How the hygge aesthetic is not a thing
Nº 17： But knowing how to make your home hygge, will make you happier. #oxytocin
Hygge is something that you feel. When you are in someone’s house or your own home, or in a café, if it feels cozy, if you feel warm, protected and safe, then it can be described as hygge.
It’s an atmosphere that is experienced rather than a sense of rustic design or a particular candle based aesthetic. It is in the joy of making food, drinking a hot beverage and being together with friends and family.
Although we know from Instagram and Pinterest what the hygge aesthetic is, I’m here to say that you can have hygge no matter your own home’s design style or your preferred aesthetic.
Coziness, warmth, calmness and the feeling of safety allows the neural hormone oxytocin to flow. The environment allows this and we feel more intimate. Trust giving and trust building situations are needed for great relationships and for self care, so don’t put fluorescent lighting in your home. Please!
In this article I will focus on one design feature of a home. The reading nook. This is somewhere that you can read a book, snuggle up with a blanket and a mug of hot tea.
To fulfil its purpose it will need to have prospect and refuge. See my post on this if you don’t know what this environmental psychology term is.
Ideally it’ll have a view of the outside (the prospect) because when it is raining outside, you’ll be cosy inside (the refuge) and that makes it even more hygge.
Originally a Norwegian word, hygge means well-being. From 1397 to 1814, Norway and Denmark were one kingdom. Interestingly, the word hug, from the 1560s word hugge, which means to embrace, may originate from the Old Norse hygga, which means to comfort. I know this because I have read Meik Wiking’s book, The Little Book of Hygge. The Danish Way to Live Well. He goes on to investigate the word’s etymology further and we arrive at associations with ideas of comfort, mood and of thinking considerately.
I had a corporate client once say to me that what he really wanted was to have a ‘feet in the sand moment’, his words, within his firm’s law office. He wrote that into the design brief and it was something I intentionally created for him and his staff.
How might that be possible, to design into a workplace, a conservative one at that? In the conceptual language of hygge there is a word, called hyggestund, which means a moment of hygge as in this line from Meik Wiking’s book; “he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat in his window for a hyggestund”
This is what my client was describing. So how about you? Do you need a place for a moment of comfort and rest in your day?
So what you need to do is to make your reading nook cosy, by which I mean, have it feel small, intentionally. If you don’t have a built-in nook, then you can choose a great chair, and it will probably need to be a wingback chair. Especially if you don’t have the protection of a wall behind you (refuge).
Choose wooden items, specify a timber floor finish, select timber furniture.
Have tactile things; if the blankets, throws, cushions and upholstery are soft, then we feel more cosy. Blankets and wraps are not just for when you are feeling cold. They’re just nice to snuggle up with, whether you’re watching a series or reading a book, chatting with friends or cuddling with your children or pets. Oxytocin helps us bond, trust and feel relaxed. See my last post for the best cushions that are available right now and for the curated shopping list.
Also look for a fireplace or a stove for hygge. Ideally a woodburning stove. There’s nothing quite like seeing a fire burn on a wintery Sunday afternoon. The fire element is essential for human survival. It makes us feel safe. Where you can’t have a fire, light candles. But remember to air out the room as candles create soot.
Meik Wiking is a happiness researcher. He talks about a third dimension to our happiness, called the eudaimonic dimension. It’s named after the ancient Greek word, eudaemonia meaning happiness. It is based on Aristotle‘s perception of happiness which was that a good life is a meaningful life, so do people experience a sense of purpose? Well, they say it is related to gratitude.
Gratitude can be designed for, we can introduce nostalgia into home design. Have you added into your home things that trigger good feelings?
Do you look at things in your home and see something that you are grateful for? a photograph on the wall, a piece of art that you bought on a holiday, or a souvenir placed on your bookcase, these can trigger gratitude and studies show that grateful people tend to recover more quickly from trauma and they are less likely to be distressed in difficult situations.
Do you bring your space alive? Hugge can be tasted, heard, smelled, touched and seen. Hugge is felt. How are you designing for comfort and cosiness? How are you designing for feelings of safety? And of course you don’t have to design it, you can hire a designer, me or someone else to do this for you.
Finishes in interiors that are shiny metal are cold to the touch. Or perhaps in your home there is a lot of glass, maybe glass balustrades or glass coffee tables and glass shelving. This isn’t very hygge. Timber finishes appeal to our sense of touch. If they feel warm then they add to the cosy nature of a space.
No need to buy new necessarily. Hygge can be made from a collection of disparate items. Things you already have. If you have your furniture scattered around the room, bring it closer to the fire, bring it closer to the centre of the room, place a rug underneath, arrange for conversation and togetherness.
Meik Wiking in his book, says if the slogan for the USA is ‘the bigger the better’ the slogan for Denmark is ‘the smaller, the more hyggeligt.’
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Until next Thursday,
Áine