Does Your Home Still Feel Stuffy & Compressed, Despite Beautiful Decors? Consider This

There are many ways to make a house a home. Of course, the “right way” will be defined differently depending on who you ask, and with our families and various life responsibilities to take care of, sometimes our home design is a matter of circumstance as opposed to strict artistic effort.

That being said, there’s no one better to define if your household is right for you than you. For this reason, making those adjustments that seem rational and healthy to your own perspective is a good approach to take, no matter what an article like this could suggest.

However, what if you’ve done everything right so far? What if you’ve designed your home well, spent time keeping it in good condition, have nice decorations, and ensured the home isn’t cluttered, and yet still it feels stuffy and compressed?

Well, never fear, because perhaps there are a few adjustments you haven’t quite tried yet. With that in mind, let’s consider how to resolve a stuffy and compressed household:

Utilize Vertical Space

A common way for a home to feel “incomplete” is for its walls to be completely barren. That’s not to say you need a shelf on every wall or a huge decoration in every area, sometimes empty space leads to a sense of moderation and openness. However, if it’s just pure walls, sometimes the space can feel a little unlived in and clinical. That’s why having a couple of simple framed photographs or artworks, a shelf here and there, a well-placed mirror to reflect natural light, and even a vertical shelf with segments can work. This can also help you remove some of the surface tables or other ornaments you may have placed waist-high, creating more variance and elevation, so the whole room feels included in one area.

Consider Air Quality & Comfort

It might not be your fault at all, but sometimes a combination of general pollution from a suburban area, pets and the hairs they give off dust from the road, and intense heat or direct sunlight can make a room feel oppressive. In this scenario, you might find a great deal of value in custom air filters. Not only do these help to filter out the air and remove dust or pollutants, but they also make the space feel more breathable and comfortable to occupy in kind. This can help the air feel less oppressive, which you might not “see” but can feel. You can also improve the “breathability factor” by adding greenery into the space.

Rearrange Furniture Layout

Perhaps your home looks beautiful and has been designed with the perfect color palette, but in some rooms the furniture isn’t quite as optimally placed as it could be. It’s not always easy to identify that until you’ve lived in it for several days. For example, you might find that your coffee table is placed so that you can’t quite open your living room door all the way. Or, maybe your wardrobe is protruding out over the window and blocking a small portion of the natural light you could be enjoying.

Maybe the navigability of the room is wanting thanks to where you’ve placed a table or a set of chairs, meaning you have to arc around to the seating area instead of directly walking to the couch. It could be that removing an often-unused chair can help you open a little more space, or even selecting a larger rug so you can place your coffee table a little further out will help. Don’t worry if you fail to get it right the first time, a few adjustments tend to help us see the room in a new light. It may be that you’ll angle an armchair and suddenly everything clicks into place.

Create Defined Zones

It’s true that with so many utilities that apply to different spaces, rooms can feel more universal than ever. Heck, you may even have a television in your kitchen or a radio in your shower. That being said, it’s not like you’re going to crowd into the dry shower with your family to listen to the radio on a comfortable Sunday evening. For this reason, it’s still worthwhile to create defined zones for each space.

That might mean making sure your breakfast bar is firmly designed to be “part of the kitchen” even if that connects to an open plan lounge. You can achieve this by matching the trimmings, materials, and even lighting to create that visual definition. This way, our brains don’t have to work overtime in a huge blend that seems to incorporate most of the house. Sometimes, a little definition is a good thing.

With this advice, you’ll be certain to keep your home feeling light and airy, even if you’ve nailed the decors thus far.