OH! Magazine - Australian Version November 2016 | Page 27

WIN A $499 INTERIOR DESIGN PACKAGE FROM DESIGNBX One lucky winner’s home is about to get the Designbx treatment, to create a beautiful room at an affordable budget! Designbx helps you find the perfect look to express your personality and lifestyle. Most importantly, it’s easy to use, fun and 100 per cent online. How does it work? First you start with a free style quiz to find the right look (e.g. Coastal, Boho, Contemporary), complete a quick brief for your room and launch your project. Next, you'll select your favourite design and work with your designer together online to create a style board, floor plan, furniture and homewares schedule and final design folio. And finally, your Personal Shopper places all your orders, deliveries and passes on exclusive discounts. Note: This prize includes a full design solution with a style board, floor plan, shopping list, and design folio for your chosen room (excludes kitchens and bathrooms). All shopping, however, is to be paid for, by the winner. WIN! For more information visit designbx.com or to enter to win this awesome package, email 50 words or less telling which room in your needs a makeover, and why. Submit your entry before 1 December 2016 to [email protected] or use the interactive form on this page to enter. For full Competition Terms and Conditions visit www.ohmagazine.com.au Terminally ill patients in Australia were found to have less anxiety, pain and drowsiness after having a single music therapy session compared to those who did not listen to music (study published in the May 2008 Journal of Palliative Medicine). Premature babies listening to two hours of recorded Mozart each week had lowered heart rates and more sleep, according to researchers at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Centre in New York. This is a sense that falls somewhere between touch and sight, being critical to comfort while open to a wide array of stimulus and, as we all know, it’s an incredibly personal and relies heavily on each individual’s perception. One person’s aural heaven is another’s hell. There are many design elements using sound that can create a more tranquil, focused and relaxed space. You can apply music in the same way we use negative space or inoffensive colours that appeal to the whole family’s senses. A melody resonates deep in our soul and can provide a moment of reflection where all problems disappear. It often transports you back in time to a memory, action or thought. It’s the ultimate time machine for the mind. Wind chimes offer a subtle sound that comes from nature's movements, making its subtle tones calming and hypnotising, while trickling and flowing water features brings calm. They resonate with birth and times of peace. When it comes to sound, don’t underestimate people power. Open plan living allows us to hear the sounds of others in the home. Children laughing, dogs playing, friends and family socialising, and these are all familiar and calming sounds. These noises make a space feel filled and utilised, like they serve a purpose. SMELL Depending whether we smell an odour, stench or fragrance, we may thank or curse our olfactory nerves, but there’s no doubt stimulation of this sense can dramatically affect moods. Fragrances leave an incredibly deep memory imprint, and decades after appreciating a smell, catching a whiff of it in the air can send our minds rushing back to a historic moment in our lives. Unlike the other senses, we physically consume odours, so not only can they be designed to have a distinct psychological effect but can also physically heal us. Candles, oil burners and vaporisers are effective ways to help your family breathe in healing scents. Use essential oils to promote wellbeing. Place a Eucalyptus oil-filled tissue in the dryer with your clothes and they’ll come out smelling fresh and clean. Lavender on a pillow at night promotes deep sleep. A drop of tea tree oil in the toilet helps keep odours at bay and is a natural antiseptic. Remember, not all smells are heroes, so keep the villains at bay with air purification. Plants purify, promote happiness and heal so make sure you have plenty of greenery and flowers around your home. Like cooking, they’re an incredibly effective way to evoke memories or bring a sense of familiarity. So next time you defend mother nature or roll out your yoga mat, remember there’s a critical element that separates humans and the earth. When designing your home’s interiors, it might be time to come to your senses. Kerena Berry is an interior designer and the co-founder of www.designbx.com, Australia’s online interior design solution. OH! MAGAZINE ( NOVEMBER 2016 ) 27