Interior Design Books
How They Calm Us
We all love to flick through the pages of interior design books and look at the way rooms have been beautifully laid out. But did you know that you looking through these books brings us a calmness to our day-to-day lives without you even realising it. We will explore the ways in which interior design books may may us feel calmer.
Visual Calmness
When we look at glossy pages in interior design books of a room that is bright and fresh with neutral pale colours of creams, whites, blues and such, we feel an instant calmness which sends us into relaxation mode. We begin to think how that would look in our space in the home. We immediately block out any stresses that we have experienced during the day and begin to focus on changing our room just like the stunning image in the interior design book. Suddenly we have something positive to think about taking our mind off the daily stresses of life. Our room could be filled with toys, washing, shoes lying about and electronics on the coffee table like mobile phones, remote controls but looking at the image in the book with its natural looking lighting and soft clean fabrics brings us calmness as serotonin is boosted by light colours regardless of how untidy the readers room looks at that moment in time. If we feel calm our thinking is more rational. We truly believe that if we could get our room looking just as spacious, bright and relaxing as the image we our room would be more of a chilled-out place to sit and relax. Organised layouts reduce stress so even by flicking the pages we can our reducing our heart rate and blood pressure a little as what happens when you’re relaxing.
Fresh Ideas
Once we chosen an image of a room in the interior design book, we start to think about giving our room a new lease of life. A brighter, cleaner and fresher room which offers more space. We spend time browsing the web to find paints, fabrics and ornaments and such to get the products as close to the image as we can. The interior design is showing us that you too can have a nice organised room filled with light to relax in. We feel relaxed knowing that we are changing our room to a more organised and welcoming and a pleasure to put your feet up and relax just like you want to do in the picture.
This organisation will carry on when as we begin to de-clutter our room to move furniture about to make extra space. We begin to be more orderly in the home clearing away things in other rooms like in the bedroom images which once we have done makes us feel better and we enjoy chilling out in the room more.
Safer Place
The images in interior design book all like safe places. There are no obstacles to trip over and no dark corners for people and pets to spring out from. Looking at the space and the light makes us feel safe within that space which in turn gives us a sense of calmness within our mind. By wanting to recreate a similar space in our room, especially if its dark and dull we begin to feel uplifted boosting our spirits that we are going to make a change for the better. A safer, brighter place brings us order and symmetry helping us to reduce our mental clutter and organising our rooms better. The rooms we are visualising look like they could be our sanctuary, a room that we can escape to on our own as and when we need the peace and quiet and the comfort. We go to that place when we look at the images and place ourselves in those rooms which helps us to unwind whilst we picture ourselves in those spaces filled with muted tones and natural woods of the furniture. An anxious mind is easily calmed when looking at these relaxing images.
Teach Us
We learn so much by the images in interior design books as we can see which colours and fabrics complement one another. The more we see the various images the more we become acquainted with patterns and textures and our new knowledge makes us feel more confident about designing rooms in our home ourselves. This new confidence brings about a new calmness to our lives as we feel enriched to achieve our goals of completing a room without panicking and stressing about it all. We shift our focus away from bothersome things about family life and begin to inject new ideas to improve it.
The interior design books teach us how to create a room for calmness and show you what type of furnishings you need and where to place them. They also teach us that we can create bedrooms that are quiet and relaxing by showing them technology free. No television in the room and no mobile device charges only a sleep only zone as the title of an interior design book shows us. Some interior design books teach how to have cleaner air in your rooms to boost your health, how to get the right lighting, how to turn a room into for wellness. The images just don’t show you; the words also teach you. Even if you have no intention of changing your rooms for whatever reason, just by observing the layouts and fabrics you are doing your body a favour by allowing it to be calm for a short while and you brain is absorbing the new information which will no doubt come in handy one day in the future when you do decide to change your living space.
Interior Design Books
I have listed six good interior design books that help you make your home a calmer place to be. The images are shown in the picture at the top of the page.
- Minimal Boho Photography Book (2026) by Rowan C. Hale. A photography book with inspiring images to help you design your home.
- Natural Spaces Interior Design Calm Living With Organic Harmony (2025) by Daniel Veyron. Simplicity meets nature helping you to create beautiful spaces.
- The Calm Home Design Handbook (2026) by Lena Hartwell. Room by room design with budget ideas.
- Clutter to Calm (2026) by Josue Bonilla. Transform your mind and your home with holistic ideas to help you with your interior.
- The Quiet Home: House Hushing for Calm and Intentional Living (2026) by Michell Halford, published by Mitchell Beazley. A guide to help you reduce the visual noise in your home so you can create a serene space that will help promote a calmer living and wellbeing.
- Calm Interiors to Nurture Relax and Restore (2021) by Sally Denning. A guide to creating tranquil interiors.