Does it Spark Joy?

05/2022 architecture & interior

Joy can be experienced as a feeling of great pleasure or happiness, a counter to anxiety, loneliness, and stress. And that’s no exception when it comes to interior design.

Joy can be experienced as a feeling of great pleasure or happiness, a counter to anxiety, loneliness, and stress. And that’s no exception when it comes to interior design.

With individuals such as Marie Kondo (tidiness guru) building their empire on one simple question: does it spark joy? It’s safe to say that the answer to this question, whether it refers to tossing away an unloved hat, or painting an entire wall orange, is as unique to you as your fingerprint.

(Photo: Courtesy of Polina Poludkina, House of Joy)

Several ingredients can create a more joyful interior: patterns and prints in place of blank surfaces, curves and arches instead of straight lines, furniture in all sorts of whimsical shapes. And color - lots of it. 

(Photo: Courtesy of Gregory Abbate, House of Joy)

There’s a misconception that joyful spaces can’t be elegant; that only minimalist homes or shades of greige can be sophisticated, or that rooms painted with primary colors or bright pastels are only for children. Yet when we look at color, there are often links between what we see and what we feel. 

(Photo: Courtesy of José Hevia, House of Joy

Studies have hypothesized a connection between color and perception: bright, warm colors like yellow, orange, pink, and red tend to be considered “happy colors”, while pastels also have the power to lift the spirits. Yellow and orange tones incite appetite, while some prison cells are painted pink in the hope that the color will reduce aggression. 

(Photo: Courtesy of Feng Wei, House of Joy)

The spaces within House of Joy seek to reject the somber, the vanilla, the beige, exploring the many ways that we can bring more joy into our homes, and into our lives.

Welcome joy into your home (and your heart). Pick up a copy of House of Joy today.