The art of sensory design: how your home can boost your wellbeing
Looks aren’t everything — create a calm living space with subtle changes to acoustics, fragrance and texture
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Prudence Ivey, Editor, Homes & Property@PrudenceIvey2 minutes agoCOMMENTS
We are promised many routes to wellness, from the products we use on our skin to the ways we move our body and the food we eat. Any number of nifty gadgets are available to track and correct our bodies and minds. Increasingly, the world of interiors is getting in on the act, with a growing number of designers and consultants claiming our homes affect our wellbeing, too
Sensory home design started out as a way to make spaces more neurodiversity-friendly. It treats all the senses as important, not only sight and touch
In a world where the visual display of our homesn privileged over the experience of inhabiting them, it also offers a refreshing step away from the shackles of perfection and trends
“It’s less about the look and more about how a space makes you feel. A way of designing that asks how a space breathes, how it ages, how it affects our wellbeing (and is nothing to do with at-home saunas or basement gyms).” So says Interior Design Masters chief judge Michelle Ogundehin, who has written books on the subject and runs the Happy Insiders Club offering coaching to “make your home your greatest
“You never really think about how your home’s design could be actively failing you”
Pippa Jameson
“You never really think about how your home’s design could be actively failing you and your wellbeing. You think about food, exercise, sleep technology, but not design,” says Pippa Jameson, founder of The Sensory Home
Harsh lighting, echoey acoustics, uncomfortable furniture and overwhelming fragrances may seem small and insignificant, but collectively they can create a triggering environment, says Jameson
“When I explain it so many people say ‘Oh my God, of course that’s what’s causing me all this anxiety!’” The solutions sensory design offers are informed as much by scientific research as by the rules of aesthetics (although of course creating visual harmony will make you feel good)
Franky Rousell, the founder of multi-sensory-focused interior design practice Jolie Studio, puts her work with neuroscientists at the core of her process. “Our approach allows people to think about how they want to feel in a space, what’s true to them and how to let the science inform their decision-making process and remove all the noise that’s out there,” she says
Work by Jolie Studio
Billy Bolton
“It can end up being an amazing process, but also the results look so much more bespoke than anything designed by trawling other people’s homes on the internet.” So how can you engage all your senses to create a home that works for you?
Here are four senses to keep in mind when desiging a space
Smell
“There is an opportunity in your home to use fragrance across many layers to change your mood,” says Rousell. “There are some amazing diffusers, either traditional reed or Bluetooth-enabled electronic versions you can set to timers, and to different frequencies and intensities. The trusty candle is also a lovely way of diffusing fragrance in your home.”
Identify base, middle and top notes to play with. You could use a woody base note in every room, then add a complementary middle and top note. Herb fragrances are a good top note in the kitchen because they subtly stimulate your appetite. Make sure you use oil-based, hypoallergenic fragrance and avoid the worst of the synthetics. “I saw someone who was burdened by headaches and assumed it was stress-related, but actually we discovered it was the air freshener she was using at home,” says Jameson.
PA
“The silent layer here is fabric fragrance,” says Rousell. “Your detergent or fabric softener actually carries quite a lot of potency and some people are really averse to some of those scents, so choose one that aligns with how you want to feel. I spend a lot of time in the laundry aisle getting that right, there are some great brands really focussing on that now.” It is not all about adding scent, however, but also about removing the wrong smells with good ventilation. Jameson stresses the importance of a good extractor fan in your kitchen — but invest in a quiet one.
Sound
“Sound can influence our heart rate, our breathing rate, our hormone production and our cortisol levels,” says Rousell. “Interestingly our ears never switch off, when we sleep all our other senses go to sleep too, but we’re always listening out for predators. So at night you want to do everything you can to allow your ears a constant, whether that’s total silence or a bit of white noise.” Removing negative sound is also crucial — if you are renovating, add sound absorbing panels to the walls and double glazing on all windows, insulate your floors and choose Quiet Mark appliances.
“A bookshelf full of books is a surprisingly good noise absorber”
Pippa Jameson
Not every sound-proofing intervention is super costly, however. Mature hedges and bushes create a good sound barrier and Rousell says acoustic curtains can muffle loud street noise. Even your furnishing choices can help, be it swerving cold, hard finishes in favour of soft, absorbing options like wood and lime plaster. “And if you have noisy neighbours on other side, a bookshelf full of books is a surprisingly good noise absorber,” says Jameson. Adding positive sound back in can also be beneficial in reducing cortisol, be it birdsong or classical music, says Rousell.
Sight
This may be the most obvious sense to cater for when it comes to interior design but, in the same vein as sound and smell, it is as much about what you take away as what you add. Jameson explains: “Clutter is a huge trigger. Modern homes do not build in enough storage and so we end up with huge amounts of clutter.” This is not a manifesto for uncompromising minimalism, however, more a way of thinking about what we want to display and how to store the rest
“On a visual processing level, clutter is stressful so having an ability to stow away gives us a more relaxed and calming environment. This is not about everything being super pared back, you can be a really eclectic person with lots of collected treasures but curating those treasures — thinking about where you’re putting them and for what reason — is empowering,” says Rousell
Your choice of colour is also crucial. Jameson has created a paint for wellness collection with Graham and Brown with five moods: rest, nook, gather, focus and create. All the colours are low saturation with a grey undertone
Colours from The Sensory Home’s collection with Graham and Brown
Jon Day
“We don’t talk about colour trends, we talk about the effect, say, green is going to have in calming your central nervous system because it’s the most common colour in nature, or how blue can help your cognitive function,” says Jameson
But, says Rousell, despite a large body of research into the properties of different colours, the best option for your home is still somewhat contextual, depending on your background, economic upbringing and the climate you live in. “People always ask me, ‘what is the best colour for sleep?’, but that depends not just on the sensory input that’s coming in but also your lived experience, which acts as a filter that all this sensory input has to pass through,” she says
That said, Rousell cites research that says orange encourages creativity, while pastel tones are more calming, suitable for a bedroom. “But a deep, dark green will also give you a cocooning sensation and a sense of safety, which might work better for you,” she says
Touch
Uncomfortable chairs are likely to cut any dinner party short, the wrong sofa will be as are a more important investment than your bedframe
“Furniture that you sit or lie on should support your body so that you can focus on the things you are supposed to be doing while using it — sleeping, working, eating, socialising, and so on,” says Jameson
Similarly the materials that you encounter will affect your behaviour in ways you might not even realise. “When you touch something your receptors are saying to you ‘this feels nice,’ or ‘that’s scratchy’,” says Jameson
“Too much of it and you feel overstimulated by all the discomfort”
Pippa Jameson
“These things almost go under the radar but they all add up and cause unconscious stress to your receptors. Too much of it and you feel overstimulated by all the discomfort. When you put a glass down on a glass table it’s going to make a loud chinking, when you close cupboards that don’t have softeners it will make a bang, whereas some materials will dampen those effects or feel soft, or warm, or, in a hotter climate, might be cooling.”
Rousell adds: “Whether it’s the material that’s underfoot, the surface on our kitchen counter, subconsciously this is completely changing the way in which we feel at any given second. We can use the science to make really smart choices to improve our experience throughout.”
Both Jameson and Rousell are keen to stress that they are not working from a prescriptive rule book. “If you’ve got all the underlying elements in place — your acoustics are right, your lighting is at the best level for what you’re doing, your furniture is ergonomic — that is when you bring in your personality and the choice of design and colour that works for you,” says Jameson
Rousell agrees: “The whole purpose of this type of design is to feel effortless and be built in, it is doing the heavy lifting for youbehaviour.”
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