Dopamine Decorating: Spark Joy with Colour Drenching

29 Oct 2024

“Minimalism leads to happiness!” your favourite home-design guru said as the barbiecore fad ended. And you agreed. After all, donating your stuff meant having less to clean – and you found the remote! The second you dropped off that last load, though, they did a U-turn: “Maximalist design is cool now!”

At the time, you huffed but begrudgingly re-bought your stuff. (You couldn’t ask for it back, could you? That’s essentially stealing from charity.) No worries. At least you re-found happiness amongst your family heirlooms (even if the remote disappeared again). Plot twist, though: “Minimalism is back!”

Enough. Try dopamine décor.

At Sigma 3 Kitchens, we love trends but we also love designing kitchens you love forever. No need to chase trends or live like a monk with one fork while you fight the urge to strangle a flip-flopping design influencer. Dopamine décor appeals uniquely to your tastes and boosts your mood for good.

A Carnegie Claret and Solva Vintage Rose Range by Sigma 3 Kitchens Newport

What is Dopamine Décor?

Inspired by the TikTok trend “dopamine dressing” – the act of donning colours and items you love to boost dopamine, a feel-good chemical in the brain – dopamine décor incites pleasure through interior design. It’s not about creating a trendy space; it’s about designing one that stimulates your brain.

It encourages you to experiment with textures and colours, blending minimalist and maximalist elements until you reach a sweet spot uniquely calibrated to make you happy forever. A room that captures the spirit of dopamine decorating often contains a trifecta of base design elements:

• Nostalgic objects that appealed to you in your youth
• Solid blocks of colour (also known as colour drenching)
• A high concentration of accessories that “spark joy”

An Ashbourne Hunter Green Range and a Sutton Scots Grey Range by Sigma 3 Kitchens Esher

Childhood bedrooms naturally follow dopamine décor trend principles; the vivid colours, vintage décor and kitsch elements. This is because kids don’t worry about “taste.” They don’t assemble items that magazines claim “go together.” They just gather things they love – and are happier as a result.

So, decorate unapologetically to stimulate your inner child. Whether you’d rather keep just a few high-quality items or dive into maximalism, either is fine. Dopamine home décor covers lots of bases, including colour drenching interiors, vintage décor and collecting retro kitchen appliances.

"Some people assume a room has to be gaudy to represent dopamine décor but your version can be tasteful. This movement is all about including the colours, furniture and mementos in your space that make you happy. Beyond that, there are no rules."

The Psychology of Dopamine Décor

Bear with us as we explain a bit of brain chemistry because it’s key to understanding why dopamine décor actually works. On her blog, Ingrid Fetell Lee, the author of The Aesthetics of Joy, explains:

“While dopamine is known as the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter, it’s a bit more complex than simply dopamine = happiness. [...] When you take an action that increases your chances of survival or thriving, such as eating something that tastes good, the reward pathway is activated and dopamine is released, making you feel pleasure. [… But] there are other neurotransmitters and hormones that play a role in the neuroscience of happiness. These include serotonin (contributes to mood regulation), oxytocin (essential to bonding and belonging), norepinephrine (related to excitement and attraction), and endorphins (involved in pain and discomfort relief). […] While it would probably be more accurate to say “dopamine serotonin oxytocin norepinephrine and endorphin decor,” that’s a bit of a mouthful! So dopamine decor is a useful shorthand.”

In layman’s terms, you feel good when you experience things that release happiness chemicals in your brain. Therefore, if you want happiness, it helps to fill your kitchen with dopamine-releasing stimuli.

A H-Line Lumina Scots Grey with Sutton Burnt Umber Range by Sigma 3 Kitchens Culverhouse Cross

In many ways, you need a “Goldilocks” kitchen that stimulates your happiness receptors just enough without overwhelming them. Engineering an environment that does this isn’t easy. Find the right balance for you, however, and the result can even improve your mental health.

So, how do you perfect an interior design practice that’s completely personalised? In reality, you’ll need to use a bit of trial and error to experiment. That said, we’ve compiled a few broad brushstrokes that are designed to apply to most homeowners. They’re listed here in three actionable steps.

Start with Colour Psychology

Natural light is a universal mood booster for all humans. Thus, if your renovation involves construction, try baking windows and skylights into your plans before you bother with colour. Doing so will enhance everything that follows. Once that’s done, though, look into the world of colour therapy.

Browse Pinterest and you’ll notice clear throughlines regarding colour: 1950s design, pop-art décor and colour drenching. Bold blocks play a big role, but choosing your ideal colour is critical because colours influence human brains in varied ways and your desired mindset might differ from that of your neighbour.

A Carnegie Claret and Solva Vintage Rose Range by Sigma 3 Kitchens Newport

Barbiecore, for example, floods areas with pink, which reassures the nervous system, according to science. Red, meanwhile, accelerates your heartbeat, creating urgency. Blue relaxes – good for productivity. Yellow (in small doses) promotes optimism. Green is calming, like being in nature. Orange stimulates hunger and social interaction. And purple exudes abundance, which inspires creativity.

So, how do you want your kitchen to influence you? Select a colour that will help you achieve your desired type of happiness. Maybe go deep on one or blend a few for custom results. At the same time, balance neutrals with accents to avoid overload. Just use bold colours somewhere in your design.

Embrace KonMari to Spark Joy

Using blue kitchen paint colours or installing blue kitchen cabinets can help you feel calm. Though, you’re unlikely to benefit from this psychological hack if your worktops are so cluttered they overstimulate your mind in a way that causes you to feel stress.

Yes, dopamine décor moguls recommend that you populate rooms with sentimental décor to achieve happiness through design, but happiness studies suggest you don’t want to overdo it. According to researchers, more stuff doesn’t always equal more happiness.

A Hatfield Scots Grey and Moonlight Blue Range by Sigma 3 Culverhouse Cross

Indeed, don’t design a kitchen that’s hard to organise and keep clean. Instead, for happiness, build one that helps you focus on hobbies, goals and loved ones. Embrace Marie Kondo’s “KonMari” method – the act of removing any possession other than those you need often or that “spark joy.”

Strip back to dopamine décor furniture and, maybe, retro antiques that remind you of long-abandoned passions you’d like to reignite. The key is to create a kitchen where you love everything you can access, and you can access everything you love.

Go Maximalist on Items You Love

The 80/20 rule states that 20% of causes lead to 80% of effects. This phenomenon appears all around us. In business, 20% of clients lead to 80% of profits. In farming, 20% of plants produce 80% of the yield. If you can weed out the unproductive 80%, you can create room for another productive 20%. As the maths explains:

20% of Your Original Input Capacity = 80% of Your Original Output Results

So, in theory, if you could swap out the 80% unproductive original capacity for another 20% productive input:

40% of Your Original Input Capacity = 160% of Your Original Output Results

Using the same logic, 20% of your original possessions produce 80% of your happiness. The other 80% simply saps your energy with upkeep. So, identify the good 20% and remove the rest. Then fill the void left behind with new thoughtful purchases and you’ll overshoot your original happiness ceiling.

A Shaker Graphite Range from Sigma 3 Kitchens Abergavenny
A Classic Moonlight Blue and Highland Stone Range by Sigma 3 Kitchens Newport

Remember, aiming for a room you personally like is the key. You want bright interior design and heirloom furniture that floods your brain with comforting nostalgia. Make it as comfortable as possible because style alone won’t get your dopamine centres firing.

"If you want to go all out with dopamine décor, great! That said, we know some homeowners like to play it safe just in case they ever want to sell their home. If that sounds like you then it’s possible to limit any décor with niche appeal to one wall or corner. That way, you’ll get the best of both worlds. An experienced designer can help you do this in a way that ties together the whole room."

Collage strong colour blocks with patterns in your kitchen. At the same time, showcase mementos of stories from your life on open shelving, and consider including plants in your setup for their wellbeing benefits. Most importantly, though, aim to achieve a sense of nostalgia. Combined, all these feel-good factors will produce powerful, mood-boosting dopamine décor, which you’ll never want to change.

Where to Buy Dopamine Décor

Furniture is at the heart of dopamine design. So, if you need more help choosing pieces that stimulate your brain, find your nearest Sigma 3 Kitchens showroom and book a meeting, or become a Sigma 3 Insider for free. As an Insider, you’ll get exclusive lifestyle guides and design tips – totally FREE!

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