How To Create A Luxe Vibe At Home

Stuck inside the house? Me too. Whether you’re staying inside for weather-related reasons, work from home reasons, or safely avoiding COVID- 19 reasons, you’ve likely spent a lot of time looking at your space lately. Do you love it? Whether you love it or not, could it use an update? 

Environment is an essential contributing element to our mental health and overall well being. While we may not always have complete control over our location, cultivating a personal space that supports our happiness, comfort, and preferences can go a long way towards helping us handle a winter indoors. I don’t know about you but creating pockets of comfort and luxury in my personal space goes quite a long way towards keeping my space one that I’m excited to be in. 

To me adding luxury isn’t about material things necessarily, but about honoring my personal needs and creating a place for self care. Unfortunately, we live in a society where slowing down and enjoying life has become a luxury. I’m here to remind you that, no matter what society tells you, you deserve an environment that is deliciously indulgent, one that feels like an oasis or an escape. Adding luxury to your life in small ways will change your outlook in so many ways. When you constantly give the best to yourself, you begin to expect nothing less from everyone around you. 

A major key to creating an environment that you can flourish in is to support your senses. Stimulating your senses provides a myriad of mental and emotional health benefits. It keeps our mind sharp. It creates connections to memories and moments, it helps to improve focus and communication, and it can even have positive effects for improving some of the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Let’s explore all the ways that you can add comfort and luxury to your space through all 5 senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.

Sight:

Visual stimuli is probably one of the easier categories to come up with. What do you like to see? What area of your space are you addressing? If you’re in your bedroom or another room meant for relaxing, maybe you’ll find a benefit from neutral, soft colors. Your workspace may benefit from pops of color that fuel creativity and help you focus. 

Adding pleasant things to look at such as art, plants, photos, and gifts from loved ones are all good places to start. One of my favorite small businesses to support when I’m adding low maintenance plants to my home is Ily the Plant Lady. Find things that speak to you and fit your personality, start a mood board on pinterest and pin everything you like if you need some insight into your personal style. I bet you’ll find some recurring themes in your selections and you can pull inspiration from there. It doesn’t have to stop there! I take this down to the small details such as my plates, drinkware, silverware, and my color coordinated office accessories.

Sound:     

This one is IMPORTANT but so underrated. If there’s not enough sound, I can’t concentrate. If there’s too much sound (or the wrong kind), I can’t concentrate. I love having music or sound of some sort that supports my mood and the environment I am trying to create.  

Sometimes this means opening a window to hear children playing or birds chirping, picking a playlist that is conducive to what you’re trying to accomplish, or even just having a fan going. This is my favorite playlist to listen to while I write or work. I also often listen to frequencies and binaural beats designed to help me sleep or focus. Sometimes making your own noises or self talk is helpful as well. It’s your space. Fill it with sounds that make you happy!

Taste:

This one might not be something you’d consider but it is an absolutely incredible way to add luxury to your life and create joyful memories in your environment. According to nutrition professionals, there are several different types of hunger. While our mouth hunger can be driven by the need to fuel our bodies and survive, we can improve that experience by satisfying our eye hunger, our emotional hunger, our nose hunger, and more! Taste really cannot be isolated from our senses of sight, smell, and touch.

So let’s talk about how we can incorporate these in our home environment to bring decadence and indulgence to our dining experience. When planning meals, think of a time when you felt most satisfied and content in your body after a meal. If I had to guess you felt satiated, perhaps not overfull, and I bet your meal was full of flavors that you enjoy too. If this is a meal that you normally get when dining out, can you learn to make it at home?  

Every time you are able to fuel your body it is a cause for celebration. Be sure to use as many colorful elements as you can. I love to garnish and plate my food the same way I would receive it in a restaurant. I also love to make sure that I have plenty of different textures and rich aromas for an in-depth sensory experience.  

I brew myself aromatic coffees and teas whenever I need a pick me up. I season my food generously to keep my tastebuds excited and happy. Whatever your method of eating may be, we can all benefit from taking a moment to fully immerse ourselves and enjoy our eating experience. In a world full of diet culture and misinformation, food and body love is truly one of the boldest acts of self care that you can practice at home in your safe space. 

Smell:

My favorite sense to address at home. If you’ve been here long, you know my feelings on scent education and the importance of scent in our lives. Scent and memory are inextricably linked and I am a firm believer that creating beautiful moments at home with scent in the background fosters a permanent peaceful connection to your personal space and helps it remain a positive space for you to relax, unwind, and cater to yourself. 

Elevating the luxury in your home with scent can be done in a number of ways. In the fall, I love to make apple cider. Not only is apple cider delicious, but the scent of apples, cinnamon, cloves, and oranges simmering on the stove always fills me with nostalgia of snowy vacation days at our mountain cabin. I also love to diffuse oils while I’m cleaning. Using fragrance oils in your home is another way to bring luxury through smell. 

Adding oil or reed diffusers (coming soon from Anuket Luxury Apothecary) is a low maintenance method for high value payoff. They distribute fragrance consistently without overpowering. Another way to add bursts of fragrance in your home is by adding fresh flowers. Air purifying green plants can also give your environment a fresh, alive smell. Run yourself a bath using aromatherapy to unwind and reset, and hop into bed sprayed with a comforting linen spray (also coming soon from Anuket Luxury Apothecary.) Fragrance in the home is perhaps the easiest way to elevate your at home experience as it is cost effective (fragrance oils last a great while) and doesn’t require much effort.

Touch:     

How does your home FEEL to you? I’m asking in the most tangible of contexts. Do you love slipping into bed at night? Are your towels after a shower soft and comforting? Do your clothes feel good against your skin? Do you feel supported when you’re lounging on the couch? Adding textured elements like an accent rug, nice hand towels, or maybe even a towel warmer to enhance the way your body feels in your home are KEY to adding luxury to your space.  

Perhaps a pair of silky pajamas or fuzzy warm slippers? Take note of textures and materials that you find yourself being drawn to and find ways to include pieces made with those materials in your routine. Trust me, replacing your worn out robe with a cozy new one or lying your head down on a new silk pillowcase can make all the difference in the world.  

At the end of the day, the best part about adding luxury to your environment is the opportunity to get to know yourself better. A luxury home environment is about curating your space and asking yourself what is a priority and what feels good to you. Luxury at home isn’t at all about being bougie or doing too much, it's about doing what you deserve. What we all deserve is a safe, comforting, and enriching space to call our own.