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31st January 2022 Interior Decor

The Psychology of Rearranging Furniture

Whether you subscribe to feng shui or you simply appreciate the difference interior design and furniture placement can make to your life, understanding the psychology behind rearranging furniture can make achieving a truly positive design for your personal space much easier. The impact that our environment can have on our mood, stress levels, energy, joy, and more can be surprisingly large and you can take control of that by proactively and intentionally choosing to rearrange furniture and interior design.

There are two main ways in which rearranging your furniture can affect your mood. The first is that the act itself of altering our environment, in this case through furniture rearranging, can have an impact on our emotions. The second is that the arrangement of the furniture and how it affects the environment in which we live can have its own impact on how we feel.

How rearranging your furniture can boost your mood

You probably have some people in your life who move furniture around in their home on a seemingly constant basis. You might think that the only reason to do so is that they become dissatisfied with the original arrangement but the psychology behind this behaviour is a little more complex than simply getting bored with how the room looks.

Having mastery over our environment can profoundly affect the way we feel. According to Psychology Today, having an impact on our environment “lifts mood, provides concrete satisfaction, and instils a sense of effectiveness”.

When we rearrange furniture and other items in our home, we can feel resourceful, clever, and creative. And this can improve our self-esteem and provide us with a sense of true control. Very often the events in our lives can feel as though they are happening to us so completing a task that gives us that control can reduce anxiety, make us feel less helpless, and soothe frazzled nerves.

Getting rid of clutter, specifically, can provide us with a boost of energy as well as mood elevation. It is a way of providing ourselves with a fresh start and letting go of old attachments and emotions. Removing clutter from our home environment can be a cathartic process that brings with it relief and joy.

You can almost think of rearranging furniture as an act of self-care. It is a feel-good option that gives us mood elevation, a burst of the best energy and creativity, and provides us with concrete satisfaction that we can see all around us once we have completed the task.

If you are clearing clutter as a way to boost your mood, it can help to identify what you truly want or need to keep hold of. As William Morris said, “Keep nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be functional”. Additional objects that don’t make you happy and that you don’t need to use can safely be removed to create more space for you to breathe and to fill with items that do improve your life or how you feel.

How the arrangement of your furniture can change how you feel

Photo by Dan Hadley from Pexels

Psychology Today say that if you rearrange your furniture, it can help you to achieve inner and outer harmony. At first glance, this might seem like a strange claim when you’re talking about moving some pieces of furniture around a room, but actually, the way that your furniture is arranged can have a surprisingly large impact on your wellbeing.

Let’s think about what inner and outer harmony can mean in terms of your home. When your furniture is arranged in a way that makes sense functionally, this can bring peace by streamlining how you can move about and can make outer harmony happen. And when it is arranged that makes sense aesthetically, this can bring peace by aligning your space with your identity and making inner harmony happen.

Feng shui

Feng shui is one theory behind how this inner and outer harmony can be achieved with the arrangement of your house. Feng shui can seem quite “out there” when you first look into but when you scratch beneath the surface, feng shui decorating means common sense ways of rearranging your home environment to become organised in a way that makes our lives that little bit easier and less stressful. And it doesn’t have to be expensive, so you don’t need to worry about buyer’s remorse from obtaining all sorts of pieces that you don’t actually need.

According to Rodika Tichi, “What feng shui decorating means is that you create an environment that has the best energy to support the specific activity, or activities, intended for that space”. With feng shui, the goal is to think about the purpose of that specific room and having the furniture relate to it and fit that purpose through the way it is arranged. Such specificity brings relief because you are no longer fighting against the room’s arrangement to do the activities that you need to, but instead, you are working with it.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of how feng shui can make outer harmony happen for you. Think about the traffic patterns in your home. With feng shui, the idea is that chi energy should flow through your front door and be able to travel unimpeded throughout the home, without getting blocked. People will follow these same patterns, so the layout of your home shouldn’t end at a wall or other impediment.

You also need to find reasons for the chi, or people, to pause. For instance, you wouldn’t expect someone to breeze through your front door, bypass your living room, and leave immediately out of your back door. Your living room should be a place to pause and breathe so it should be arranged in a way that directs people’s attention to the space. You can use an interesting rug or wall decoration to slow down the energy and grab people’s attention.

Natural light is also an important element, as it is for professional interior designers alike. Natural light can make you feel lighter, freer, and more energetic and it allows energy to flow easily throughout the room. And you don’t want your furniture to block any of that light if you can help it.

For example, if a piece of your bedroom furniture such as your bed is in front of the window, your bedroom may feel less like a breath of fresh air and more like a claustrophobic place. A lighting scheme or cleverly placed mirrors can help to increase the amount of light in the room if there isn’t much to work with.

Thinking about symmetry

Human beings find symmetry aesthetically pleasing, it is an innate part of our nervous system. And it comes down to how our brains process the world. They are always trying to make processing as easy as possible and symmetry is pleasing because it creates a pattern that doesn’t need to be focused on in too much depth. We find faces that are more symmetrical attractive and we find rooms that are more symmetrical attractive for the same reasons.

But this doesn’t only apply to rooms, symmetry can also enhance pieces of furniture. Take display cabinets for example. When designing or rearranging a display cabinet take time to step back, think about what to put in a display cabinet. and is it symmetrical and atheistically pleasing? Achieving this takes time, so little adjustments now and then can make the world of difference.

Photo Credit – Adobe Stock

Focusing on symmetry can be one of those easy DIY home projects that don’t require a huge amount of creativity. Not everyone is one of those creative people but we do all have a natural sense of symmetry. To rearrange your room to make it symmetrical, that doesn’t mean that you have to have two pieces of every piece of furniture. But it means that the area should be balanced.

The best way of doing this is to rearrange your room around a natural focal point. A great example of this is your front room. Here, the natural focal point will likely be the sofa. Wherever you place that will be the centre, and then you can rearrange the rest of the pieces so that they balance the sofa. Again, that doesn’t mean that the pieces on each side need to be identical. They can instead be a similar form.

It might take a little while to achieve the balance that you’re looking for with creating the symmetrical new space but you do have an innate sense of symmetry so you will find the perfect balance simply by listening to your gut.

On the other side of the symmetry debate, asymmetry does also have its place. An asymmetrical element to a room can draw the eye and be interesting and pleasing. This is one of those opportunities to hone your aesthetic which can help you to feel creative and accomplished. You can have your furniture relate to your personality and can be a true feel-good option for you every time you walk into the room. And it can help you to hone your aesthetic and identify your personal sense of style.

Reducing clutter

We have already covered the fact that the act of clearing clutter can have a positive impact on how you feel. But reducing clutter in a meaningful way can leave you with a room that makes you feel good whenever you spend time in it.

Additional objects that don’t totally align with the room or improve how you feel can drag the overall feel of the space down and make it feel unwelcome and stressful. This comes back to how we process the spaces around us. When there is too much going on, this can give us sensory overload which can increase our stress levels.

This isn’t to say that everyone should live in a minimalist paradise. Instead, improvement occurs when you have objects and furniture that relate both to the room itself and to how you feel. And you don’t even have to throw everything away. Re-purposing the objects you already own can completely alter the space.

For example, if you have photographs randomly dotted around the room, you can rearrange them by creating gallery walls instead, which can make the space more organised and make the photographs themselves much more pleasing to look at.

Again such specificity brings relief because it means that there is a purpose and deliberate design behind the way that your space is arranged, and this can help you to feel calmer. And by re-purposing the items you already own, you can identify what you truly care about both in terms of sentimentality and in terms of how to hone your aesthetic. You also won’t get buyer’s remorse from getting rid of something that deep down you love and replacing it with something that doesn’t bring you joy.

Decluttering on a regular basis in this mindful manner can be thought of as a form of apartment therapy and it will also slowly bring you the house that is perfect for you and your needs. Improvement occurs over time for so many things and honing the arrangement of your house is exactly one of those things.

The bottom line

If you feel unsettled in your bed or your living room or you easily get stressed in your kitchen, moving things around in your house in a way that makes sense can do wonders for your emotions. We all feel like we have too much “stuff” but that may not always be the case.

By being mindful in the way you rearrange your personal items, you might find that you end up being able to hone your aesthetic and identify the things that are truly meaningful to you (and find the ability to decide to get rid of the other things that aren’t). There is a metaphor there and as cheesy as it may sound, going through this process with your house can truly help you to go through this process with your inner self.

Looking for more interior design inspiration? Looking for that next DIY project? Head on over to our blog and read some of the fantastic pieces we have covering multiple subjects.

28th April 2021 Tips

What Does a Diverter Valve Do?

Toaster radiators, hot water, and steam showers are all essential things in most homes, and a combi boiler makes it easier to switch from one to another thanks to a diverter valve.

A diverter valve diverts water to the faucet you need it. Therefore, if this crucial component starts to malfunction, then you will experience intermittent heating, lukewarm water, or even no heating at all.

It is, therefore, important to understand what a diverter valve is and how it works so that you can be in a better position to understand how to fix it in case it becomes faulty.

In this guide, we discuss what a diverter valve does, how it works, and how to know when it is at fault.

Let’s get started…

What Does a Diverter Valve Do?

The diverter valve in your combi boiler is a valve that opens and closes to allow heat to your radiators or hot water to your faucets.

In other words, when you turn on your hot tap, it is the diverter valve that directs hot water to the faucet. This means you get hot water instantly whenever you want it. Also, if you switch on your central heating unit, then hot water will be sent to your radiators.

However, it is important to mention that the diverter valve prioritizes hot water to your faucet over radiators and thus will close the heating supply until you switch off hot water taps. Once you turn off hot water taps or shower, the hot water will be directed to your radiator.

How Does A Diverter Valve Work?

As we mentioned earlier, the diverter valve responds to your hot water requirement, whereby it makes water available to your shower or hot taps whenever you need it.

In terms of how it works, we can simply say that it acts as a gatekeeper for hot water, whereby it sends water that is heated in your combi-boiler to where you need it at that moment.

This means that when you switch on hot water taps, the diverter valve closes off the central heating supply and sends water to the plate heat exchanger for heating, and this is how you get the hot water in your tap or shower.

When you turn off the hot tap or shower, the diverter valve closes off the water supply and directs it back to the plate heat exchanger to feed your radiator with hot water.

Check price for this Combi Boiler 3 way Diverter here

Common Diverter Valve Problems

Thanks to our friend and heating engineer Ben Race from the Easy Boiler Company for the facts below.

To execute its function of diverting water to where it is needed, the diverter valve is fitted with several moving parts that control water flow and direction. These parts tend to degrade over time. Here are the common issues that can signify there is a problem with your combi-boilers diverter valve;

Having lukewarm water in your hot taps and shower

If the water coming out of your showers and taps is only lukewarm, this can be an issue with your diverter valve. In most cases, the problem comes because the valve is getting stuck, which means that hot water that should go to the showers and tap is getting lost.

This may cause an increase in annual energy bills as more heat is getting lost. If this happens, you will want your valve to be repaired as soon as possible.

You have hot water but no heat

Another indicator that your diverter valve has a problem is when you have hot water in your showers and taps but no heat from your radiators.

This often indicates the diverter valve is stuck on the hot water side. As we mentioned earlier, the diverter valve prioritizes hot water in your faucets over radiators. Therefore, when it gets stuck on the hot water side, then you will have hot water coming out of your taps, but the radiator won’t heat.

No hot water

This is the clearest indicator that your diverter valve is at fault. If the water won’t heat up, even after letting it flow for some time, then there is something wrong with your diverter valve.

In most cases, all these problems result from the diverter getting stuck due to the build-up of limescale or moving parts getting worn out.

Check Prices Of Diverter Valves Here

How do you fix a faulty diverter valve?

If you are experiencing hot water issues emanating from the diverter valve, we recommend that you call a registered plumber or gas engineer to fix the problem.

A professional will assess the heating system and see whether the diverter valve is to blame or there is a serious underlying problem. They can advise you on the way forward.

A detailed look at how diverter valves work

6th July 2020 Tips

How to Keep House Smelling Good With Pets

Pets are more than just animals roaming in our homes – they are part of our family. They keep us company and entertain us. Dogs further offer protection, while cats ensure there are no rodents in the house. Unfortunately, it is not all rosy with pets. This is because they can leave an undesirable odor behind. Although you may get used to pet odor in your house, visitors will notice the uncomfortable smell, which you do not want. Therefore, you must know how to deal with this odor. Below are some helpful tips on how to keep your home odor-free.

Keep everything clean

One effective way to keep pet odor at bay is to clean all your pet’s supplies. Wash their dishes, launder their bending, and clean pet collars. Also, be sure to clean all areas that your pet may come into contact with such pillow beds and couch. To make the cleaning easy, remove the seat cushions and pillows and vacuum your furniture.

Use shampoos and deodorants

Another great way to keep pet smells at bay is to bath the pet using shampoo. However, bathing pets can be too much if you have to do it daily. This is because some pets are playful and enjoy playing in the mud and dirt, which may necessitate bathing the pet twice a day. While it is essential to bath your pet, keep in mind that too much bathing can result in skin dryness, which is not suitable for your pet.

shampoo your dog
shampoo your dog

Carpets are a big problem with pets they will cling onto the fibers for months even after the pet has left says John from ACS – an Alex carpet cleaning company. We use a range of stage by stage pet friendly chemicals to treat the carpet to stop it holding a scent as much.

Using a pet deodorizer is a good option as well. However, note that you should only use the deodorant after bathing the pet. This is because spraying fragrance on the pet without bathing will only prevent the odor for a while but not deal with it. But bathing and applying deodorant works better. The plug in air fresheners by Ambi Pur for pet odor removal have had good reviews and can be found readily on Amazon.

Ambi Pur 3Volution Pet Odor Remover

https://amzn.to/2ZGomUu

Absorb and avoid cover-up

While using plug-in candles is a welcome idea when dealing with pet odor, it does not remove bad smells but instead covers it up. The result will be a mixture of odor smells that can be irritating.

air freshener with pets in the house
air freshener with pets in the house

Therefore, consider using natural neutralizers to eliminate the bad smell when your pets wee or defecate accidentally, but not as a preventive measure.

https://amzn.to/3e19rsZ

Clean the Walls

Pets enjoy lying down against walls, leaving behind their natural oil, and this can be smelly. If you have a whitish wall, you can see these oils and stains. Therefore, you need to clean the wall as this pet oils could result in bad odor. In some cases, you may need to repaint the wall. Consider using sealants if the odor is trapped in bricks, paneling, and any other masonry or woodwork. Applying a seal will trap the smell and keep your home fresh.


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Use air purifier

Air purifiers work by filtering air particles to improve air quality in your indoor space. Through purification, the air purifier lessens dust and sanitizes the air by removing bad smells. A HEPA filter best for people with allergies and will as well make your home smell fresh. The best part is that most purifiers are not expensive, and you can find the right size for your home even if you’re on a budget. With the right purifier, you can keep your pets without worrying about pet odor provided you perform other necessary cleaning procedures.

Pet grooming

Since pet hair and dandruff can result in odor, be sure to brush your pets regularly to minimize shedding. This way, you can take control of where they shed their fur. You can dedicate a few hours weekly to grooming your pets and keep your home clean and odor-free. Besides, grooming your pets will keep then good looking. You will as well bond with your pets as you groom them.

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Keep windows open

While this sounds obvious, many people do not know that it helps keep a house with pets fresh. By opening the windows regularly for as many hours as possible, you will be letting in the fresh air, which will make your home feel fresh. This, combined with pet deodorizer, air purifier, regular pet grooming, general cleaning, etc. will keep your house smelling fresh, and you will never have to worry about pet odor. With all these tips, you will have an easy time dealing with pet odor in your house.

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Welcome to A2B Crafts

At A2B Crafts we make it our duty to bring you the latest in shabby chic design and Do it yourself furniture. If you’re new to the craft or a long time expert, A2B crafts is perfect for you. With every new post we hope to bring you something new and exciting which gives you the inspiration to try something new with your home
furnishings. If you feel inspired after reading any of our posts or you’ve even tried these tips for yourself, please feel free to let us know through our contact page or our other social channels!

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