I’m a firm believer that the area you spend the majority of your time in needs to be a place where you feel safe to rest, desire to be present and are encouraged to grow within. For most homemakers, your home is the place you clock in the most hours. This is exactly why I want to share with you the significance of creating the atmosphere in your home.
As a young girl I always desired to create a space that made my friends feel good. I didn’t know how else to describe it other than that: a feel good place.
I’ve known even at an early age that the room absolutely influences the inhabitants.
Have you ever stepped foot into a room full of chaos? A room full of anger? A room full of joyful celebration? How about the excitement and anticipation of your favorite musicians at a concert? The room will impact those standing within its four walls.
As a worship leader I had to learn this as well. What I carried onto the platform on a Sunday morning was distributed amongst the congregation. What I carried, what I internalized, others began to feel and receive.
How Five Senses Trigger Memory
Have you ever sniffed a candle and suddenly recalled a nostalgic memory or season in your life? How about taking a bite of your favorite food and feeling like you’ve gone back in time to the first time you fell in love with it? Our senses are largely tied to memory.
Senses are the primary gateway to memory and recall ability because of the unique biological pathways that have been created using them — especially when there’s a significant emotion tied to them.
Our five senses are smell, taste, sound, sight and touch. The key to creating the atmosphere in your home is utilizing all five senses.
Have you ever hosted people for an event? Perhaps you’ve attended an event. I would guarantee all of your senses were being engaged during the event. Let’s paint a picture for an example:
You’re attending a woman’s retreat held in the Appalachian Mountains. You pull into the parking lot and see a beautiful log cabin with green, towering pine trees peaking through the fog behind the peak of the cabin. There are fresh cut flowers lining the porch like a path for you to follow. You step out of the car and feel the moist, mountain air gently press against your bare skin. It’s chilly and leaves you with goosebumps as you reach for your items. You grab your iced coffee and walk toward the front door with your friends. Before you finish walking up the creaky, wooden stairs, the front door opens and you’re greeted by the host with a welcoming smile and kind gesture to enter. As you step foot inside, you smell the delightful warmth of fresh pastries stuffed with sweet and fruity preserves. As you grab a chocolate croissant the flakes gently crunch beneath your finger tips. Your first bite confirms the delicious flavor you prepare for! You make your way to the vaulted living room and hear other women chatting and making small talk.
See? It doesn’t take much to engage all five senses. What takes effort is, as a host or hostess, knowing how to engage your guests in each area.
You might be wondering how to do that in your home. Afterall, your home isn’t for hosting guests daily – or perhaps it is! Either way, creating the atmosphere in your home is still important even if it’s a party of one (you).
CREATING THE ATMOSPHERE: By Sense
You may have ended up on this blog post with hopes of finding tools to stick into your tool belt. Or perhaps you’ve run dry in your creativity and are looking for inspiration as a stay at home mom or wife. I want to share with you some very tangible ways you can engage your family or guests when creating an inviting atmosphere.
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Arguably one of the easiest of the senses to engage. Vision is constant and has an immediate effect in every setting. Here are a few tips for utilizing this sense to create an influential and effective atmosphere in your home:
- Lighting: Utilize light that matches the time of day. Find ways to incorporate natural light when the sun is up and low, warm light when the sun is down. Using LED lights, or bright lights in general including blue lights, during the dark hours actually disrupts our circadian rhythm, therefore affecting things like our metabolism, sleep patterns and energy levels.
Incorporate table lamps, warm lighting and/or floor lights – especially in the living room or another living space. Sometimes simple things make a big difference, especially when incorporating natural materials. - Colors: You wouldn’t believe how influential colors can be when creating a specific atmosphere! Using cool toned colors (white, blue, green and purple) are a great way to elicit feelings of serenity, relaxation and easiness. They create a calming atmosphere, especially when paired with soft lighting.
Warm toned colors (reds, oranges, yellows) will cause an individual to feel energized, optimistic and cheerful. They create a cozy atmosphere.
Naturally I gravitate toward cool tones, incorporating soft whites, natural greens and earthy blues, and pairing them in earthy browns such as walnut. I find this combination to suit our home’s atmosphere well!
If you’re not color-savvy and feel overwhelmed by a room’s colors, you could do a simple ChatGPT request. Take a photo (in day light and evening light) and asked ChatGPT to give you recommended colors that make someone feel/a theme of X, Y or Z aesthetics or “vibes”. We used ChatGPT often to confirm or share the vision my husband and I had when renovating our home. - Staging: Over the years I have observed homes that have been staged well and poorly staged. Most times, people are unwilling or unable to swap furniture for something more appropriate for their new space. And I get it! It can be pricey.
Here’s the thing, staging is just as important as colors and lighting. Why? Because it determines the shape of the room. It can make space feel too small, too big or just down right uncomfortable. I moved furniture around in our home only God knows how many tims…
There isn’t one answer to this topic that I can answer here, but I can tell you what we did in our little home that made it feel even cozier:
Use Shapes: Some people love the square, modern look that’s full of harsh, sharp angels and bold colors. Others, like myself, do not enjoy such an atmosphere. It felt cold and uninviting to me. So we used a healthy amount of shapes. Round clocks, square mirrors, long shelves, and a variety of shelf decor. It just created a cozier environment!
Ceiling heights also affect how to stage a room. Ours are low (8 foot) so we staged with low-back furniture and raised our curtains 6” above the window frame while allowing them to flirt with the floor. Using soft white colors also made the interior of our home appear larger than it is.
Other items we incorporated in our home renovation were soft fabrics, floor lamps, fresh flowers, area rugs, small throw blankets, indoor plants, throw pillows and other personal touches to create an inviting atmosphere. I’d also recommend using items like coffee tables, ambient lighting, live plants or string lights to create a peaceful atmosphere.
Smell
Smell is influential on an individual’s first impression. Typically we engage our smell sense right off the bat, but quickly become adjusted to it as time passes. A smell is also one of the quickest ways to recall a memory. Utilizing this sense when creating the atmosphere in your home is more powerful than you’d think!
- Cleaning: The obvious thing here is a dirty home smells dirty, and a clean home smells clean. Simple as that. Now, not all dirty homes or clean homes smell the same. There are other variables to consider as well!
We do not deep clean regularly. Instead, I tidy and clean often. We own two large dogs and have a five year old at home. Sweeping and vacuuming is mandatory! If we don’t, the hair and crumbs add up quickly. Because of this, we own a Roomba and run it almost every day.
Other regular cleaning routines you could add to your homemaking skills: clean your shower once a week while you’re showering (if you’re using clean ingredients like white vinegar and baking soda). It’s MUCH more convenient.
Wipe kitchen cabinet fronts and counter tops every time you wash dishes (or load the dish washer). Clean out the fridge leftovers once a week. Mop on the rare day it’s just you at home (if ever; otherwise plan it).
Run a clean cycle with baking soda and white vinegar in your washer once every few weeks. Allow clean clothes to lay flat, and sorted in your laundry room, then dedicate one day a week to fold them all while binging your favorite Netflix or YouTube show. - Added Fragrance: I will be the first to tell you to pitch the candles, Febreze, room sprays and wall plug-ins that all claim to “make your home smell better”. You know what they’re not doing? Making your room any healthier or better smelling. Those fragrances are loaded with harsh chemicals and toxins that you are slowly emitting into your home to cover up undesirable smells.
If you don’t like the way your home smells, find the source. Is it your dogs? Is it your scented trash bags and poorly ventilated trash? Is it your stinky couch? Is it rugs that haven’t been washed in years? Is it food sitting on dirty dishes? Dirty pipes that desperately need cleaned? Find the source of the unpleasant smell and address it first.
Once you’re ready to create a specific smell in your home, it’s time to use natural and healthy options. We use clean, soy or beeswax candles scented with essential oils; room diffusers with trusty essential oil brands (not those cheap, watered down ones) or we simply just open up our windows for fresh air. - Air Purifying: It’s not uncommon for most homes (especially recent builds) to have built in air purifying systems. However, that’s not the case for every home. We upgraded our HVAC system to a purifying one when we had to buy a new system. We also utilize a room air purifier during the winter months when the air is stagnant and windows are closed. It’s just another way to create a soothing atmosphere. Plus – ours has the most subtle white noise and I love it!
Touch
More research is coming to the surface about how different fabrics elicit different responses in our biology. What I know is some are better than others. We do our best to stick to pure, natural fibers the best we can, but we certainly are not perfect with it. It can be expensive! There are different ways to engage someone’s touch sense when creating the atmosphere in your home.
- Texture: We are big fans of creating a cozy atmosphere where we can snuggle up, relax and rest. That means lots of soft (not scratchy) throw pillows and throw blankets. We also utilize area rugs to create more warm, inviting atmospheres.
It’s also worth considering textures around you, such as wall texture and furniture textures (smooth, patterned, flat, bumpy, etc.). Combining both flat and dimensional textures can engage someone’s touch sense very well!
Taste
One of my favorite senses to engage! I am the stereotypical “woman in the kitchen”. I love to cook delicious food, bake aromatic pastries and feed my people. If you’ve been to my home… you know how important this is to me!
- Tradition + Memory: Many families have unique traditions having to do with food. I know we do! I have several brothers who look forward to Mom’s no bake cookies every holiday season. Without them, it’s just not the same.
Engaging the taste sense is influential! Food warms the soul, feeds the belly and unites people through the history of food and its stories.
Sound
Often not a sense we give much attention to unless it’s unusual. For example, we notice if it’s noisy or terrifyingly quiet. We also recognize when certain music is playing and how it makes us feel. As a music therapist by trade (surprise!) I know the power of music. I understand how it literally affects the way our brains respond, therefore affecting how our body responds.
- Noise: Music sets the scene. BBQs during the 4th of July typically utilize country or rock music. Swimming pools will utilize radio pop. Coffee shops will create calming environments using soft jazz or instrumental music.
Music meets us where we are and functions like a vehicle to take us where we want to go (or feel).
I always have soft, gentle or instrumental music playing in the mornings. I’ve also asked our Alexa to play bird sounds. It’s gentle on the body and mind when you’re not fully prepared for the day.
“How Does This Room Make Me Feel?”
All of this information may leave you excited and eager to make such a shift in your home environment, or possibly you feel overwhelmed… haha! The good news is there’s grace for both responses. Social media will convince you that if every room in your home doesn’t look just as you want it to right now, you haven’t made it or you have failed.
The truth? You must take it one room, one nook, at a time.
A music student of mine once gifted me a tiny, wooden elephant named “Gracie”. Her presence is a reminder to take everything one bite at a time. And that is exactly what you must do when creating the atmosphere in your home. Start in the dining room. Start in your family room. Start with the reading nook.
Perhaps you live in a small apartment and just need to declutter and focus on the first room you see when you open the door.
Wherever you begin, first ask yourself, “how does this room make me feel?” and go from there.
If it makes you feel overwhelmed – it’s time to declutter.
If it makes you feel exposed to the world and fearful – it’s time to add curtains or plush textures to make you feel cozier and safer.
If it makes you feel cold and exposed – it’s time to add natural elements, warm tones and little details here and there.
Remember all of your senses will create an overall feeling. What feeling do you experience when you step into a room?
Maintaining The Atmosphere In Your Home
Once you begin to make changes in your home, you’ll notice it takes effort to maintain them – at first. Once you create a routine this changes become like second nature.
Give yourself grace.
Allow the mess to happen. Allow the clutter to build. Allow the paint to chip. Allow the space to become unlike it was. Then get back after it. Schedule a day to clean and get everything back to how you like it. Remember, a “lived-in” home is a GOOD thing. It’s a blessing!
Personally, I make it my goal to clean up as I go throughout the day. That’s with the exception of a few things like dishes, clothes and toddler toys scattered amongst the floor. There are some things that can be tidied once everyone’s in bed or when you can send them outside for an hour and turn on some worship music.
Consistency is key. But so is grace.
Follow this 4 week series of different homemaking skills and routines we have in our home over on our YouTube channel!
Much love,
Courtney Michel
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