5 Ways To Create a Calming and Beautiful Home Atmosphere You Want To Come Home To
Creating a home atmosphere that brings calm, comfort, and creativity doesn’t need to be complicated.
Have your levels of stress and anxiety been at an all-time high this year? Oh, friend, I can relate. Come sit by me…your tired mind is welcome here.
Let’s take a breath. Know that – it’s ok.
In fact? It is normal if you are feeling a little more exhausted than normal lately. And that. That right there…is why now more than ever…we need our homes to hold us.
Our bodies are asking more of our homes than maybe ever before. And whether we realize it or not? We are collectively searching for a place this side of heaven, where restful rhythm can be found to calm and quiet our racing minds.
Honestly?
My hands feel so full right now…carrying the weight of all the /stuff./ And when I come home? I want the door to my home to suggest to my heart, that I have arrived inside a place where it’s ok to loosen my grip.
Actually not just loosen. Empty my hands. And let go of all that I am trying to hold together. But how?
How do we create a home that is a soft landing place for us to walk or/fall/into after a long day or week? A place that is safe to remove the armor long enough so that it can deeply soothe and smooth the wounds and battle scars hidden underneath.
Undoubtedly incurred from the complexities of being human and living out the messy and beautiful minute-to-minute marathon of each day? I wish there was a magic recipe friend.
While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all prescription for creating a calming and beautiful atmosphere that you want to come home to… There are several simple things you can do right now that will help create a home that calms your overworked mind and soothes your body into a soft steady rhythm as you reset your frame for the days ahead.
Here are the simple ways I have created a gentle atmosphere of clarity and peace in our home, gleaned through years of tweaking through trial and error.
5 simple ways to create a calming and inviting atmosphere in your home.
- Keep it simple – Less is Best
I get it, friend. The home decor shops?
Target, T.J. Maxx, HomeSense, Marshalls, Pottery Barn…they call my name, too. After all? They are filled with all of the cute things that we think we need right now for our homes to be beautiful.
Keyword here? Think.
The reality is though? Your home does not need /more stuff./ It needs LESS stuff.
I have a rule for myself. Before, I allow myself to do a harmless “quick spin” through the aisles of “Tar-jay”?
I tidy up our home. I do not like the feeling of coming home and walking in the door, shopping bags dangling from my arms, filled with /stuff/to dump out onto a counter of a house that is already overwhelmed with stuff strewn all about.
And so? My rule is – If I want to go shopping for NEW?
The house must be tidy and clean with everything I already have,/before/ I leave the house. The bonus? In the process of tidying up what we already have?
I often realize I do not “need” much else to make our home beautiful…it just needed to be tidied. And maybe…a new candle.
- Edit Your Way To Peaceful Surroundings
Tidying usually leads to “editing.” Editing is the word I like to use in place of /purging/ because it sounds a little more gentle.
Editing is the simple removal process of anything that is broken and the putting away process of anything that is not in current use. And here is the biggest and often the most difficult part of the editing process. Recognizing that something in your home is bothering you and then doing something about it.
For example:
Do you have a piece of furniture that came with you from your previous home that just doesn’t work for your new home? Or perhaps you purchased a piece of home decor a while ago and now your taste has evolved and you simply do not care for it any longer?
It’s time to edit friend. As an interior stylist, I am constantly hearing from my clients phrases like:
“I can’t stand this hutch, but…”
“I really don’t like this chair, but…”
Friend? There are no /but’s./ If you have a piece of furniture, artwork, rug, /anything/that you no longer love (or never loved) in your home?
It is time to edit it and remove it from where it is. Even if you don’t have anything to take its place. It is ok.
The space would be better bare than filled with something you do not like. Why?
What I have found is that there is something happening to us subconsciously every time we walk past the piece we do not like in our homes. That thing is this:
That piece of furniture that is bothering you, is bringing you down.
Every time you pass by that piece?
Whether you are aware or not of the impact, it is making you feel less than..about your home, and that feeling can bleed into and affect your confidence in other areas of your life.
I double-dog dare you to try editing by removing what you do not like any longer. I promise your home will feel lighter and brighter. Edit it out and away.
Move it out…just get it out of your everyday flow.
- Round and Round We Go
Why do you think it is that we love a tray on a dining table or kitchen island? Or, a vase on a coffee or side table, a candle on the counter, a mirror above a console table, or a woven basket on the floor?
These items tend to have one thing in common. They are all /round/in shape.
Straight lines are what literally build our homes and keep them standing. One quick glance around your room and you will notice that we are surrounded by straight and hard lines in our home.
From the door and window frames to the kitchen cabinets, appliances, furniture, posts, pillars, columns, and beyond. Straight is what holds the house up.
But ROUND? Round is what makes a house feel like a home.
When I am shopping for a client, if there is an opportunity to choose round decor versus rectangle or square, you can bet I am running with round.
Selecting round-shaped decor introduces the opportunity for soft lines and curves, and a break in the straight. In other words, lean into the round tray on the island, oversized round lamp on the console table, and round mirror above.
Round is your unexpected and delightful friend.
- Neutral & Natural Are The Best Negotiators
The world unfolding outside our doors is /loud./ When everything/out there/ is pushing and pulling us into different directions, demanding more out of our capacity tanks?
My heart and love tank needs a place to rest, recharge and refuel.
And, what I have realized is that loud colors and busy patterns don’t quite get me there.
While I do love a tasteful pattern in small spaces, such as using a beautiful wallpaper in a powder room. (We recently remodeled our powder room and I love the wallpaper design we selected.)
I have come to the conclusion that the larger, more open spaces in our home need to be more neutral in color, with variations of natural-toned decor. Even more?
The layering of neutral colors creates a serene mood while touches of natural wood tones, whether from a small stool or bead garland, provide the warmth and texture we tend to be drawn to in pictures on Pinterest and Instagram.
So friend? Do not get twisted up in the tired tension of:
“Well, this wall is pure white so I can’t use warm cream colors over here.”
Oh yes, you can.
Layering a creamy white paint color, such as my go-to, Alabaster by Sherwin Williams, that we use for painting all of the shiplap, along with a Pure White painted mantle works friend. Do not stress about keeping it all the same.
Immersing your space in the layering of neutral paint colors and natural wood tones is the best brain negotiator for winding down in a wound-up world.
- Bring The Outside Inside & The Inside Outside
One of my favorite ways to decorate that creates a calming energy in our home is FREE.
What better way to create a beautiful atmosphere in your home, than by using the decor given to us by the Creator, Himself?
Oftentimes, while on a brief walk with our pup, I will snap a few branches off from a tree on the trail and bring them home. Shopping from Mother Nature’s storefront always provides the best freebies.
Adding the color and texture of long and breezy branches to a round (shocker I know) vase on the kitchen counter, can be a quick and easy mood booster.
And while you’re at it?
Why not take a small accent pillow and cozy throw from the inside of your home and bring it outside, to snuggle up on your favorite chaise lounge outside?
This is the time of year to allow the lines to get blurred between what is traditionally used inside or outside and swap them around. In other words?
Make space for the comfort creatures from inside our homes–to take a little recess outdoors, and—invite the outside to come inside, to help awaken your senses and your soul.
I hope this list of 5 ways to create a calming and beautiful home atmosphere has inspired you today friend.
Living on a prayer,
Heather
For more like this, visit these other posts you may enjoy:
3 Easy Ways to Decorate Your Kitchen Island and Dining Table
15 Ways to Make a Builder Grade Home Look and Feel Like a Custom Home
