Times Are Tough, So You Need an Emotional Escape Room

Escaping into a book is good but escaping into a room dedicated to your books is even better. If you have space, set up an entire room for reading and books. Design it to be a reading room, which is a library crossed with a sitting room. Install floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and fill them with the works of your favorite authors. Other home library ideas include getting a comfortable club chair or daybed where you can curl up and read. Add an area rug, an end table or side table to set your tea and reading lamp, a few potted plants and some cozy throws. Don’t have a spare room to dedicate to books? Set up a tiny library or a reading nook, preferably by a window where natural light can stream in as you read. Make the most of your tiny reading room by choosing furniture with storage.

Plants are good for your soul and mind, so filling a room with houseplants is a fine way to create a sanctuary at home. Two generations ago, the naturalist E.O. Wilson hypothesized that humans and plants have an inherent connection he called biophilia. Decades of research have shown Wilson was on to something, and that natural environments increase positive feelings and decrease negative ones.

Bring the natural world inside with a roomful of indoor plants. Make a greenhouse or garden room where you do the dirty, but fulfilling, work of potting, propagating and tending house plants. Or put a drift of potted and hanging house plants in a room and nap or work among them. Either way, you soak up those good vegetative vibes. If you cannot dedicate an entire room to plants, set up a plant nook by a sunny window. If don’t have a gloriously sunny room or even a sunny window, look for plants that thrive in low light.

She sheds have been around for a while, so they’re the prototype for emotional escape rooms. If you’re short on space inside, buy a studio shed kit, put it in the backyard and it's an instant sanctuary from the duties and distractions of the main house. Set it up for any activity that brings you joy: working with plants, painting, sewing, playing guitar or doing yoga. And of course, paint it in calming colors.

A music room is another way to create a haven in your home. Whether you play music or listen to it, set up a space dedicated to those activities. If you’re into vinyl, get a media console that can hold your records, speakers and turntable. Pick music room decor like comfortable chairs or a sofa where you can lounge while you listen through headphones. If you play, go beyond music room decor to functionality: add soundproofing material to the walls of your music room so you can jam without bugging the neighbors.

Make a calm corner for your creative side. Set up a craft room or art studio where you paint a canvas, make pottery, string beads into jewelry or crochet beanies. Being creative connects you to your thoughts and tunes out the world. Make sure you have enough room to keep all your supplies at your fingertips. Get creative with your craft room ideas. Put art and furniture you in the room. Bonus points if you make the art you put on the wall. Make this a space where you can be and express yourself.

Devote a nook or an entire room to meditation. Meditation can banish stress by focusing on thoughts, breath work and clearing your mind. It’s easier to meditate in a space with minimal décor, calming colors and lots of natural light. Other meditation room ideas: add floor pillows. Here's a yoga room idea to make your space feel like a professional studio where you can add physical movements to your mental ones: add natural wood flooring, indoor plants, candles and some Himalayan salt lamps.

Sunrooms are the most luxurious of emotional escape rooms because they require a wall, or three, of windows. A sunroom’s benefits are obvious. It brings the outdoors inside, giving you the mood-lifting, stress-blasting benefits of sunshine and nature in one temperature-controlled place. Don't have a spare room with enough windows to be a sunroom? Get a gazebo kit and attach it to your house. Fill it with designer knock-off chairs and indoor plants and you're ready to relax.