How to add a dose of dopamine decor to make your home a happier place

Need your home to operate as a feel-good space this summer? Here are some top tips on how to make your home a happier place.

Dopamine decor

Dopamine decor has been inspired by a catwalk trend where people choose to dress in colourful clothes to enhance their mood. The serotonin soaked concept is now emerging in the interiors world too with home owners choosing bright colours and patterns rich in shape and design to express joy and excitement within the home. Decorating spaces both inside and out can have a transformative effect on how we live and work so choose soft furnishings, paint colours and textiles that sing to you for personal reasons and make you happy. Look to incorporate feelings of joy with pops of colour and shape using decorative accessories, lampshades, furniture accents and playful vases.

Image credit: Secret London

If you are in need of inspiration, Dopamine Land is a brand-new, multisensory experience that channels the limitless imagination of your inner child and transforms it into reality. It’s an interactive museum that combines traditional media and technology. An opportunity to disconnect from everyday life and connect with your emotions through colourful installations that inspire relaxation, excitement and happiness.

Colour yourself happy

There is a proven link between brightly coloured home decor and our levels of happiness. As a result, homeowners have become much braver with colour choices and so minimalistic, modern living spaces are gaining an injection of colour and personality through paint, fabrics, wallpaper and decor.

As an example, people aren’t adding coloured cushions to neutral seating anymore. Instead they are choosing sunshine yellow or burnt orange sofas and accent chairs, adding smaller tonal soft furnishings as a finishing touch. It’s wonderful to see people switch their living spaces in this way to create a feel-good space.

Avalana Design Zebra print wallpaper with orange accent chair

Plants and biophilia

The use of real plants in living spaces, hallways, kitchens and powder rooms not only make spaces more appealing and feel more alive but they also play a role in our overall health. Plants help reduce stress and anxiety and filter the air. What I really admire about house plants though is the way it helps to brighten up a space or add colour in a very neutral scheme. Pops of bright greens instantly harmonise against beige walls and marble surfaces while oversized dark green palms offer a touch of luxe set against moody blues and black. The first step of adding plants in your designs is analysing the space and understanding the strongest and weakest points of a room. Observe what part of the space can be brightened up and where you can add more static pieces. Walk around the rooms to ensure the plants that need light will

thrive and plants that don’t require much sunlight can transform a darker pocket of the property.

Allow ideas and memories take centre stage

If you don’t yet have any framed art to add to your walls, do consider adding to your home. Art has the power to uplift mood and switch up the atmosphere of a space. You may love contemporary patterns or be inspired by watercolour, either way filling a blank space will allow yourself to feel like you have added to your property in a way that reflects your style and personality. To truly make a house feel like home, get your photographs framed and in place around the home to instantly fill your new pad with precious memories. Hanging art, photographs and prints is much all about the balance of space, proportion and colour so take your time. Art and images are emotive and evoke feelings so the way they are to be displayed is crucial. Once you have chosen your artwork, lay it against the walls in the rooms you’d like them to feature, noticing how the light works with them throughout the day. You don’t want the sun to reflect off the frame so think also about the practicalities of the room. A small picture can be lost on a large wall, while a more substantial artwork could dominate a room.

Avalana Design Hoopoe Art Print

Create spa-like sanctuaries

Statement walls are no longer there to just wow guests in entrance rooms. Instead, colour, intricate murals and hand-drawn scenes are being added to bathrooms and powder rooms to create spa-like sanctuaries for the homeowners themselves to relax, unwind in and appreciate every day.

I love how my murals have helped people bring their own visions to life and some of the bathrooms that I’ve seen being transformed this year have been truly remarkable. These designated spaces. One of the key bathroom trends currently is a fusion of Eastern and Western design. Adding a completed oriental scene to your bathroom wall creates an instant focal point. Silvers and deep greens add harmony while hand-drawn Herons wading through silvery lily ponds and framed by interesting foliage results in a show stopping and perfectly balanced theme. Complete the look with modern basins and tiling and copper or gold taps and bath feet.

Avalana Design Silver Orient Wall Mural is perfect for bathrooms