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Dopamine decor is about restoring our emotional connection to our home and building joy into our daily lives in new and unexpected ways.
Earlier this summer, when I was planning for the kitchen update that we’re currently working on, I came across a paint color that I just couldn’t get out of my head. While I hadn’t been intending to do anything remotely colorful in our kitchen (I’m a self-professed “white cabinet person” through and through), when I came across Benjamin Moore’s Mount St. Anne, I just couldn’t get over the feeling that I needed to use it somewhere in my home. The color was deep but not dark, soft but not weak, and just the most perfect blue-grey shade. Some may say that it’s a whisper of a color, but for me, it’s a bold, joyful choice and it took me a few weeks to talk myself into actually buying the paint. As we painted the cabinets, and saw the color slowly taking over the room over the course of a few days, it occurred to me that I was actually embracing the Dopamine Decor trend that I’d heard so much about in my own little way.
Pictured above: Kind Sir Canvas (use code CREEKLINEHOUSE for extra 5% off) | Vintage-style Espresso Machine | Cabinet Hardware | Cabinet Paint: Benjamin Moore Mount St. Anne
More DIY home decorating ideas from our old farmhouse: Six Ways to Steal my Traditional Farmhouse Style
What is Dopamine Decor?
The dopamine decor trend is an offshoot of dopamine dressing, which began on TikTok as a way for people to boost their mood and bring a feeling of joy into everyday life through choices in clothing and accessories. As it turns out, the way you dress really can affect how you feel, and home decor enthusiasts decided to test this strategy out in their homes as well. After years and years of neutral, often sterile-looking spaces, people are ready for something a bit more emotionally uplifting. I recently read a study put together by Wise Move and color theory expert Donna Cameron that said searches for “Dopamine Decor” have been up 271% in the past year.
According to Donna Cameron, “Being able to change or switch up our immediate environment is empowering, and the dopamine decor trend does exactly that. We want to come home and see beautiful things that make us feel good. Instead of getting trapped in the stark black and white trends, or the sage green or millennial greys, we are now looking for things that are more comforting and nurturing.”
Interiors that embrace dopamine decor typically feature bright, bold, vibrant paint colors, playful patterns, and inviting textures that just make you feel a sense of happiness immediately upon entering a space. While you might picture a chaotic and overwhelming maximalist mess, designers and decorating experts insist that this look can be done in a way that is elevated, streamlined, and surprisingly cohesive, without compromising a single opportunity for a jubilant design moment. In fact, the dopamine decor trend can be incorporated into a number of different design styles and can appear in the form of minimalist design, eclectic bohemian rooms, and even buttoned-up traditional spaces.
How to Try the Dopamine Decor Trend in Your Home
If you think you could use a little bit of dopamine decor in your life, focus on prioritizing the inclusion of items that bring you personal pleasure rather than those that follow a prescribed aesthetic. Just for a moment, step outside the box of what is considered to be in “good taste” and instead make choices for your home that just feel good. Decorators and design experts suggest that including items that have importance and meaning to you in your home decor will increase the positive effects of dopamine decor-style choices as well.
Pictured above: Bookshelf Light | Cabinet Hardware | English Country House Style Book | Ralph Lauren Book | The Great American House Book
To begin, bold color is almost always considered an essential in dopamine decor, and of course, you must pick your favorites. Try sticking to a refined and restrained color palette of two to three colors to keep things feeling inspiring and energetic rather than overwhelming. Donna recommends decorating with the colors that you love, but don’t often wear. “This is a great way to embrace all of the colours you love. “If there are colours you don’t feel comfortable wearing, you can incorporate them in your home decor and enjoy them that way.”
Next, move on to pattern, which should be used liberally to inject personality and a feeling of movement into your space. Stick to patterns in colors that fit mostly within your chosen color palette, but don’t forget that whimsy and fun are your number one priorities. Decorate using stylish patterned wallpaper, backsplash tile, or a gallery wall of framed prints to make a big impression with pattern, or use throw pillows to accent your space if you’re just starting out.
Layer in art, mementos, and decor pieces that remind you of happy memories and favorite places. Thrift stores and antique markets are great places to find glee-inducing decorative pieces that feel personal and just right for you.
Dopamine Decor for Traditional Homes
You might think of dopamine decor as being a particularly modern trend, but in fact, this style has existed in traditional homes for generations. You may even say that dopamine decor truly originated from the Victorian Era, when bold colors such as deep reds, warm oranges, refreshing blues, elegant golds, and deep greens were preferred for walls, furnishings, rugs, and draperies. intricate patterns, carved woods, and glossy ceramics were displayed with pride and brought beauty and elegance to homes lucky enough to be able to afford these luxuries. These decorating practices became popular because of their mood-boosting qualities during dreary, rainy days in England, and you’ll find that these types of rooms still have a tendency to turn a frown upside down.
Not only can surrounding yourself with your favorite colors help make you feel happier on a cloudy day, but it can also have an impact on your day-to-day life. Yellow, for instance, can help make you more productive, while orange has been shown to make people more open and talkative.
Our modern version of traditional style might often be a little more subdued, with soft colors, cozy textures, and more streamlined spaces being favored over the striking interiors of the past, but elements of dopamine decor can still absolutely be incorporated into today’s traditional style or even into an old farmhouse like ours.
Pictured above: Curtains (use code CH12 for 20% off) | Mirror | Black Pleated Lampshade
Vintage-style rugs in moody, saturated tones can instantly change the atmosphere in a room, and curtains in charming patterns will bring instant life to your space, whether they’re done in neutral tones or something a little brighter. For accessories, pillows in mixed patterns like plaids, florals, and stripes are both playful and comforting, and of course, you can never go wrong with adding blue and white ceramics to your bookshelf, console table, or sideboard. For me, aged brass objects and statement-making gold frames are definitely part of my dopamine decor arsenal.
More DIY room ideas to inspire you: 8 Home Decor Items That Show You’re Definitely an Old Soul
Pictured Above: Umbrella Holder | Similar Console Table
Can Dopamine Decor be Timeless?
With all this talk of bold colors and cheerful patterns, you might be wondering if dopamine decor can be timeless as well. Creating a timeless home that I’ll still love years from now is always my ultimate goal, and for a lot of people, that means all decorative pieces from lamps to rugs to wallcoverings need to be neutral, but if you’re a lover of color, there’s no reason that your timeless home can’t have color, and in fact, I think it absolutely needs to for you to feel at home in it for years to come. When it comes to timelessness, the more “you” your home is, and the further away you stray from frivolous, passing trends, the more truly timeless it becomes.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.