These Top Interiors Bloggers Tell Us How to Lift Your Mood With Bright Wall Art

Interior designers have been drawing on the psychology of design for decades in their work. It’s easy to learn how to lift your mood through interior design. This could mean the clever use of space to learning how to evoke emotional responses through the use of colour.

Clever design should imitate our natural habitat and work to reduce stressors in our environment. This is why in interior design, we often see natural elements. We see hardwood floors which mimic the forest floor, light, high ceilings that mimic the sky, as well as coloured walls and wall art at eye level to add interest.

Using the psychology of design, you can make small, simple changes to your interior spaces in order to improve your mood and help you feel more centred. We spoke to four top interiors bloggers to discover how to lift your mood using clever interiors tricks. Read on to find out more.

How To Lift Your Mood With Wall Art

Using colour in design

Colour has been used in the interior design world for decades. Several studies have shown that colour has a decided effect on mood. Research and intuitive colour choices have been utilised in every industry, from the use of neutral or creative colours in corporate offices to the calming colours used in hospital wings to the bright, vivid colours used in fast-food restaurants.

While our individual responses to colour can be highly subjective, for most people, pastel shades and cool colours tend to have a calming effect.

Bolder colours like sunny yellow and loud pinks and reds have been known to make most people feel invigorated but, on the other hand, they can also cause stress and irritation. Darker colours like charcoal and dark brown have been known to make people feel sad.

Ali from @homeandthings says; “Different types of art on your wall can have a significant influence on how you feel, with the power to alter your mood and potentially help to brighten your day. Tapping into the sight sense and using colour can be extremely powerful. If you are wanting to create a relaxed environment, go for cooler colours like greens and blues. Or the use of warmer colours and tones like oranges and reds can give you a creative and energising effect. You can help create a comfortable space that people will want to spend time in by matching your art to your home décor.”

Therefore, when thinking about how to lift your mood with interior design, a splash of bright colour within your wall art could be just what you need to create a bold statement. This means you won’t need to go overboard and paint the whole room in a bold colour. Alternatively, one feature wall could work wonders in lifting your mood.

The best part about wall art is that you can switch up your interiors look so easily, moving wall art from room to room as you like, or switching wall art out as your preferences change.

Simulating natural environments

We can use biophilic designs to simulate our natural environment. This, in turn, can help us feel calmer and at peace. The use of light and colours can help to make a space feel larger and more open, just like in nature.

Natural scenes can also help us feel like we have a window to the outside world, especially in the absence of actual windows. Typically, longer-distance landscape views featuring the sun and sky can help us feel more at ease. This might possibly be because in the hunter/gatherer age, good weather meant good hunting. Studies have shown that real scenes of nature, like photos, worked better than simulated scenes like painted artworks.

Cammy from @inspired_to_style says: “Wall art can brighten your mood in many ways. Whether it be by use of colour, or a piece of art that has a happy or calming feeling, for instance; the beach, a forest, a sunset or animals.”

Sue from @soozies.space agrees. She says: “I love using bright colours in the living areas (like) a large canvas featuring a sunrise from your favourite holiday or a stunning beach scene from a tropical getaway. Something that makes your heart smile.”

Using personal memories

As we know, however, when considering how to lift your mood with interior design, it’s important to think about what resonates with you personally. While there are certain interior design traits that we all love, art and interior design remain highly subjective. What is calming for one person might actually be aggravating for another.

Tahlia from @housetoahome_ says: “For an artwork to brighten your mood I feel it needs to include images and colours which represent something you love! Or an image or print that inspires you, for example, a place you want to travel. Or a print artwork to remind you of a thing/place that’s made you extremely happy, so it forever reminds you of that happy moment.”

Personal images and memories can be a powerful tool in creating a mood in certain rooms. You might want this to be different according to where you are in the home, for instance, using:

• Travel photos and landscapes in the living room
• Photos of wildlife or animals in the hallways
• Family photos in your children’s rooms
• An interesting photo of flowers, landscapes or food in the kitchen and bathrooms
• Couple shots or photos featuring intimate personal moments in your bedroom

Creating space through art

Finally, when learning how to lift your mood with interior design, the manipulation of space and depth perception is crucial. In nature, while we did seek shelter, for the most part, we lived in wide, open spaces. In the past, being boxed in could have meant being trapped by prey.

Finding ways to maximise space and mimic nature in interior design is important. This means creating a safe, yet open space where we don’t feel too confined.

You can create the illusion of space and light in the following ways;

• Paint your room in light colours like white, light grey or cream to help your spaces appear larger
• Use mirrors to extend spaces, creating the illusion of a larger space. Light will also bounce off the mirrors, helping the room feel brighter and airier
• Use light-coloured or bright wall art to lift the mood in the room and create the illusion of more space

How interior design affects health is an interesting topic that we still have a lot to learn about. When considering how to lift your mood with wall art, think about what makes you feel calm and happy.

Analyse your own personal photos or browse through our enormous selection of wall art, considering how these images make you feel, whether that’s a landscape, an abstract art piece, or scenes of nature and choose a calming scene, whatever that means to you. Your home should be a private sanctuary where you can feel safe, secure and happy, so start building it today!