look at these two chairs tell me which one you would prefer to sit [Music] in don't lie I know you picked the while on the rides it actually doesn't really have much to do with decor and it's more to do with psychology more specifically Prospect Refuge Theory so if you're redecorating arranging furniture or just staring at a room on the weekend wondering why the furniture hates you you're in the right place B in this video I'm going to go into what Prospect Refuge Theory actually is how you experience it every single day without even realizing it and most importantly how you can use this Theory to design spaces that are comfortable and inviting oh and I also list a couple of like bad examples and then go through how we can make it better instead so I think that would be pretty useful stay for the entire video [Music] yeah so first what is Prospect Refuge Theory Prospect refers to our ability to see our surroundings clearly allowing us to scan for potential opportunities or threats Refuge represents safety and shelter humans naturally seek places that offer protection from external dangers places where they can hide or Retreat when needed this isn't about Aesthetics it's about survival Instinct so even though nowadays we're not dodging Predators anymore our brain still craves that balance between openness and protection get it right and you'll be in a space that feels really comfortable and safe and cozy get it wrong doesn't matter how good that space feels you won't really want to stay there I mean think about the last time you into the cafe did you go straight for the middle of the room or did you find yourself gravitating towards the edge perhaps a seat near the window or against the wall in the corner our instincts always pull us towards the edges of a space because that's what we feel safest while still keeping an eye on things let's find another example when you go to a public park the same thing happens people don't scatter themselves randomly across an open field instead we sit on the trees by benches or along walls they go towards the edge of spaces because these spots offer Refuge while giving a clear view of the surroundings we want to see the action but we don't want to be the action and this is happening everywhere we go in our lives whether this is an open plan office a restaurant a cafe a park your home and when you start to see spaces this way you realize how much of our comfort is tied to this delicate balance so here are some common mistakes people make and simple ways to fix them first in the bedroom when you have the bed directly in front the door it can make you feel quite exposed like you're in the line of fire you feel like if someone opens the door they can come straight at you so it makes you feel very unsafe there's not enough Refuge so what you should do is move the bed to a spot where you can still see the door but you're not directly in front of it another mistake is to have the bed with the head next to the door the problem with this is that you don't see people coming in so you feel quite vulnerable the solution is to move the head of the bed away from the door this one okay it's a little bit difficult if you don't get to build a house over just renting um but I think it's still worth considering uh where you have a room with windows that are far too high it kind of prevents you from seeing the outside so even if you get light the room will feel closed off and disconnected from the world so the solution is to lower the window sill so when you're kind of standing in front of the window you can see the sky and the ground you can also provide a comfortable window seat next to the glazing and I promise you if you have a window seat this will become one of your favorite places in your home it's a real pity that more houses are not built with this just by default I have an entire video about Windows so be sure to check that out if you're building your house if you have a sofa that is kind of floating in the midle of the room with a back exposed you also feel exposed so what you should do is add a console table or some sort of low shelving behind the sofa so this creates like a boundary giving you the feeling of Refuge without sacrificing the placement of your sofa it's really amazing how simple this is and how much difference it makes if you also have like an armchair that's floating in the midle of the room it can feel a bit stranded with no purpose what you should do is Anchor it add a rug add a side table add a lamp to create a defined space if you have a dedicated office and you place a desk facing a wall with a back to the door it can feel quite restrictive like you're cut off from everything else you don't get to see the outside you don't get to see who comes in your back is vulnerable and exposed it doesn't really feel that great so what you could do in a layout like this is to rotate the desk so you can see the door or the window just give yourself a view of what's going on around you whether that's people that's coming in and out or the outside world I think productivity can go down a little bit if it makes you feel better when you're working because then you work better so then actually in the long run the productivity increases I don't know this is just my excuse for always moving furniture around my husband is not so happy that I'm always constantly changing stuff around I feel like in the long term is worth it thank you for watching if you like this video you can go watch more I have hundreds more and I will make hundreds more which is why you should subscribe so you can continue to watch the information that I turn out to the Internet thanks bye wait wait wait don't leave just yet I've got an announcement this video marks a first for me me I got a freebie because my YouTube channel yay does this make me an official YouTuber now anyway what happened is a home lighting and decco Company reached out and they let me pick one product from their catalog in exchange for 2 minutes of airtime plus some unboxing and assembly video footage so here I am unboxing assembling and showing off the brand and this lamp I picked so this company is called L Sola it's a company I actually haven't ordered from before so I want to be completely transparent and give you the whole picture the good and the bad I ordered the lamp on the 3rd of September and it was shipped the very next day and arrived 2 weeks later with regular email updates on its whereabouts that was good the packaging as you can see was really solid it took me a good 10 minutes just to get everything open after I got everything out the package the material does feel quite good quality the base is a solid marble so it's got nice heavy feel I mean when things feel heavy they feel like quality you know I mean that's what I'm going to tell people when I gain a bit of weight over winter I'm not getting chubbier I'm just increasing in quality there are also some nice design touches like this Brass Band between each segment of the pole there's a foot switch for turning off and on plus a pool chain eye level so you can operate at two different heights and it comes with a light bulb so I was able to use the product straight away okay so now let's talk about the not so good part the lamp shade it was pretty tricky to install you have to push the holes onto a wireframe and then flip it over I have not experienced the system before and in the box there were no clear instructions so I couldn't for the life of me get the lampshade to stay in place I ended up emailing them about this and within a week they sent over a video about how to attach it I mean if IID paid full price for this and had this hassle with assembly I would have been pretty annoyed but anyway that was resolved the more something costs the higher your expectations get for the product so to summarize if you like the design this shop has loads to choose from but if you're any way concerned about things going wrong and needing customer support and really really clear instructions about how to assemble something maybe always try to get a discount code so you don't have to pay full price for the product