What is an Emotional Escape Room? How to Carve Out an Idyll in Your Eco Conscious Home
Emotional escape rooms are a recent design trend in which a room or discrete area is isolated as a refuge or sanctuary from the sensory overload of modern life. Not to be confused with the ‘escape rooms’ of work team bonding activities, emotional escape rooms represent quite the opposite of a high pressure environment. With new WFH norms, and the Pandemic pressure of spending all day with your family or roommates, it’s becoming more common to create a space or a room that is free of work or family obligations.
It could be a small space that’s big enough to roll out a Yoga mat, it could be a larger room, or a small reading nook that is semi closed off by walls or partitions. Whatever your choices, these spaces will have different potentials and challenges depending on their context within the home.
If you want the space to fit into your overall green interior design objectives as well, you may face additional challenges and potentials.
The following are a few things to consider if you are thinking of designing an emotional escape room:
Plants and Light
One question to ask is whether the space needs light, or whether it would be more relaxing if it were darker. If you are neurodivergent and light sensitivity is an issue, you can reduce light and even paint the space in darker colors. You may also want to “green” the space with plants, which could mean that natural light should feature. Plants are known to have a calming effect and to filter air.
Clean Air and Non-Toxic, Non-Violent Materials
A retreat at home should be a place that makes you feel better. It should impact your health on multiple levels. It should also line up with a commitment to use non-violent materials. These choices can create a unity of aesthetics, health benefits and positive impacts. With high levels of pollution and toxic materials, clean air is a must. Installing a heating and cooling air pump system is an environmentally friendly way of making this a reality throughout the whole home. The room itself could have space for air filters. The materials used in the room, such as cushions and carpets can be produced from low impact nonviolent materials such as cotton and linen.
Clutter or Declutter?
One person’s idyll might be cozy and full of ornaments, books, plants, art and sentimental objects. Another person might want to escape to a decluttered and calming space. In either of these scenarios storage will be one of the main design problems to overcome. Inset storage, such as an inset bookcase, might create a more calming, decluttered space. Hanging shelves, cubbyholes, macrame and hooks could create space for displaying objects and plants if you prefer the “clutter-core” look.
Sensory Design
Sensory design is an emerging design discipline that accommodates people who are neurodivergent or have mental health issues that make sensory processing traumatic. Sensory design entails design that accommodates issues like light and noise sensitivities. This could involve creating a space with sound insulation, choosing paint colors carefully, reducing visual stimulation and clutter, and featuring objects and furniture with textures that can calm children or adults with sensory processing issues.
Creating Space Within the Home
Whatever the size of your space, you can create a retreat. Even a small apartment in a metro area like NYC can have many potentials, such as unused areas in hallways, often in corners where a boiler or electrical switches are located, or even the potential for mezzanine space, such as in warehouse apartments with high ceilings. Creating space can also be a matter of using space dividers or sliding doors.
At Earth Science Design, we have been researching the science of green interior design and exterior design, non-violent and non-toxic design for ten years. We bring our expertise and network of supplier contacts to every design consultation. Whatever your location, you can find highly skilled, innovative suppliers and contractors to achieve your design dreams. We assist both with your design strategy and with steps you need to take to make it a reality. We have offices in San Diego, CA, NYC and Paris France. We can consult with you remotely or in person. Please contact us to learn more about our green interior design services.
