Once you clear the clutter, parts of your home that you haven’t really seen for years will become visible. If they’re bedraggled, un-bedraggle them—nothing’s more demoralizing that living in a place that’s seen better days. Paint walls that are chipped or dirty, add a slipcover over the worn sofa, and introduce a few (not too many, remember the hassle of getting rid of that clutter) throw pillows.
Too little going on around us is as upsetting as too much. Spaces can definitely be too stark for comfort. The environments where we developed our current crop of sensory tools featured multiple colors, a gentle hum of activity, and changing light levels and patterns of shadows, for example. So should the home and workspaces you use today.
Art
Art can give us a positive psychological boost. It can send out messages that let others know what we value about ourselves—while it reminds us of the same things. An historic photograph can signal a longstanding connection to an area, an organization, or a family, and a painting of a seagull can signal an attachment to the sea or animals or sailing, for example. The full set of stuff you’ve added to your home and office determines the messages sent. Art depicting nature was discussed earlier in this chapter during the review of how our ancient experiences influence where we live best now.
Realistic images of nature can to a great extent compensate for the stress we feel being in a space without windows—making them a particularly good choice for spaces such as tiny powder rooms. Realistic nature art has also been linked to enhanced creative thinking.
With art, we prefer the familiar but aren’t very enthusiastic about pieces that are entirely predictable and boring. The same is true for interior and product design and architecture—the familiar with a slight twist is most likely to please us.
All that was reported earlier about how humans respond to colors and shapes also applies to art. Abstract images with more curvy than straight lines in them and which feature colors that are not very saturated but are relatively bright are calming to view, for example. Pieces that have more straight lines than curvy ones with more saturated, not so bright elements are more energizing to view. The research on lines and shapes can be applied to sculpture as well.
Human beings are more likely to think creatively when they’re feeling nostalgic, and art, particularly photographs, can be used inspire nostalgia. When we experience awe—and the same item/view/space can awe us over and over again—we feel less rushed and more satisfied with life, and are more likely to be helpful to others, so an awe inspiring item in a family room or office can be a good addition. Something inspires awe when it is large or exhibits superb workmanship, for example. Art can make us feel awed, but so can an inlay pattern on a floor or a light fixture or the stone on a countertop, for instance.
Materials
Filling your home with natural materials such as wood is good for your body and mind. Seeing the grain in wood de-stresses us. No wonder hardwood floors have been popular in homes for so long. Floors aren’t the only surfaces where wood grain can sing; furniture and woodwork can show it off, too. Seeing real and artificial wood grain has the same effect on us as long as two things are true: the artificial wood is a really, truly good imitation of natural wood, and the repeat pattern in the artificial wood is random enough so that the same distinctive feature, say a simulated knot, is not repeated in the finished floor or piece of furniture in an unnaturally predictable way. Spaces that feature natural wood have randomly distributed patterns in their wooden surfaces; the same randomness needs to be present in any your home or office if you’re using a product with artificial wood grain.
It’s great that seeing wood grain de-stresses us because it can be used in lots of spaces where it might be hard to design in window views or grow plants, such as basements. We are also better able to concentrate in spaces featuring wood. Wood ceilings may encourage people to fall asleep more quickly if light bounces off of them. However, it’s best if no more than 45 percent of the surfaces in an area are covered with wood. With this amount of wood on view, we’re most comfortable and relaxed.
Matte finishes are more relaxing for us to look at than shiny ones, and many natural materials can readily be used with or without a shine.
Matte finishes are more relaxing than shiny ones.
Stones, for example, can be polished or not as desired. So can many styles of tiles and other surface materials. Shiny finishes are, however, preferred over matte finishes.
Information on which materials and finishes off-gas dangerous materials is continually being updated as more related research is done and as new surfaces come onto the market. Visit reliable online data sources, such as the websites of the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, or the International Interior Design Association for the latest news on healthy materials.
Audio Experiences
Just as professionals travel around with light meters so they can determine how bright a light is, they also have monitors that let them know how loud it is in a space. When sound levels in workplaces get to around forty-five decibels (dB), our lives start to degrade, and, in more public, social situations, the magic volume level that divides happy from stressed listeners is around sixty decibels. How loud is that? The loudness of a whisper or of gently rustling leaves is twenty dB, the sound level in a quiet library is about thirty dB, and that of a quiet room or busier library is forty dB. Forty-five dB is about as loud as a conversation between two people generally gets. The loudness of an alarm clock is eighty dB.
You can influence the soundscapes in your home and workplace by playing music or birdsongs (more on this below) or via rules about who is allowed to talk when. Other soundscape modifications require professionals—for example, adding sound blocking insulation to walls or using acoustic ceiling tiles.
Anything that’s relevant or potentially relevant to what we’re doing is a distracting noise, and since speech can at any time become relevant, it needs to be monitored and is particularly distracting. Meaningful noise degrades cognitive performance.
Sometimes people are told to ignore people around them who are talking or other uncontrollable sounds, such as water dripping. But humans can’t do that—no matter how hard we try. This also seems to be tied to our experiences as a young species, when ignoring others or ignoring a noise might have made us some other creature’s lunch. Since we can’t ignore conversations around us, it can be particularly important to acoustically isolate offices, bedrooms, home spas, and similar areas by placing them at a distance from noisier zones or adding sound insulating materials to the walls around them. Walls that reach to the lower level of the floor above are much more effective at blocking sounds than walls that reach only to a dropped ceiling. The space between a dropped ceiling and the true ceiling in an area is a sound superhighway, a zone that makes a nearly whispered conversation instantly known to all. To effectively manage sound, it’s important to understand when there’s a gap between a true ceiling and a dropped ceiling and block it. Echoes have particularly negative effects on our cognitive performance and social behavior; soft surfaces such as rugs and wall hangings can help keep them in check.
It is not your imagination; random noises (as opposed to continuous or predictable ones) really are the most annoying. If a leaky faucet starts to drip intermittently, you need to stop the noise, even if by just putting a face cloth where the water hits the sink. You cannot ignore the sound or “not let it bother you.” Any random unpredictable sounds in your house or office need to be acoustically isolated so that they don’t destroy the atmosphere you’re trying to create. Make sure, for example, that you can’t hear the printer that springs randomly into action. It can be worth the costs to invest in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems that don’t make unpredictable, distressing noises or to install sound absorbing materials in and around hobby spaces where people will operate power tools.
The fact that most of us can’t just