It’s well known that changing one’s hairstyle is a sure way of getting over a bad heartache after an emotional break-up. Likewise, giving your room a new appearance is sure to recharge your spirits during times of stress.

You don’t need to turn your room upside down for this (and get further stressed). Just a few additions, certain minor alterations, slight shifting around, some clearing out — this is all that is needed.

What’s more, all this can be done at nominal costs, with huge personal benefits.

Just get up, be optimistic, put on a broad smile, get a pen and paper, look around, think out-of-the-box, and “redesign” your room, and “yourself”.

If you need some tips, you could check out the following.

Nurture nature

Losing a beloved changes one’s entire perspective. The same room that was “charming” until yesterday is suddenly “dead”. Do something about it.

• Remove all those things that evoke painful memories. Don’t do this in one shot, as if you are throwing out the person from your life. Move out the items gradually.

• Set up your personal sanctuary. It could be anything as simple as a wooden easy chair, with comfortable cushions, placed near the window. Sit on it every morning and, gazing out at the clear sky, recall all the beautiful moments you’ve shared with the person gone. Peace is bound to dawn. Complement this with some introspection and meditation.

• Buy some fresh potted plants. Vibrant greens soothe the tired mind. Flowering plants are the best, as one tends to identify “life” with the blossoming of the buds.

If you don’t have much floor space in your room, fix mild steel chains and hooks to the window grille and suspend few planters. A word of caution — never bring in “dead” artificial plants. Remove them if they are already there.

• Buy an aquarium with agile bright-coloured fish. In our country, it can help if you keep a pigeon feeder on the windowsill. Get two terracotta bowls, 12 to 24 inches in diameter, 4 to 5 inches high. Fill one with grains and the other with fresh water.

Be patient. The birds will notice them before you know how, and soon there will be a flock at your window.

• Swathe yourself with objects that remind you of nature. A stone statuette, a wooden mural, a clay bowl full of fresh flowers can all help you re-connect with yourself.

Harmony helps

Personal or familial, discord can wreck even the most intelligent and successful among us. In such a situation, proper room décor will certainly iron out some wrinkles.

• Check out the furniture arrangement on the floor. Rearrange all units so as to avoid collisions. Keep all passages, staircases and traffic lines absolutely clear. Remove all those small not-very-essential floor pieces like vases, containers, peg tables and planters.

• Any accessory that is a symbol of welcome, placed right at the entrance foyer, or even on the entrance door, helps immensely.

• Remove those harsh, bright lights; changing the wattage of the lamps will do.

Subdued lighting, preferably controlled by dimmer switch, always evokes love and romance.

• All items with jagged projections and overt straight patterns silently generate negativity. Bring in circular, oval and spiral accessories, which in all probability are lying stacked at the bottom of your closet.

• If you own two or more sets of window drapes, hang the soft, free-flowing ones. We all know the visual impact of white sheer curtains, so often seen on romantic reels.

• Entice the sense of touch with appropriate materials like soft velvet, shimmering silk and furry suede. Small cushions and area rugs make us smile unknowingly.

• If you were anyway planning to repaint the house, this is the right time. And this time, choose a colour — or colours — fancied by the entire household.

• You may find this far-fetched, but the fact remains that objects, when displayed in pairs, spawn affection.

(To be continued)

(The author is an interior design consultant, specialising in the design of corporate and residential interiors. As a senior faculty member at a Calcutta institute, she has delivered lectures, guided research and conducted projects in the field of housing & interior design for over two decades. She can be contacted at kusumsmail@yahoo.com )