Year after year, in good times and in bad, we consistently spend billions of dollars on home and office decoration. Home improvement and home renovation have become major players in the competitive world of modern entertainment. Practitioners of feng shui and color psychology, once pigeonholed with crystal ball gazers and tarot card readers, are now filling halls to capacity at high-ticket seminars for corporate designers and real estate investors.

Why in the world do we place such a high value on enhancing our environments? Isn’t decorating just a leisure activity for bored secretaries and housewives? Experts in the emerging fields of design psychology, environmental psychology, human factors design, and evidence-based design would heartily disagree. Decorating, they maintain, is not a frivolous occupation, but a fundamental survival skill.

Continuing research indicates that the process of transforming our environment to better serve our needs is a creative act on par with choosing an occupation, finding a mate, and raising a family. Our homes and offices provide more than shelter and places for productivity. They are platforms for self-realization. Through choosing architectural styles, interior colors, furnishings and art, we are exerting power over our personal space, marking our territory, and defining our personalities.

And once we have finished our work—installed the last lamp and hung the last piece of tapestry—our environments begin to work on us. A growing body of evidence indicates that our visual environments are a determining factor in virtually every area of our lives. Color schemes and decorative motives can alternatively increase our energy levels or drain our reserves. Patterns in our wallpaper, rugs and upholstery can be invigorating or relaxing. The images in our art can be uplifting or depressing, romantic or confrontational, inspiring or discouraging.

Architectural structures themselves can also affect our behavior and outlook. The length of hallways, size of meeting rooms and location of offices can either facilitate communication among building occupants or increase isolation. The geographical orientation of our homes can create warm, inviting spaces or dark, cave-like dwellings. Properly designedenvironments produce positive changes on emotional, psychological and physiological levels.

In almost every situation we have the freedom to choose the artwork and images that we place on our desks, tables, bookshelves and walls. Most of us choose these images almost unconsciously with the ubiquitous rationalization that such decisions are simply a matter of personal preference. There is another option. Art can be chosen with the intention to invoke particular feelings or emotional states or to remind the viewer of resolutions or goals.