How do I make my home feel calmer?

How calm a home feels depends less on how it is decorated than on how much visual and auditory noise it contains. Clear surfaces, layered lighting and reduced background noise all have an immediate effect and none requires redecoration.

What you'll need

• Storage for surface clutter
• Lamps (optional)
• Soft furnishings (optional)

Step by step

1. Clear the horizontal surfaces first.Worktops, tables, windowsills, the top of drawers. Visual clutter on surfaces is the largest single contributor to a home feeling chaotic.
2. Give every frequently-used item a home so surfaces stay clear.Things end up on surfaces because they have nowhere else to go. Clearing without solving that is temporary.
3. Replace a single overhead light with two or three softer sources.One central ceiling light flattens a room and leaves dark corners. Lamps at different heights transform how a space feels in the evening.
4. Use warmer bulbs in the evening.Around 2700K reads as warm and domestic. Cooler bulbs above 4000K read as office lighting.
5. Address the background noise you have stopped noticing.An extractor fan, a fridge, a boiler, traffic. Soft furnishings, rugs and curtains absorb reflection and make a room measurably quieter.
6. Add soft texture — rugs, curtains, cushions.Hard surfaces reflect sound. A room with a rug and full curtains sounds noticeably calmer than the same room without.
7. Create one uncluttered space that stays that way.A single clear chair, corner or table. It gives the eye somewhere to rest and it is easier to maintain than a whole room.
8. Reduce visible cables and screens.Cable management and putting devices away when not in use removes a surprising amount of visual noise.

Tips

• Do the clearing at a time of day when the room is naturally used — the problems are more obvious in context.
• Plants add texture and soften a room, and they measurably improve how people report a space feels.
• A home that is calm to look at is usually one where everything has an obvious place, rather than one that has been recently tidied.

Common mistakes

• Clearing surfaces without giving items a home — They return within days because there is still nowhere else for them to go.
• Relying on one overhead light — It flattens the room and creates dark corners, which reads as harsh and unwelcoming.
• Ignoring background noise — You stop noticing it consciously but it continues to affect how the space feels.

Questions people ask