Ask a designer: Improving your home’s function as refuge

Clutter adds low-level stress to many homes

WBy Melissa Rayworth

hen your entire life is happening inside your home, it matters how that space feels and functions.

Interior designers often focused on this even before self-quarantine, asking clients how they spend their time at home and how various rooms might make them happier. These questions get at the real purpose of a well-designed home.

And now they seem more important than ever.

“We’re expecting more from our homes than we ever have before, and they can serve us in more ways than we’ve asked in the past,” says New York-based interior designer Carolyn DiCarlo. “We’ve historically looked to trends or magazines to tell us what to put in our homes. But now is a different time. It’s time to consider our home as our personal place of refuge, and how to make that happen.”

Here, DiCarlo and two other interior designers — New York-based Jenny Dina Kirschner and South Carolina-based Elizabeth Stuart — share advice on how they create homes that

This photo provided by interior designer Carolyn DiCarlo shows a bedroom designed by DiCarlo in New York. DiCarlo created the serene bedroom for the client by combining soft colors, the harmonic forms of African art and a Biedermeier chair, and a cozy reading chair

by the window that is bathed in gentle afternoon light. (AP)

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These changes don’t have to be complicated or expensive. They just involve asking the right questions.

First: What do you see when you walk in the door?

Entering our homes after a trip to a store has become newly stressful, but it’s always been important, says Stuart. Improving the first 4 feet of space when you walk in, Stuart says, can improve the way you feel at home.

Especially if you enter through a garage or mudroom, she says, make sure “that first thing you have when you come home is not chaos.”

Consider creating a neater, cleaner entryway with a bench or chair where you can remove shoes (and use hand sanitizer); dedicated spots for items like keys; appealing lighting; and perhaps a diffuser with a calming fragrance. You can even add easy access to something comforting, like a cold drink.

Plan these spaces with your temperament and wellness in mind, DiCarlo says. For example, those prone to depression might benefit from adding warmer colors.

Next, DiCarlo encourages people to walk through each room of their home and notice: Does it feel unwelcoming or disorganized? Which rooms reflect who you are, or aim to be, and which don’t?

“I look to see where their lack of ease is,” DiCarlo explains. “That’s sort of the meat of how you get into this exploration.”

Kirschner recommends a similar approach, and says it often leads clients to realize they want more organization or a less sterile, more welcoming home. Gray is a popular color in decor, but a room decorated mainly in stylish gray and white can feel dreary or cold. If so, add bright colors by ordering a few new items or bringing in bright pieces from other rooms.

And when it becomes possible to renovate again, consider adding or changing windows. Kirschner had a client who wanted a more open and airy home. “She had a duplex, so we cut a hole out of the ceiling over the living room to get double height,” and added glass panels along one wall, Kirschner says.

Rearranging your furniture to maximize how much light you get at different times of day can be an easy fix, DiCarlo says. (AP)