Why Residential Interior Design is Important

Believe it or not, how you decorate your home has an effect on how harmonious you feel in your own space. This is just one reason that residential interior design is important.  

People the world over are so stressed that the World Health Organization has classified stress as the health epidemic of the 21st century. Does this resonate with you? Do you feel stressed out and overwhelmed? 

Does coming home at the end of the day put you at ease? Does your home feel like a bastion of peace and harmony? Or does the clutter and clashing decor put you even more on edge?

Let’s take a look.

Residential Design and the Effect of your Environment

What you experience in the world around you each day has a profound effect on you and your health.  Even something as simple as viewing certain colors can affect your mental health and change your mood. 

The phenomenon is so strong that cities around the world are looking for ways to incorporate ‘green spaces’ and ‘blue spaces’ in their architecture to help improve the mental health of their populations. There is a certain element of being in nature that also contributes to the phenomenon, but the colors themselves also have a profound effect.

Does this mean that you should paint your home green and blue? Probably not, that might be a little strong. But it does mean that using these colors as accents or tasteful elements in your design can help to create a pleasing and relaxing environment.

That sounds like something you want to come home to, doesn’t it?

All the Senses

Of course, what you see isn’t the only way that your environment affects you. All five of your senses interact with the world around you and have an effect on your mental health.

When it comes to residential interior design every element is important. Lighting, especially natural lighting, is paramount to how your space looks, and how it can make you feel. Proper lighting can make a small space feel cozy and big windows with lots of natural light can help make it feel more expansive. Bad lighting can make it feel cramped and perhaps even dingy.  

Use textiles to affect your senses of touch and sound. Curtains and carpeting help to mute street noise, making the interior of your home more peaceful. It also feels cozier when you don’t hear sounds echoing back at you after bouncing off of bare walls.

The fabric you choose for furniture, pillows, and the like affects your sense of touch. Comfort is key to creating a relaxing environment. Choose fabrics that feel pleasant to touch as well as pieces of furniture that offer adequate back support and are comfortable to sit on. 

You can even affect the sense of smell by adding a bright bouquet of fragrant flowers or lighting your favorite scented candle when you walk in the door. Filling the air with an enjoyable scent will make you naturally want to breath deeper, which also helps to relax the body and let the tension fall away.

Beauty and Harmony in Residential Interior Design

A good designer knows how to incorporate elements to positively affect the senses. A great designer knows how to choose the right elements for you. 

Everyone has their own style. Decor that is beautiful to you may be downright ugly in someone else’s opinion. But when it comes to your home, the person you’re aiming to please is YOU! 

Residential interior design is all about creating an environment that is beautiful and harmonious to you. Your home is your oasis. It is your escape from the world. It is the place you should be able to go to feel calm and safe.

A great interior designer knows that and will focus on creating that relaxing oasis for you.

Your Harmonious Home

Here at Aurea Designs, my primary goal in residential interior design is to create a space that makes you feel cozy and comfortable. Your space should be beautiful and harmonious and positively affect all your senses. 

Your home should be a place where the stressors of the day fall away when you walk through the door. You deserve to feel peaceful and calm in your own home. You’d be amazed how applying a few simple design principles can have such an impact on your mental health and well-being.

Don’t know where to get started? Feel free to browse my blog for tips or contact us for a consultation!

Office Interior Design Trends & Ideas

Modern office design goes hand-in-hand with modern workplace culture. Creativity, collaboration and productivity thrive when employees are comfortable in their space. As more companies shift toward remote and hybrid work, the traditional cubicle maze setup is vanishing, making way for multi-purpose common areas, a focus on incorporating natural elements, utilizing wall space and more.

The best office interior design is the one that’s right your organization. It can be challenging to spot the trends that balance passing fads and evergreen design. We’re here to help with this guide to workplace interior design.

Common Area Design Ideas

Since nine out of 10 businesses are combining in-person and remote work as the new norm, common areas are necessary spaces. Common areas can include break rooms, kitchens, open work areas and more. Great office common space design reflects how your company does business and what your teams need to accomplish their goals.

A large space dotted with love seats and coffee tables works for impromptu brainstorming, quiet contemplation and study, but maybe not for lunch meetings and round-table creative sessions. A big round table, or lines of counters can give employees great spots to relax over lunch or have a spirited discussion, but they’re not great for long work stretches at the computer. The key is striking the right balance and offering your workforce different kinds of common spaces to suit the needs of their workday.

To expand on this idea, think about booths and nooks that offer privacy, but not isolation from the rest of the team. These flexible common spaces facilitate spontaneity and collaboration that is not easily replicated in structured, conference room-style meetings that are not always conducive to the aha! moment.

An intriguing design trend we’re seeing in modern offices is to make the conference room feel more connected to the common areas. We love the idea of using glass and acoustic management to keep the conference room private, but also flooded with light and open to the higher energy of the common areas around it.

Designating Space with Color

Color psychology studies how color affects human emotions and behaviors. Consider how, in Western cultures, red tones often imply a warning, or strong emotions such as excitement or anger. Conversely, in some Eastern cultures, red is the color of joy or luck. Depending on one’s upbringing, cultural background and personal experiences, color can influence states of mind as well as actions.

Think strategically about color and how you want to affect your team. Bolder colors may inspire excitement, while calmer tones may create a more serene environment. It’s in your best interest to choose colors that resonate with your company’s brand colors and mission.

Utilize Wall Murals & Environmental Graphics

No one wants to look at boring walls. Wall space presents a perfect opportunity to display who your company and its employees are and what you believe in. For example, a wall mural can tie your area’s natural beauty to your company culture.

Environmental Graphics:

Motivate, inspire, connect employees + encourage cooperation and well-being

Reinforce brand identity and corporate messaging

Can bring dimension to your space framed art, standoff wall panels, dimensional and lit logos and lettering or column wraps

Create a unique and unified visual environment

Offer privacy on glass walls and partition

Combine acoustic management panels with color, form and texture

office-building-design

A feature wall at Unilever Singapore highlights their brand in images and graphics.

office-floor-plan

City University of Seattle has an environmental graphic that tells a visual story.

Consider Sound Quality & Sound Masking

The sound quality in your office space is also crucial to your company’s workplace environment. No one enjoys loud ambient noise, be it from the world outside or the everyday dissonance of technology and conversation. Privacy often depends on well-managed acoustics as much as thoughtful organization of your physical space.

There is a wide array of products, from simple custom-colored panels to beautiful architectural elements that mask or dampen sound to create a calm, productive space for your teams to relax and focus on their work.

Incorporate Natural Lighting

We understand it’s not always possible to use natural light — but if you can, you should. Humans crave natural light and outdoor views and incorporating natural light can help reduce energy spending. Studies show that natural light in the workplace makes employees feel better rested and more positive.

Here are a few tips to incorporate natural lighting into any office space:

Use smart glass panels that adjust from transparent to opaque with the touch of a button or app instead of interior walls. This allows natural light to brighten an office space.

Keep the lines of your furniture and storage options clean and minimalist to allow natural light to reach every inch of your space.

To give employees and guests privacy, consider partitions and architectural accents instead of walls.

Use reflective surfaces to maximize the impact of your natural light. Gloss finishes, mirrors and lighter colors all boost light

Use Natural Elements

Bringing elements of nature into your office helps your workforce feel connected to the world beyond the office. Integrating flowers, container gardens, succulents and living walls can not only improve morale, but plants are also fantastic natural air quality monitors. It’s also beneficial to incorporate natural materials, such as wood, brick and stone in your architecture and design to mimic the feel of an outdoor setting.

Consider installing a waterfall or fountain for the cool, refreshing sound of flowing water. Water features can work in tandem with living walls and container gardens to double the impact. While water features don’t always require a huge amount of space, they do require some forethought for plumbing and proper construction.

Open Floor Plans

Wide open floor plans are a common theme when you’re designing a modern office space. Think about reconfiguring workstations to offer both private and public areas that transition seamlessly to allow employees to experience the environment that supports the work they do as they’re doing it.

Remember, some employees may be in the office every day, while others may only be in once a week or once a month. So, while not every employee will have a dedicated desk, they should have a designated space to work from.

Fluid Workspaces

Sometimes an office space suffers because no one quite knows how to utilize it. Knowing in advance how you want your space to function can help you make the right design choices the first time. A smattering of tables and chairs does not always make a welcoming space. The fluid workspace areas usually support both working and socializing.

Sliding Doors

Sliding doors are a great way to create transitions between public and private areas without taking up too much space. There are many options for material, size and hardware/function, from semi-permanent installations to rustic barn door styles.

Lounge Comfort Areas

From foosball to beer on tap, some companies are known for their legendary perks. Not every organization prioritizes this level of downtime, but there are a few amenities no company should skimp on.

We think every workplace space needs a basic kitchen space with hot and cold beverage options. It can be as simple as an appropriately scaled coffee and tea service and a water cooler, or as complicated as an espresso bar and a fridge stocked with juices, seltzers and fresh fruit.

Quality Conference Rooms

Conference rooms are arguably one of the most important spaces in an office. Employees, stakeholders and clients alike congregate in conference rooms. A strategically designed conference room can create an inviting and productive environment. Simple video and audio upgrades can make video conferencing with remote employees more productive. You can even implement LED video walls and interactive whiteboards for zoom calls and collaboration.

Get Started Today

With broad expertise across a wide spectrum of industries, we are equipped to assist at the start of a new project or update existing spaces. Home Makers Interiors experts offer the solutions you need to bring your modern office design idea