Watched The 5 Secrets to Designing a Feelgood Home

Watched The 5 Secrets to Designing a Feelgood Home

The challenge

Not trusting yourself

• stuck in inspiration mode
• indecision and overwhelm
• “design by default” (e.g. just pick the neutral)

these are symptoms that you’re overwhelmed by external voices and can’t hear your own inner voice

These feel like they apply far beyond simply home design, to all aspects of life decision-making.

–> to get unstuck, tune out others’ opinions, tune in to your own intuition

Prompt: secret room in your house — what is it like?

This is tricky for me because I’m too rooted in function, so would need to know what I’d use the secret room for first 😂 But I guess identifying what I’d want to do there could indicate a lack in my current space? 🤔

–> pay attention to the gap between your fantasies and your reality

See also: The fears that hold us back

See also: You need to know what you want to find joy

Starting with look not feel

Bad places to start designing a space:

• picking paint colors
• make a moodboard on Pinterest
• make a floor plan
• pick a style

puts the emphasis on how it looks instead of how it feels

See also: Make your home a sanctuary

See also: Coziness comes from life

Ignoring how spaces make us feel

How often do you feel…?

• agitated, on edge
• lethargic, drowsy
• struggle to be productive
• unmotivated, unspired
• irritable, spiky

–> how much does your space influence your emotions?

Prompt: pay attention to how you feel in different spaces, what the energy is like

See also: Overcoming home design challenges

See also: When your space feels off

Thinking you need to buy new stuff to improve design

“When a home is just a collection of stuff, decorating becomes a shopping list.”

Designing a home isn’t an act of consumption. It’s an act of creation.”

Prompt: what moments do you want to create in your home? what’s one moment that matters you could design for?

The approach

–> pick three words (or a short phrase) to describe how you want the space to feel (can also do for whole house)

can also pay attention to how spaces currently make you feel

Prompt: describe how you want to feel in your home in 3 words

–> instead of feeling you need to “get it right,” focus on what feels good

–> think in terms of spectrum to help choose a direction (e.g. complex vs. simple)

The theory

• Valence: how good or bad it feels
• Arousal: how stimulating it is
  • too low –> draining, depleting
  • medium –> centered, balanced
  • too high –> irritating, agitating

Prompt: do you need to raise or lower your home’s arousal level?