Interior design is known to combine beauty with functionality. Professional interior designers excel at understanding their client’s expectations and crafting an end product that fulfills them.
Home and commercial spaces increasingly incorporate elements from nature into their designs, including daylight, fresh air, organic materials, plants and wildlife. Such design features have been found to improve mental wellbeing and cognitive ability.
Color Psychology
Color can be a powerful visual cue and has been studied as part of psychological practice for centuries, while researchers continue their investigations of its effects on mood and behavior.
Sir Isaac Newton conducted the first recorded study of color psychology in 1666 when he discovered that when pure white light passes through a prism it breaks up into all of its constituent colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Newton further explored what each color meant psychologically and emotionally to establish what later would become color psychology.
Now more than ever there is an array of products and services that harness the power of color to heal the body, influence emotions, and promote inner harmony. Though these claims may be intriguing, they are unsupported by sound scientific research.
Psychologists have found that most often, the impact of colors on mood is temporary and subject to various personal, environmental, and cultural variables. While calming blue shades may provide benefits in certain circumstances, others may find them stressful.
An understanding of how color impacts our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs requires an interdisciplinary approach that draws from evolutionary psychology, emotion science, retinal physiology and person perception. At present, research in this area tends toward either highly specific empirical propositions like “red signals dominance and leads to competitive advantage” (Hill and Barton 2005) or broad general conceptualizations like Elliot and Maier (2012) – so developing mid-level theoretical frameworks capable of explaining and predicting connections between color and psychological functioning remains a formidable task.
Space
Interior design goes well beyond simply decorating our homes with furniture, curtains and rugs; it encompasses much more. Interior design involves researching, planning and creating functional yet beautiful bespoke interiors to match people’s culture and lifestyle – this includes aspects like architecture, lighting and furniture as well as selecting materials, furnishings and decor to form one unified design that’s inviting. You can even take this a step further and add zen to your space.
Interior design’s impact can be seen through how it shapes our experience in spaces like restaurants and offices. When restaurant interiors are designed to maximize seating and create an inviting ambience, revenue increases while customer satisfaction goes up significantly; similarly when offices are designed to promote productivity and collaboration among employees.
Picking out furniture and decor can be difficult for anyone; it requires an in-depth knowledge of how colors, textures, and shapes interact to produce the ideal look and feel. Interior designers possess this talent, creating beautiful spaces that reflects both their clients’ personalities and needs.
Interior design may seem like an art form, but it is actually both an art and science. Many don’t realize there is an immense amount of math and engineering that goes into interior design; for instance a designer must read blueprints, understand light/air circulation within spaces as well as manage budgets/timelines effectively to become successful at this field of endeavor. Interior design provides highly rewarding career opportunities for those with both talent and passion who possess these necessary technical abilities – few other creative industries allow such an integrated combination of creative ability with technical know-how!
Light
Interior design has an important effect on our mental wellbeing. According to research, home decor elements can reduce stress levels and encourage positive emotions; using soothing colors, natural elements and lighting techniques all help our physical and emotional wellbeing. In business settings this aspect is taken into consideration by corporate designers who create environments that foster efficiency, productivity and trust.
Employees today are seeking workplace environments that place a strong focus on wellness and access to natural light, according to studies. Without proper natural lighting, workers experience eyestrain, headaches, and drowsiness; large windows, bi-fold doors, skylights and natural lighting are great ways to counter this. Furthermore, biophilic design (i.e. adding green walls or carpet tiles with grass patterns or images of trees in specific parts of a building) has become more and more popular within commercial interiors as a form of relaxation; known as biophilic design (biophilic design).
Function
Interior designers go beyond aesthetics when considering functional aspects of spaces. Trained to understand how design impacts human bodies and brains, interior designers utilize materials, furniture and furnishings that allow a space to serve its intended function – be that providing clear layouts that enable free movement or selecting colors such as blues and greens for relaxation, yellow and orange for energy or red for excitement.
Good interior design has also been shown to boost mental health and increase productivity. If you’re having difficulty with completing an especially taxing project, for instance, adding some plants or changing up your wall color might help make things easier on yourself – as has proven comfortable ergonomic furniture can.
Interior designers who work in health care facilities where patients might feel unwell and worried, as well as educational or workplace environments where employees need to feel motivated, productive and happy; take into account both psychology and mindset when designing interior spaces. Therefore they aim to minimize sharp edges or potentially dangerous elements which might harm anyone – particularly children and the elderly who are particularly prone to accidents and injury.
Emotions
Interior designers sometimes overlook the emotional component of interior design, as this aspect may seem innocuous but can have profound ramifications on how people perceive themselves and each other.
Recent years have witnessed increased research revealing the correlation between one’s environment and their emotions and decor choices, such as wall paper colors or fabrics, and our mental health and wellbeing. While this concept has existed for millennia (such as India Vastu Shastra and Chinese Feng Shui) its recent scientific advancement has now enabled formal study with quantifiable results.
Research is still evolving into understanding whether certain emotions have unique “bodily signatures” that can be induced through stimuli or observed in the brain; however, we do know that emotions are highly fluid and tend to mix with other feelings – this has led some experts to conclude that folk emotion categories such as love, jealousy and rage do not represent natural types (Rorty 1987).
Color can have a profound effect on our emotions and mood, from its hue, saturation, brightness or palatability having various impacts. Pale tones such as blush, light grey or sky blue may be soothing while highly saturated hues such as steel blue can be stimulating or up-lifting.
Addting nature to your home or office can have a profoundly positive effect on both mood and productivity, due to the sensory experiences it can provide people. Doing so may reduce stress levels, improve concentration levels and foster creativity.
Interior designers who excel at striking a balance between beauty and function are adept at taking into account both clients’ wants and needs while complying with building codes, budgets, material availability, environmental considerations, space restrictions, ergonomic requirements and architectural team requirements – all while making the space seem seamless and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.