A Room That Meets Your Emotional Needs

by Melissa Wittig.

Just like food can feed the soul, so too can your home.

When we watch children and see the things that bring them comfort there is confirmation that a room can touch human emotions. When a child is ill just being in their parents room is generally more emotionally comforting than being elsewhere. For many of us our homes evolve over time as we collect items and lifestyles merge from all those living in the house. In order to create a home that holds a soul rather than just “things” you need to explore your lifestyle, physical needs, personal style and preferences. There is more to designing a house than drawing the plans and creating a functional space. In order to meet the holistic needs of the occupant a functional space should be the bi-product of physical needs, personal priorities and emotional needs of the user. An emotional house is not the house that necessarily receives a “Wow” response, it is more the home that ignites an Ahhh response, feeling of ease, comfort and security.

At this stage you may be thinking “but my home is comfortable”, however we are trying to distinguish here between an environment that is comfortable with an environment that you enter that is comfortable but also evokes a positive emotional response from you, beyond “ok”. A sensory reaction that compliments your use for the room, eg. soothing, relaxing and revitalising for a bathroom or a home office space that is stimulating, inspiring and organised.

A bad day out may redeem itself when we are in the comfort of our lounge, in a favourite chair surrounded by our own things Many of us can appreciate the feeling of returning home from a holiday and feeling the sensation of comfort when walking through the door of our home.

When living in a substantial space, such as a house with many rooms, often there is a room that does not get as much use, is not as inviting and generally doesn’t have warm appeal. This is a room where the occupants emotional needs are not being met by the space.

If your home or a room in your home does not reflect you and you don’t get a comforting Ahhh feeling when you walk through the door perhaps you need to overhaul your surroundings and plug into what makes you and your experiences in life unique. Look back into your past and think of things that have made you smile.

An example of this may be:

As a child you collected stamps, dig out the old stamp collection and choose a few that have sentimental value. Have these stamps photocopied onto large paper or printed onto canvass to hang on the wall. A happy memory of childhood and of time spent that has contributed to making you who you are today.

Creating an emotional home or space often involves little expense, it is merely the exercise of taking time out to think about precious memories and valuing sentimental items that may often be discarded as rubbish, eg. old concert tickets, collected bottle top lids, first piece of furniture or vintage family photo. These can all be turned into personal, sentimental works of art and incorporated into your decor. A meeting of function and sentiment to create a unique home that supports the unique you.