your burdens, and kick off tension like a pair of uncomfortable shoes. Try the above tips to see how that place can become your home.
