How To Incorporate Dopamine Decor To Benefit Your Mental Health

Everyone who likes to read about home interior design has heard about the new phenomenon of dopamine dressing. Celebrities, influencers and interior designers alike are all discussing and trying out this new trend. Many people are claiming it to be the main thing that could transform your space and improve your mental health – after all, many people often say that your living space reflects your frame of mind. It is by far one of the biggest home interior trends of 2023. However, what exactly does ‘dopamine decor’ mean and how could it benefit your mental health? 

What Is Dopamine Decor? 

Dopamine is widely considered to be the ‘happy chemical’ – it is the chemical that fills our brains when we experience happiness. The chemical dopamine influences your mood and your feelings, so it is a very important part of your brain. Dopamine decor and dressing, therefore, refers to decor that makes you feel happy. It is one of the best ways you can improve your living spaces and make you feel better in your everyday life. It has been proven that making your living area happy to be in can improve your mental health, and make you feel much happier. 

Dopamine decor usually refers to items that are brightly coloured, have lots of patterns, or have really interesting prints. You don’t need to make your home look like a psychedelic acid trip to experience the positive effects of dopamine decor and home dressing – by just incorporating a few coloured items into your home design, you can make your home spaces feel much happier. 

Bright colours such as bubblegum pinks, fiery reds, sunshine yellows and ocean blues are some of the most popular colour schemes in dopamine decor. It often takes inspiration from 60s and 70s psychedelic decor. Colour block style independent art is also very popular when it comes to dopamine optimised homes, and often is available in every size from small art prints to large murals. But how can you start to incorporate dopamine decor into your interior design, and how could it benefit your mental health? 

Go Pink Or Blue

The prospect of turning your home into a neon sanctuary can be a bit overwhelming – bright colours such as tiger orange and chartreuse can sometimes get a reputation for being overpowering. Although these colours can look amazing as part of your home interiors, they can seem a bit daunting at first.  However, if you want your home to look brighter without hurting your eyes, you might want to try bright pink or blue shades. These colours are vibrant enough to make you happy without being too intense and can have an equally calming and stimulating effect. If you want to try out the world of dopamine dressing, pink or blue may be the safest colour scheme choices for you. 

Get Inspiration

Contrary to popular belief, dopamine dressing and decor isn’t just about collating a lot of bright, patterned items. There should be a ‘method to your madness’ – picking colour schemes and themes that go together will make you a lot happier. If you just select bright decor choices at random, this could make your home lack cohesion and end up making you feel overwhelmed or overstimulated. Try to get inspiration from popular dopamine decor dressers and make a scrapbook of your favourite designs and looks, so you can start decorating your home with some ideas in mind. 

If That Fails, Try Pastels

When people first try to foray into dopamine decor for their homes, they tend to get a lot of brightly coloured neon items with a lot of psychedelic patterns. However, depending on the type of person you are, this could actually make your mental health worse. Many people find this style to be overwhelming and can make them feel worse! However, if you still want to incorporate some pleasing colours into your decor to make your spaces more interesting, you could try using pastel colours. Pastel colours are proven to be calming, but can also make the space much happier than the usual beiges and greys. 

Try It Out In One Room

If you’re still a bit wary about incorporating dopamine decor into your home spaces, why not choose one room and put all of your interior decorating efforts onto that specific room? For example, why not choose a room you often relax in, such as your bedroom or your living room? This will allow you to see if you personally find the dopamine decor trend good for your mental health, and allow you to see if you feel great with the decor you’ve chosen. If you find that it’s making you feel happier and relaxed, you can then expand into the rest of your home. 

Go Au Naturel 

Many people feel wary about dopamine dressing because it can sometimes seem like a lot of trinkets and ornaments. However, there are many natural ways you can add more colour to your home without buying things you don’t need. For example, you could start buying colourful floral arrangements to decorate the centrepieces and tables in your home. This way you can add a bit more dopamine to your interior decor, without having a lot of ornaments you can’t get rid of. Bright flowers and plants are natural, and as well as being colourful, having plants in your home has been proven to improve your mood and mental health. 

Be True To Yourself 

Although getting inspiration from influencers and interior design writers can be helpful, don’t make your dopamine decor home a copy of magazines and blogs. The main focus of dopamine dressing is to find items that make you feel happy and decorate your home with them. If you’re buying items that other people love, but you don’t, it could be more negative to your mental health. Before you buy something, really think about whether or not you actually love it – this will help you make your home the happiness sanctuary you want it to be. 

Use Pops Of Colour 

Dopamine dressing doesn’t have to involve repainting your walls with a lot of bright colours and designs and buying hundreds of neon ornaments. You can incorporate dopamine decor into your home without spending too much money. You can just add a few pops of colour to your home to inject a bit more happiness into it. For example, why not get a few brightly coloured luxury cushion covers to improve your seating areas and sofa? Or, you could just add a few rugs to your floors to make the place a little bit brighter. This way, you can make your room look a bit happier without completely overpowering your space or spending too much money. 

Colour theorists and interior designers alike have made the connection between bright colours and patterns in home design and an improved mood. Many creators have attested to the fact that dopamine decor has improved their mental health and made them feel a lot happier day-to-day. If you’re bored and sad with your home interiors, you should definitely use some of these tips and give dopamine dressing a try – it could be one of the best things you can do for your everyday happiness.