'Comfort decorating' is all about making your home a sanctuary
Look around — at your walls, your bed, maybe even your desk, if you've been working remotely. Does your space stress you out?
Explore Life Kit
This story comes from Life Kit, NPR's family of podcasts to help make life better — covering everything from exercise to raising kids to making friends. For more, sign up for the newsletter, and follow @NPRLifeKit on Twitter.
The places we spend the most time in have a huge impact on our mindset. That's why since the coronavirus pandemic began, lots of people have been remaking their homes to become more cozy, more calming and more efficient. In other words, they're creating spaces where they really want to be.
It's called "comfort decorating," and it can provide a sense of normalcy even when everything around us feels, well, not very normal.
For more on what comfort decorating is and how to do it, check out this guide with lots of ideas from Apartment Therapy.
Small touches can make a big difference. You'll want to think about color: Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist and principal at Design With Science, says blues create calm and greens elicit creativity.
Bring in some nostalgia with old objects to remind yourself about what's important in your life, and swap them out regularly if they make your space feel cluttered.
A sense of control over your space, says Augustin, "boosts your mood, and that helps you get along with others and helps you solve problems effectively."
For more on comfort decorating and tips for your home, from Augustin and interior designer Dabito, press play on the audio above or listen here.
The podcast version of this episode was produced by Audrey Nguyen. The digital version was produced by Clare Lombardo. Josh Newell provided engineering support.
We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.
For more Life Kit, subscribe to our newsletter.