Wellbeing and Small Spaces

So, how can you design living and working small spaces that increase your wellbeing and, gasp, your pleasure?=

Keeping our early days as a species in mind, when we may even on occasion have lived in the tiniest of dens, as you create a tiny home or workplace, is a good idea.  In other words, design biophilicly.

• Make sure that your tiny place is flooded with natural light during the day but very dark at night if you are also sleeping there. Natural light has a very positive effect on our mood, wellbeing, and cognitive performance, so whether you are living or working in your tiny space, natural light is a plus.
• Glare is the unwanted companion that often arrives with natural light. Try to minimize it by using matte instead of shiny surfaces in places where the light will fall and carefully positioning mirrors so they don’t create a “glare-out.”  Often if you place a seat perpendicular to the surface of a window, you can reduce glare on screens, in your eyes, etc.
• Natural light is great, but sometimes the sun does set. Use dimmer, warmer light to relax, socialize, think creatively.  Use brighter cooler light to focus/concentrate and be more active.  For best results, but those warmer bulbs in tabletop or floor lamps and the cooler ones overhead.
• Natural light can make a space hot, so it’s important the HVAC system (even if that’s fans and a window you can open) can cool your home to a comfortable temperature (the silver lining—if your space is cold, all the natural light may help with that). To make a space seem a little cooler or a little warmer (differences of up to 5 degrees Fahrenheit in perceived temperature might ensue) use cool or warm colours on surfaces.  Spaces where cooler colours predominate seem to have lower ambient temperatures than spaces where warmer colours are more prevalent.
• Use lighter colours, whether they’re warm or cool, on walls to make a space seem a little larger than it actually is. If your tiny space is an odd shape and it seems like a good idea to “regularlize” it, put a darker colour on walls as needed to draw them in, to make them seem a little closer and the area a less distracting shape.  Using the same lighter colours throughout a space and not a bigger mix will also help a small space seem like a good place.
• Use natural materials, such as wood whose grain shows, or stone where you can. Leather, copper, and other options that develop a patina over time (because they age wonderfully, not because you forget to clean them), are great choices.  They help keep stress levels in check, and being in a small space can be quite stressful.
• The ultimate in natural materials are green leafy plants inside your home or office. They’ll also be comforting as they improve your physical and mental wellbeing (and performance).
• We link curving lines (in 2-dimensions in upholstery fabrics and 3-dimensions in the shape of the back of sofas, for instance) to comfort and relax in their presence while straight lines and right or similar angles single efficiency and action. Even though you need your tiny space to be effectively designed, being in it can, at minimum, tinge toward the stressful, so use curving lines when you can, in art, towels, table legs, etc.
• Keep the visual clutter down. Storage (bins, etc., that you can’t see into) is your friend.  Want to know how much to store and how much to share?  Look at a residential interior designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, such as this one, and compare the number of colours and patterns and level of organization (symmetry, etc.) in your space to what you see.
• A small space with windows that open will link you to the outdoors and its (hopefully) fresh smells. If opening the windows isn’t possible, consider adding relaxing scents, such as lavender, to your tiny space.  (For more on functional scenting at homes and offices, read these articles.)
• If you can hear nature when you open those windows (which you hopefully have in your tiny space), great. If not, try adding a nature soundscape (burbling brooks, quietly singing songbirds, gently rustling leaves and grasses) to your small area.  Those sorts of sounds will put you in the mood to do your best “small” living.

Opportunities for mental refreshment are important anywhere but particularly in small spaces.  Read this article, to learn about how you can refresh in your small space via art, etc.