How does our homes’ interior design affect our sensory health?
When all is said and done, should having a home that is simply “fit for purpose” be enough?
And - deep breath now - Does our home’s interior design actually matter?
This blog post follows on naturally from the last. Within that blog I broached ideas on how to make space for owning less, how we edit the abundance of possessions we accumulate, especially when they have strong emotional ties attached to them. This blog however, acknowledges that whilst there is a time to be grateful for the functional pieces of furniture we have – such as when we move into our first home with next to nothing – it explores the concept of how we avoid filling our homes with items that have a specific purpose, yet something about the design doesn’t sit well with us from a sensory perspective. Boxes are being ticked in terms of the practical use, but it doesn’t feel right, smell right or look quite as envisaged. So why not?
I would imagine that we have all had those pieces of furniture at one point in our home owning lives. A prime time for such purchases are in the excited delights of a first home. You have so little, next to no budget, and a genuine need to furnish your new abode, lest you sit on the floor eating take away Chinese for days on end. We may be recalling that cheap side table, panic brought when it became obvious that drinks needed to be put down on something, but once the dust settled you realised it simply doesn’t flow with anything else in the room. Or how about the cutlery set that looked so cute online, but its real life ergonomic usage was uncomfortable and mildly rage inducing. So now they sit ignored in the cutlery drawer, purposely overlooked in favour of the less pretty but favoured spoons that have no known original source.
These items are so easily acquired and yet so quickly become clutter.
The common denominator for the items we buy that become those items is usually the price. A small budget at the time needed to cover a lot of ground. Followed by a secondary denominator: ease of access. They were conveniently available online for next day delivery, or in stock instore whilst browsing. An immediate need was met and another thing in our busy lives crossed of the list.
Nevertheless, when it comes to our larger furniture and more expensive textiles: the new sofa, the dining table, the high end curtains, even the flooring in a long saved up for project, how many of us wait until we can save up properly for the desired, more expensive pieces that we fell in love with on our late night Pinterest searches? These pieces are the ones that really sang to our hearts when we saw them and we long to savour for decades to come.
How many of us set the timely goal of purposely saving for such an item? And how many of us have compromised when we saw something that was cheaper, looked close enough to the original and gave us the feeling of not missing out right now?
Then comes the clap on the back we give ourselves because we saved money - and sometimes it really can be a lot of money.
But buy cheap, buy twice rings so true in many of our purchases.
As with our clothes, high-end home design trickles down from its designers to the high street, which then finds its way onto the bargain store’s shelves. This trickle-down effect brings high-end design trends to the masses at affordable prices. This happens quicker than one would expect. But what are we really loosing here? So often we are trying to save money on such compromises or substitutes. We think with our head “That’ll do. It’s close enough” or “My goodness! This is SO much cheaper, yet it looks so similar.”
Yet in the long run – and sometimes within a few hours or days - we realise that the compromise actually did cost us.
It cost us in in our emotional bank balance.
In our 21st Century, instant access culture, we have lost the art of waiting.
These purchases leave us feeling physically uncomfortable when we notice they were the wrong fit for the space or it didn’t meet a logistical need you had hoped for. The colour may be different to what you really wanted, causing low level visual strain, or the raw materials used don’t meet the tactile and texture you were after – probably because they weren’t organic raw materials but cheaper alternatives for mass production.
These compromise purchases become a false economy for more than just our purse strings. They are a false economy for our emotional heart strings too.
This is why it is important to understand the sensory need and sensory drive we have when we invest financially in our interiors.
Are you simply after the visual appeal of a home that looks a specific way, or the tactile benefits of materials that can’t be caught on camera?
Flooring is a good example of these mistakes that have semi-permanent consequences when chosen wrong. Think of a heavy flagstone country cottage floor. The coolness, the gradual reshaping over time as countless footsteps slowly dip away and leave a natural uniqueness and historical charm. There are some characteristics of flooring that clever porcelain and laminate tiles simply cannot provide, and your budget should reflect that. If you are a very visual person and simply want the appearance of a particular natural flooring but not the price tag, then these visual tick boxes may indeed be the right option for you. But if you, or anyone in the home, is after something other than a visual appeal, then you will need to factor this in and communicate this need to whoever is part of your project and budget.
In our digital age, a consequence of this need for now is being felt by so many designers and creators. Many are losing their original online artwork and homeware designs to larger, mass-produced companies with little or no warning, nor acknowledgment. I am becoming more aware of this, though I also would highly suspect that the stories I see and hear are only the tip of the iceberg. When I look online at the larger companies with furniture and homewares, my instinct now is to ask; could this be something an independent artist or designer has made that this has been copied from? In all honesty, my trust in large scale, fast turn around companies has been lost.
If you’re a small homewares business that this has happened to, I’d love to hear your story and get to know your business. You can contact me here.
However, when it comes to those smaller, lower cost items that are so readily available: crockery, tableware, cushions, blanket throws and seasonal trinkets, how do we choose wisely then? It can so easily be that the smaller, lower cost items are the ones that we almost thoughtlessly compromise on the most.
When we feel we have less to lose, we are more likely to buy on impulse.
So in a sea of choice, how do we choose wisely?
By using all eight of our senses.
Starting out on the journey of putting our senses first when choosing items for our homes can feel overwhelming. If you are unsure on where to begin when working out what sense is most important to you in your home, then download my free Dupe’s digital download. This download asks specific questions to help you narrow down what it is you are really looking for before you click ‘add to basket.’ You can find this complementary download here.
The raison d’etre of Wax & Wane Interiors is built upon understanding the sensory feedback we absorb in our homes through our interior design choices. I want everyone to be enlightened in how we work with all of our senses to choose products, fabrics and designs that give the right sensory feedback that we and our families need.
The way we and our loved ones respond to our homes’ soft furnishings, furniture and design choices can become a key ally in helping us to regulate and feel grounded. Conversely, they can compound dysregulation by increasing tension from undesirable sensory feedback.
This is especially relevant when experiencing any form of anxiety, behavioural struggles or complex emotions, compounded by sensory processing differences in light of a neurodivergence, trauma and PTSD.
When the texture isn’t a joy to touch, the colour creates visual strain or the movement and ergonomic support is out of sync, we feel it - emotionally as well as physically.
For those who have sensory sensitivities from visual input - when things are too bright, too busy or too bold - Kate_Please’s homeware designs are a wonderful addition to the home.
Her hand drawn woodland animal sketches are printed on fine bone china here in the UK.
The monochromatic sketched animal designs create visual calm. And yes, for your gustatory (taste) sense, the hype about fine bone china over ceramic really is something worth getting your tea bags in a twist for.
You can see her designs and products on her website here – and check out her Instagram @kate_please.
To conclude then, I want my home to not simply just look the part. I am not being picky, fussy or overdemanding when I say this. Nor am I being snobbish or brand-led. I want the whole sensory experience within my home. I want the wood to smell like real wood, the textiles to be able to breathe, the art to sing to my visual dopamine needs, and the furniture to last for generations because it was crafted well from quality materials and not a mass-produced cheaper copy.
So, when all is said and done, does it really matter how are home’s interiors are?
Yes, but this is less about being materialistic and a flashy need to impress. Our homes should be more fit to regulate and less fit for purpose. The emphasis is on the how and why they are used and our intention in using them, not the societal status of the products themselves.
So whilst it may take me time to create the home myself and my family need. I am doing it with the intention of getting my choices right first time. Buying less, but buying better - and that better is unique to all of us and what makes our homes truly special.
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