How to 'do' texture
My top three ways to give yourself a home hug every single day.
If I have an enduring theme in my own home, or when writing about interior design generally, it’s texture, texture, texture! Why? Because the finishing of surfaces with a degree of tactility elevates absolutely any domestic space to the possibility of being a sensory cocoon — without this (and colour), you merely have an enclosure for your belongings.
And I don't just mean the addition of a few carefully chosen throws on the bed or cushions on the sofa. I'm talking about embedding texture into the very bones of your home — the feel of the floor beneath your toes, the sensation of touching your walls, even the notion of getting excited gazing upon your ceiling. Crazy? Maybe. But rest assured, every surface in your home has the ability to stimulate, why waste a single one?
After all, our sense of touch is extraordinarily sophisticated. We all know how warm and reassuring it is to receive a hug from a friend, lover or our children. What of the therapeutic and healing value of a relaxing massage? As infants we learn about the world through touch, understanding through play what things are supposed to feel like. We even use the phrase, keeping in touch, to signal a desire for continued communication.
Touch is a sense which instantly ignites our psychological triggers, from love to fear — after all, who does not recoil on encountering unexpected dampness, or feel a jump, if touched unexpectedly, especially if by someone unfamiliar.
Nowhere is the positive employ of touch more important than in the intimate spaces of our homes, where we should feel safe to be vulnerable and unguarded. Consider the joy of stepping out of bed to be greeted by a warm, cosseting floor. Such are the pleasures of underfloor heating, of which I am an enormous fan (energy-saving too!). Literally grounding you in happiness from the moment of waking. The opposite, that of padding across a cold floor, would prompt an entirely different start to the day.
As such, touch matters. So, what are three things you could do to play on this most vital of senses to give yourself a home hug everyday?
