Calming Colors & Stress-Reducing Decor Tips For Your Apartment
Let us show you the way to making your home a place to recharge and relax
6 Min Read
6 Min ReadDisarray on display at home can be a reflection of stress in your everyday life. Crowded streets, cramped spaces, air pollution, demanding work schedules.
Sound familiar?
These everyday aspects of fast-paced city living make stress a common ailment of urban life. But you shouldn’t have to feel more stressed out at home – it should be your space to de-stress.
The interiors of apartments can have an immediate effect on mood. Interior decor and calming colors can make rooms more relaxing.
So we’ve put together some handy tips and strategies for your interiors to help you create a sense of calm at home.
Calming interior design themes
Sticking to an interior design theme is a great way to ensure consistency of design in your apartment through a thought-out idea. The following themes are known for their calming colors and relaxing and design qualities.
Modern
Modern interior design favors clean lines for functionality and open space, simplified by avoiding clutter or the need to accessorize. Colors are cool and neutral with steel, glass, and metal materials for a sleek modern style.
Coastal
The coastal theme blends cool colors with natural materials inspired by the sea.
For relaxation and comfort, natural light is enhanced with reflective surfaces. Soft furnishings, weathered wood, stone, and nautical decor are the decorative trademarks of this style.
Scandinavian
The Scandinavian design reflects the understated simplicity of the Nordic style. Natural lighting, functional furniture, and all-white colors are the foundation of this theme.
Accessories in materials like bright plastics and enameled aluminum introduce quirky pops of color.
Cleaning
If you’re constantly on the go it can be challenging to maintain a clean and organized apartment.
All in all, having a clean house can make you feel more in control. Moving into a Blueground apartment makes home maintenance more manageable, with the option of app scheduled cleaning on the Guest App.
Also if you’re one who’d prefer not to be hassled by decorating, Blueground’s homes come outfitted with a sleek clutter-free design.
However, sometimes the actual act of cleaning itself has been known to alleviate stress – a way to get some exercise or a form of meditation.
Scent
Scents can have a calming and clarifying effect at home. A room enhanced with natural scents can aid sleep and make a home feel cleaner.
Above all, there are many natural ways to introduce scent at home, like essential oil diffusers and sprays, soy candles or fresh lavender.
- Essential oil sprays can be multipurpose, used to refresh linens or as a natural cleaning product. Like lavender and lemongrass oil, which can be used as a window cleaner.
- Fresh lavender is a classic herb for easing stress and anxiety. It can be used to protect clothes and linens from moths or as a sleeping aid.
- Soy candles burn cleaner, reducing indoor air pollution. Aroma-therapy oil candles improve the fragrance of your home and also relieve stress, creating a spa-like environment.
De-cluttering and creating space
Clutter can inhibit relaxation. In the midst of too much clutter, things get lost more easily, stress levels can increase and productivity can suffer.
To get started kick-started with decluttering, tackle one area at a time. Sort clutter into separate piles and address each item with the following train of thought.
If the answer is no, it’s time to clear these things out of your home:
- Have I used this item in the past year?
- Will I use it in the year ahead?
- If it’s broken, is it worth fixing?
Decluttering can also be a time to develop some good habits at home for making your personal space more organized:
- Put clothes back in the closet to avoid scattering them around
- Fold clothes and store them vertically instead of on top of each other
- Use something up before buying a new product
If you work from home, make your environment clear to focus on by:
- Keeping cords and cables organized
- Use one notebook until it’s full before writing in a new one
- Scan paperwork and recycle the originals
Plants
Houseplants are known for their calming and purifying properties.
Like an aloe vera plant, that can maintain the air quality in your home while producing a healing gel.
And rubber trees that clean indoor air and toxins whilst being one of the easiest plants to grow.
Or the Peace Lily, ranked by NASA as the top houseplant with potential for filtering the air.
Lighting
If your looking to create a more soothing and natural atmosphere in your apartment, harsh overhead lighting is a cardinal sin.
To break up the density of light at home, spotlight areas requiring brightness, not whole rooms.
Soften up your indoor lighting with:
- Non-UV full-spectrum bulbs that mimic natural light better than standard bulbs
- A mix of floor lamps and wall-mounted reading lights
- Dimmer switches that are great soothing mechanisms
Phones, television, and computers can over-stimulate our senses and exposes us to blue light.
Even though blue is a calming color, blue lights from electronic devices can cause eyestrain and fatigue, and interfere with sleep.
While the light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light at night does so more powerfully. Aim to keep your bedroom free from electronic devices, and ration your time spent on them in the evening.
So avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed.
Indoor pollution and air purifying
Research says indoor air can actually be worse than outdoor air – a sobering fact.
From household products to carbon monoxide gas, sources of pollution can be found everywhere at home. A simple solution for cleaner air is an air purifier.
Air purifiers are like vacuum cleaners for the air – devices that remove contaminants from indoor air. It’s even possible to add healthy bacteria to your air, with Biodify, the world’s first probiotic air purifier
Improve the air quality in your bedroom by vacuuming floors and mattresses weekly and washing bedding at 130°F. Mold, a fungus that can send spores into the air, can be prevented by keeping showers and sinks in your bathroom clean. Throw pillows can worsen indoor air quality, as does smoking indoors and aerosol cleaning products.
Opt for hang blinds or washable curtains, and consider replacing carpets with solid surface flooring. Indoor air pollution can also be reduced by opening windows and using extractor fans when cooking.
Meditation space
Meditation is renowned for a range of benefits like reducing stress, improving sleep and enhancing concentration.
And now meditation spaces at home are having a moment.
Motivating yourself by creating a dedicated space at home to practice meditation is an emerging interior trend – a space to relax and think clearly in. Home accessories like meditation cushions and meditation apps aid home practice.
Ideally, a meditation space at home is an uncluttered space, free from tech distractions with an element of nature and calming colors to connect with.
Calming colors
In your apartment, the use of calming colors can influence mood.
Balance, harmony, and relaxation can be introduced into your home with ‘cool’ colors on the blue side of the spectrum. You can group the colors in your palette between warm and cold.
Warm
Warm colors, like orange, red, and yellow, can make spaces cozier and brighter.
Cool
Cool colors like blue, purple and green can make spaces more relaxing and restful, evoking a sense of stability and safety. They’re also a great strategy for making a small room appear bigger.
Neutral
Neutral colors consist of black, grey and white. The color white in any home can freshen up space with a sense of clean modernity.
