The Living Room is one of the main areas in a living space. It’s where we tend to gather and relax or unwind from our day. In some cases, it’s also a crucial gathering place for the household.

However you use your living space depending on your lifestyle, consider how your awareness of your Human Design Environment Colour can help you play with your space’s energy.

Remember this is not an exhaustive list of every way you could set up your living room according to your Caves Environment — but meant to be a fun starting point to get you thinking differently about your space.

If you need to calculate your Environment Variable, check out this post.

Try not to float the furniture

One of the first rules in interior design is not to line everything against the walls but bring the furniture off the walls to create flow and movement. But if you’re a Caves Person, it can be very stabilizing to have your furniture oriented in a way that has it placed against the wall. If you’re using a couch, try tucking it against a wall, rather than floating in the middle of the room. If this isn’t possible, make note of which angles feel the best for you when you’re sitting on the couch.

Bring on the walls

In some eras, open concept is all the rage, but if you’re a Caves Person — don’t hesitate to build walls. Sometimes this can be done with a room divider, partition, furniture, or even strategic plant placement. If your space is too open, how can you create walls to bring structure to the wide open space?

Within arm’s reach

We know Caves Environments are usually the most cozy of all, so how might you ensure all the basics are covered and accessible? Cozy pillows? Throw blankets? A candle? SPOT FOR THE REMOTE? When you settle in to your living space, consider how you use the space, and see what you can make available within arms reach based on the spot you’re sitting in.

Make it glow

Consider how you can build low lighting into the space through different colours and strengths to create a cavey-ambience. How can you make the space glow? Instead of having light shining down from an above light fixture, think about how you can bring in a glow rather than light. Candles? Lamps? Fire place? Bonus points if you can make the entire home glow, especially at night.

Load up on creature comforts

It’s important for Hardscape Environments (Caves, Markets and Kitchens) to have certain things available to them in their spaces. Whatever your creature comforts are, ensure your gathering space is full of them. Can you determine what your creature comforts are? My Caves husband always has a guitar near by, but my Caves son always has his Switch somewhere close. What might some of yours be?

Create a corner or a nook

Is there an area in your living room that gives you the feeling of tucking in? Maybe there is a big chair in the corner. Maybe there is a built in bench and bookshelf — or an emptied closet. How can you get creative with your space, cleverly using some nooks and crannies in innovative ways? Is there a special little nook where you can tuck books and crystals? I once saw a Caves Person get a hanging shelf with fifty tiny compartments and they tucked one tiny treasure into each nook. So Caves.

Literal cave inspiration

Consider what you might find in an actual cave; natural textures, colours that can be found in nature — maybe even artwork of cavey creatures. Piles of blankets or pillows! Comfortable furniture, warmth, safety, feeling held, cozy textures — fill your space with wonderful basics that are reminiscent of caves principles. This should become a favourite space that is very nourishing to be in. Caves principles keep things simple, and they’re stocked with the basics. They often make use of things in some creative ways!

Textured ceiling

What’s going on on the ceiling in your living space? How might you be able to bring texture or weight to your ceiling through colour, treatments, beams, or fabric installations? Heavy exposed beams can bring a weight to your ceiling, and painting ceilings a darker colour than the walls can add a cool dimension, creating the sense of tucking into a deep space.