Dopamine decor: See inside the homes with the feelgood factor

Dopamine decor boosts the mood of those of us using a living space. We talk to designers and homeowners who love the look

Colour confidence aquamarine, purple and yellow living side-by-side in Jay Jennings Orkney Island's kitchen.

Let's step out of chi-chi interiors for a minute and get scientific as dopamine interiors trend large.

The idea is to decorate to induce happiness, boost your mood, and activate the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter in the brain promoting pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation. Now, who wouldn’t want a dose of that?

The living area in Jay Jennings' home. Picture: Jay Jennings

Architect and designer by day, colour pundit by night, Jay Jennings of Paint the Town Pastel, an Instagram account of her Orkney Islands home, is devoted to the spectrum of super-strength pastel colours for her own personal dopamine release. 

She describes her aquamarine kitchen with its purple accented island and canary-yellow barstools to her 100k followers as “Rachel Khoo’s kitchen if it was an ice cream parlour in a Wes Anderson film”.

She goes even further in her pursuit of colour with a purple-drenched hall and sweeping staircase featuring shiny gold risers, which is, she says, “possibly the most extra thing I’ve ever done in my life”.

Jay Jennings is devoted to super-strength pastel colours in her Orkney home, as seen in this pink-themed bedroom.

It is peak-dopamine décor, although a more accessible style rather than Crayola crazy is the Dublin home of Joanne Mooney, one of Ireland’s main proponents of the look, who illustrates it and inspires her almost-45k followers on Instagram.

“It appeals to me because I love colour both in my home and wardrobe,” Joanne explains. “I instantly feel happy when I come home from holidays and I step into my home. I have colourful art on my walls and a bright yellow velvet Chesterfield sofa in my living room. 

"I have wallpaper on my ceiling. How could that not make you smile? There is a burst of colour in every room in my home. It’s subtle, it’s not ‘OMG, her house is so bright and colourful’.”

Joanne Mooney, proponent of dopamine décor in her tasteful, colour-filled Dublin home.

As general wisdom about following trends is to be inspired, not led, Joanne has some simple tips to get the look without inducing stress hormones rather than a dopamine hit.

“Start small,” she says. “Introducing colour to your home doesn’t mean painting the walls bright colours. You can introduce colour by adding soft furnishings, brightly coloured cushions, throws, or curtains. Most of the walls in my home are neutral colours and I accessorise with colour. 

"Give your old furniture a new lease of life by painting them bright colours. I recently painted my bed a gorgeous burgundy, I love it so much. Try it, I promise you will feel happier.”

There’s certainly nothing lacklustre about this trend, so if you want to be inventive, Joanne suggests tackling the ceiling.

“Why do we paint them white? I have yellow stripes painted in my ensuite and wallpaper on the ceiling in my downstairs loo.”

Emily Cunnane, creative director of interior designers InSpace and founder of Dublin Design Night, was all about the joyful spaces long before dopamine décor started to trend, and that was, she says, “without even knowing the name for it.”

She maintains the old rule books have been thrown out and what really matters now is your connection with your space and how it makes you feel.

“It’s absolutely imperative that the place you call your home, or where you spend your time working, makes you feel comforted, cocooned, and happy, whether this be through colour, the mixing of pattern and texture, the collection of meaningful objects, or pieces that tell a story, or all of the above,” she tells me.

Never one for colour, my own dopamine hit comes from pale walls, wishy-washy upholstery and everything pared back, but could I manage some tactility, I wonder?

"Look at a sofa in its ‘nude’ state, then dress it in vibrant throws, cushions and blankets. You will quickly see which version is more dopamine-inducing.”

Art and objects though are Emily’s go-to for making a space feel more personal and joyful than anything else.

“A vibrant painting that simply brings colour and life to a room, a framed photograph that evokes memories of people or places, or a collection of objects that make you feel something. Art is a gorgeous way of not just decorating your home but of evoking happiness.”

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