Dopamine Home: A Bold Guide to Mood Boosting Interiors

Verney debuts with an effervescent manual for sprucing up one’s home with “dopamine décor,” a design style characterized by “bold use of colour, energetic patterns, [and] a mixture of textures.” Intuition guides Verney’s approach to interior design, as when she encourages readers to settle on a room’s palette by “identify[ing] the colours that give you the feel-good factor.” To ensure patterned items don’t clash, she recommends pairing designs that use similar color schemes and shapes. Providing tips for decorating each room of the house, she contends that a “statement” coffee table can provide an effective focal point in a living room and shows how a translucent table with wavy legs anchors a pop art–inspired room. Elsewhere, she suggests that colorful appliances and patterned tiles can brighten up a kitchen, and that upcycling a cocktail cabinet by wallpapering the back panel will spruce up a dining room. Though Verney asserts that she’s “not one for rules,” she still provides some helpful pointers, such as the suggestion that arranging decorative items in groups of odd numbers looks better than even groupings. Verney shows how to make the most of underutilized spaces (painting the ceilings and stairs adds extra color to a home), and the vivid interiors sourced from Instagram influencers provide eye-catching inspiration. This will appeal to readers with adventurous design sensibilities. (Apr.)