Famous Furniture that’s mattered
Furniture regularly determines our mood in a space, with ramifications for our wellbeing, cognitive performance, as discussed in this article. In “The 25 Most Defining Pieces of Furniture from the Last 100 Years,” Nick...
Visual density and choices made by people who are suffering ill health
Yi and colleagues found “that consumers under disease threat are less willing to buy products presented in a dense display. This is because disease threat activates a high-density avoidance mindset, which is carried over...
Choosing a New Place… The LONG READ
Relocating, changing where you live can be a jarring experience. There are all sorts of practical things that you need to figure out when you move – like the fastest route to the market...
Packing and Un-packing…
When you are getting ready to move, what should you pack first, unpack first, not pack at all? When you are getting ready to move the thought of getting everything you own into boxes...
Fix-it-up Timeline… what should you tackle first and why…
Even if you move into a brand-new home, one that has never been lived in by anyone else, you’ll need to make some changes before your new house becomes your new home. The first...
Building in Privacy
If you were at all happy in your old home you had privacy when you wanted it. To be happy in your new home your need to make sure that you do. Privacy is...
Language and Design Communication
Have you ever had the experience that you just seem to be unable to communicate with someone about design (or some other topic for that matter)? Your inability to communicate may be because they...
Sleep Tourism and Cocoons! Environmental Psych in the News
It seems a lot of us are having trouble sleeping in our homes (see this article for neuroscience research-based insights on creating a place where people sleep well). So many of us are sleep...
BBC’s Most Remarkable Homes
Dominic Lutyens has taken a look around our wide, wide world and identified the 8 homes he finds most remarkable, because of their design and earth friendly features (2024, BBC, “Eight of the World’s...
Future more Accessible Spaces
As Jordan Valinsky and Eva Rothenberg report in “Here’s What the Starbucks of the Future Looks Like” (2024, CNN,https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/17/food/starbucks-accessible-store-design/index.html ) Starbucks is making big changes, ones that should make their sites more pleasantly accessible...
Sound Masking and Mental Health
Bergefurt and teammates report that “To date, most studies on sound masking are short-term laboratory studies. . . . The current study aims to evaluate, using a longitudinal field study . . . at...
Sitting, Standing and Health
Nguyen and colleagues report that their “research evaluated the cost-effectiveness of three hypothetical SB interventions: behavioural (BI), environmental (EI) and multi-component intervention (MI). . . . The effectiveness of the modelled interventions in reducing...
Front Door Colours
One of the home design decisions that people agonize over for longest is what colour to paint their front door. There are so many colours to choose from, and the choice seems so significant,...
Battling Burnout with Design
Spring can often seem to be the season for burnout, the winter has been long, and just before the plants really spring back to life, our existences can seem bleak—and we all work too...
What you’re missing (maybe?!)
Dominic Lutyens in an article for bbc.com (“Inside the Homes That ‘Whisper Rather Than Scream Luxury,’” 2024, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240208-inside-the-homes-that-whisper-rather-than-scream-luxury ) writes about the rise of quietly luxurious spaces. As he reports, “In his foreword to...
Attributes of Homes we’re Willing to Pay for
Lou, Wang, Yuan, and Lu used data from Hong Kong to measure assessed WTP (willingness to pay) for various design features in homes: “We first simulate the metrics of five housing attributes under different...
What should your furniture be made of? – The Long Read
After our houses and our cars, our furniture may be our biggest investment. Sofas, chairs, tables . . . none of them come cheap and modern life seems to require multiple pieces for each...
What should the basic form of your furniture be?
Once you decide what materials your furniture should be made of, other questions come to the fore: What should that furniture look like at a very, very basic level? Regardless of our personality, culture,...
Specifically, what should your furniture, literally, feel like?
We tend not to think too much about what a design option feels like when we’re pondering choices available to us—but what we feel with our skin has a powerful effect on how we...
How should you arrange your furniture?
As with so many things, it all depends. How you arrange your furniture should depend on how you intend to use the space it’s in. Logic prevails. And try to invest in the bare...
What style of furniture is best for you and the people you share a space with?
Read this article on personality and design to learn more. Also, remember that furniture style sends all sorts of messages nonverbally. Select accordingly. Are you and your family modern farmers (even though you live...
What other furnishings are best for you and yours? Some links!
In previous issues we’ve talked about using mirrors in your home (here) and plants (for instance here), along with rugs (here), curtains (this article) and so many other things that are in the spaces...
Hygge forever – and that includes if you’re Scottish, Norwegian, Dutch or anything inbetween. The joy of ‘Cosycore’.
Holly Williams, in a recent post on the BBC (2024, “The Joy of ‘Cosycore’ and Hunkering Down,” https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240105-the-joy-of-cosycore-and-hunkering-down) reiterates just how wonderful a cozy, hygge inspired space can be at this time of year. ...
Analysing Spaces – what does your bookshelf say about you?!
Think that nonverbal signaling via design is silly? Read Tim Dowling’s 2024 article in The Guardian, “Shelf-Absorbed: Eight Ways to Arrange Your Bookshelves – And What They Say About You” (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/17/shelf-absorbed-nine-ways-to-arrange-your-bookshelves-and-what-they-say-about-you). Dowling’s work does...
Colouring your best mood
Many of us are not in the best of all moods as we slog our way through the beginning of any year – whether we live in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s just too...
Designing for Creativity
As the new year dawns, many of us decide to spend time at creative endeavours, and design can help with that! The findings that follow are place-independent; they hold, and can be applied, whether...
Stop flies with Yellow!
Khoury reports that “Flies are more than a nuisance. They are the carriers and transmitters of numerous diseases, including particularly dangerous ones such as cholera, typhoid, and gastrointestinal illnesses. . . . In hot,...
Curvy Spaces
Tawil and colleagues’ found that “Previous research suggests that curved vs. angular interior environments trigger affective (e.g., preference). . . . responses. . . . Online participants . . . undertook four randomized tasks...
Light to dark or dark to light?
Su, Zhang, Zhu, and Xia found that “Gradient colours are widely used in product design. The variation of gradient colours muting a colour as a series of steps from bright to dull creates a...
Feeling with your Fingertips – the Long Read
Humans have lots of skin, with lots of nerves embedded in it. All those nerves are churning away, second after second, sending millions of impulses to your brain – giving you all sorts of...
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