Beat the Blues with Mood-Boosting Home Décor Ideas

January has been coined a grey and dreary month for as long as we can remember. To add some salt to the wound, what has been deemed the most depressing day of the year also takes place in January. What was originally a PR stunt in 2005, the third Monday of January has now become known as ‘Blue Monday’ – no scientific studies have ever backed up what makes this particular Monday so blue, so it can’t be all doom and gloom, right?

We would like to rename Blue Monday to ‘Mood Boosting Monday’ – a day in which we fill our homes with things that bring us joy and happiness! After all, our homes are our sanctuaries, our safe spaces, so they should make us always feel contented and comfortable. To kickstart this new tradition of banishing the January Blues (isn’t the New Year all about starting new traditions anyway?), we’ve put together some mood-boosting home décor ideas, to help fill your home with colour and life.

Rays of Yellow

The colour yellow is often associated with sunshine and happiness; things that January could do with more of! Why not fill your home with splashes of varying yellows; this can be anything from vases of yellow roses or tulips, to vibrant yellow ornaments or books. Or, if you really want to go big and bold, we recommend adding a Jay Blades X G Plan Broadway Swivel Chair and Footstool to your home.

We’ve styled this classic Wing Back Swivel Chair in Floresta Citrus and Tweed Citrus; this Broadway Swivel Chair would definitely fill your living spaces with gorgeous yellow tones, whilst boosting your mood (and comfort) at the same time! You can order these G Plan fabric swatches by clicking here.

Jay Blades X G Plan Broadway Swivel Chair in Tweed Citrus & Floresta Citrus Two Fabric Story & Broadway Swivel Footstool in Floresta Citrus

Picture This

We’re sure you created hundreds, if not thousands, of memories last year. On average, we each take approximately 1000 photos a year on our phones – that works out as around 85 photos a day! So, instead of storing these photos on your phone and rarely looking at them, why not print off your favourites and display them around your home? This is a great way of incorporating mood-boosting décor into your living spaces, allowing your memories to become physical instead of being purely digital.

We love the Umbra Exhibit Multi Hanging Photo Frame Display from John Lewis. Refresh the photos displayed in this beautiful frame display at the start of each New Year, so that you can look back on the adventures you had with loved ones.

Image: John Lewis

The Power of Scent

Scents have the biggest impact on our emotional and educational memory than any other of our senses. That’s why certain smells can bring back waves of nostalgic memories. With this in mind, filling your home with your favourite fragrances is a great way to incorporate mood-boosting décor into your home. Whether you’re a fan of candles, reed diffusers, wax melts or essential oils, there’s bound to be a way you can fill your home with scents you adore.

For us, fresher scents bring wistfulness for the warmer months ahead. The Happiness Candle from Neom is an excellent mood-boosting candle, generating heady citrusy scents and soothing white neroli undertones. This candle is bound to bring joy and banish the blues this January.

Image: Neom

You Grow, Girl!

Although they are notoriously tricky to keep alive (or maybe it’s just us?), filling your living spaces with house plants is a great way to boost the mood of your home décor! Houseplants do more than just bring a bit of colour to rooms; they’ve been linked to reducing stress levels, lowering blood pressure and improving mental wellbeing! Constantly being around plants allows us to feel more connected to nature, creating a calming atmosphere that reduces anxiety.

Happy Houseplants offers a wonderful range of easy-care plants, perfect for any kind of lifestyle. Houseplants are a colourful and inexpensive way of adding some mood-boosting décor to your home. Why not start by incorporating a few smaller plants into your home, and go from there?

Image: Happy Houseplants

Declutter and Reorganise

This is a ritual that most of us do at the start of every year; out with the old and in with the new. However, not all of us necessarily need ‘new’. Go through your possessions at home, splitting them into two different categories: ‘This Hasn’t Been Touched for a While’ and ‘I Use this All the Time’. From this, you can work out what you can keep in your home and what can be sold, given to charity, or repurposed and given a new lease of life. This will help you to reorganise and declutter your home, adjusting the atmosphere and boosting your mood as you go.

Banish Electrical Items from the Bedroom

A really easy way to help boost the mood of your home, is to remove most electrical items from your bedroom. We all like to watch a bit of TV in bed, but this isn’t necessarily doing us any good. According to the Sleep Foundation, ‘Technology affects the brain, stimulating your mind and making it harder to fall asleep’.

It’s well known that our moods are instantly improved after a good night’s sleep, so why not try and remove electrical items from your bedroom, even if it’s just for a little while to see how you get on? This can include televisions, mobile phones and game consoles. Why not go old school and get yourself an analogue alarm clock, instead of relying on your phone alarm to wake you up in the morning? We’re a big fan of this Blue Retro Alarm Clock from Rex London. It’s giving us waves of nostalgia from the Early G Plan Days!

Image: Rex London

 Is Your Mood Boosted Yet?

So there you have it, some nice easy ways to incorporate some mood-boosting décor into your home. Cosy up in a vibrant G Plan Wing Back Swivel Chair, light some nostalgically-scented candles or create your own mini houseplant jungle – however you decide to fill your home with contentment and joy, we hope we’ve been able to spark some mood-boosting inspiration for you this January!