Interior Design, Wellbeing and Mental Health Week

Use nature to support mental wellbeing

A key theme of Mental Health Week is recognising the positive impact of nature on our mental wellbeing. Incorporating greenery or flowers into your home—whether a desk plant in your home office, summer garden blooms, or bee-friendly plants with mini shelters—can lift your mood, reduce stress, and strengthen your connection to the wider environment.

Similarly, natural materials like wood in furniture or window blinds, as well as floral or vegetable-inspired prints, help bring a sense of calm and rootedness to your living spaces.

Complement these natural elements with soft, tactile touches such as cushions, throws, or velvet Roman blinds, which create a comforting sensory experience and promote mindfulness and relaxation.

Use colour for mental health

For millennia, societies have understood the important relationship between colour and emotion. Colour therapy – sometimes called chromotherapy – is an alternative remedy that seeks to use colour and light to treat mental and physical health.

Whether you believe in chakras or not, it is well known that colour can impact our moods. There is even evidence to suggest colour has an effect on us physically with reds raising the heart rate and blue reducing it.

Shades of green and blue are particularly calming, while purples and lilacs may help manage low mood or mild depression. Bright, warm colours like yellow, orange, red, and pink can energise and boost happiness, while dustier tones provide comfort and grounding.

For those working or studying from home, colour can also support focus and productivity. Green is especially relaxing and provides a ‘restorative experience’, so consider incorporating leafy plants, soft green furnishings, or window blinds in your workspace. Blue, when used in softer tones, can also help with mentally demanding tasks by supporting concentration without creating a cold or clinical atmosphere. A green roman blind paired with a dusty-blue lampshade is a simple way to energise your work area while maintaining calm and focus.

We recently explored the power of colour in our Psychology of Colour: Positive Colours blog which investigates how different tones can help improve your positivity.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that colour for mental health is very personal.

If a shade makes you happy, even if others disagree, embrace it – personal expression reduces anxiety and promotes wellbeing. Pair colours with round shapes in furniture, mirrors, lamps, or curtain designs to enhance feelings of calm and happiness.

Natural Light Matters

Natural light is also important to our mental wellbeing, and something about fluorescent tubes just doesn’t cut the mustard. When it comes to light management, consider the purpose of the space and work from there. If you’re creating a living room designed purely for relaxation, a simple “open or shut” option like a roller blind may be ideal. For softer light and a calm, airy feel, voiles can help gently diffuse daylight while maintaining privacy. In more multi-functional spaces where lighting needs change throughout the day, wooden and illusion blinds offer greater flexibility, giving you more control over the levels of natural light entering your home

Sleep and mental health go hand-in-hand. If one suffers from mental health issues, their sleep can be negatively impacted. Likewise if someone struggles to get a good night’s sleep, their mental health can suffer. Therefore, it’s in everyone’s interest to get a good night’s sleep as regularly as possible.

Recently, we compiled a study that investigated the external factors that can negatively affect our sleep. The Wake up Well campaign identified light, noise and temperature as leading factors to poor sleep which in turn can harm our mental health.

1. Define your sleep schedule and stick to it

2. Use a blackout blind or curtain to make your room as dark as possible

3. Pre-empt changes to your sleep cycle if you’re transitioning back to office work