Your home should be your source of calmness, not stress. Improving each room’s ambiance can help you feel more relaxed when you’re home. The ambiance is about the character of your space. Many people believe ambiance is about elegance, but it’s actually about how your space makes you feel.
If you want to feel energized and productive at home, there are things you can do to improve your mood and make the atmosphere more lively. Whatever type of ambiance you prefer, you can achieve it with the right choices. Here’s how to up your home’s ambiance easily.
Choose the Right Lighting
Lighting sets a mood, which is why romantic dates usually consist of candles and lowlights. However, you can improve the ambiance of your home by considering your lighting. We all know that fluorescent lighting we see in grocery stores, and that isn’t exactly the mood you want to reflect and can actually strain your eyes. When choosing the right lighting for you, consider your options. Smart LED light bulbs can offer versatility and even allow you to pick different colors for your lighting preferences.
Color temperature: Warm lighting includes reds and yellows that create a soft glow for a more relaxing environment. On the other hand, cool blue or white colors are ideal for times when you want to stay awake or in crowded rooms where people might want to see better, such as kitchens and bathrooms.
Amount of light: The amount of light you put in a room can also affect how you feel in that room. You might not need a ton of light for a living room, but you can always give yourself options. For example, you can install track lights in your home for when you need bright lights and use lamps for times you want to relax, such as before bedtime.
Location: Where you put your light sources also matters. Having a central light can be great for a gathering space but might not be effective enough in bedrooms or large rooms. You can use lamps in the corners of spaces to help showcase essential areas like reading nooks or art.
Consider Your Color Pallette
You can choose a color palette that promotes a particular mood no matter what color your walls are. Color shades have different impacts on how you feel. For example, dark colors might make you feel more sophisticated, while bright colors can be calming. However, ultra-bright colors, such as orange, can be distracting and cause stress. You can use a variety of colors to reflect your personal style and create an ambiance that reflects the mood you want to feel.
Remember, color hues will also change depending on your lighting, so you should consider how your new lighting sources affect the colors in your home. For example, some lighting can make white walls appear yellow, which can look ugly next to bright red furnishings.
Choose Different Textures
Adding texture to your home in the form of the materials you use can help you change the feel of a room. Examples of texture are:
Luxurious: a luxurious ambiance consists of plush furnishings and hardwood floors.
Relaxing: a relaxing environment may consist of clean lines and muted tones, including off-white and gray.
Modern: modern environments consist of smooth furniture and artificial materials, along with geometric shapes and clean lines.
Organize
Messes can stress you out and distract you from accomplishing tasks. No one likes clutter, so you can change how you feel while you’re at home by organizing. Having minimal decor and rearranging furniture, so your home feels more clean and organized can help you feel more relaxed after a long day. It might even be worthwhile to hire a moving company to get some of your unused items into storage.
You can organize your home any way you want, but try to avoid clutter that can prevent you from moving around your house freely. For example, if you’re a golfer, ensure your golf mats or clubs are in a designated, clutter-free area of your home. If you have a home gym or area you work out in, this doesn’t mean you should just have your weights thrown around everywhere. Your home gym is a space that could use some sprucing up as well.
Don’t Forget Your Personality
When redecorating your home, remember who you’re decorating it for. You’re not decorating your home to impress anyone else. Instead, remember you’re changing your home’s ambiance to help you feel better when you’re relaxing in your own space. You should never be afraid to showcase your interests and hobbies. For example, if you like music, don’t be afraid to hang posters of your favorite bands or keep your record player out in the open to infuse your personality into your home decor.
Use Scent
Your sense of smell can have a huge impact on your mood. Smells can remind you of happy times in your life and improve how you feel overall. Scent can improve your home’s ambiance, but it’s important to choose smells that can make you feel happy or relaxed. For example, you can choose lavender which has been proven to help people calm down. You can also use familiar scents that you love, such as pumpkin pie candles, to remind you of your favorite season.
Use Plants
Plants can also impact how you feel while you’re at home. For example, having a plant in your home office can help you become more productive and relaxed because it gives you something to take care of. However, you can use plants around your home to give it pops of color, especially if you have a neutral color pallet.
If you’re unsure whether or not you have a green thumb, you can choose low-maintenance plants such as bamboo and cacti, which can add green to your color pallet without having to paint your walls.
Open the Windows
When it’s warm enough, try to open the windows to get fresh air into your home. Fresh air can help relieve stress while improving the air quality in your home. Opening the windows also lets in natural sunlight, which can help you feel more energized throughout the day no matter what you’re doing.
Final Thoughts
Your home’s ambiance will impact how you feel daily. Always choose your home decor based on how it looks in your home and makes you feel. While you can’t always prevent stress or other unpleasant emotions while at home, upping your home’s ambiance can make your home feel like it’s your safe space.
Julia Olivas
Julia Olivas graduated from San Francisco State University with her B.A. in Communication Studies. She is a contributing writer at 365businesstips.com where she loves sharing her passion for digital marketing and content creation. Outside of writing, she loves cooking, reading, making art, and her pup Ruby.