The Missing Ingredient in Home Design (Your House is More Than a Backdrop)

Inside: How to use the concept of “peopling” in home decor to give your home warmth and life. This is the secret to a house that feels good.

Imagine a small log cabin with two rocking chairs on the front porch. A candle is glowing in an open windowsill. Fall mums are on the porch in hand-glazed planters.

Now imagine this: a tall, shiny office building emerges from the sidewalk, all glass and steel. Inside is a room with desks placed in a grid. There’s a slightly dusty fake houseplant on the floor.

Obviously, one feels welcoming, and one gives you the creeps. But why? Why?

Have you ever heard of the term in architecture to “people” a space? It was used by the architect Donlyn Lyndon as a way to make spaces feel more human, inviting, and alive. It’s not about being beautiful; it’s about the human experience within a space.

I know. This sounds weird and boring. Are we in some kind of strange college lecture? Stay with me. This is anything but boring.

Let’s discuss the principles of “peopling”. It will give your home that magic feel that it’s missing. Really.

1. Use Human Scale

This principle says: this place was made for people.

This just means creating space that fit people! Why have an oversized couch when you can have one that’s… normal? Why have a two-story grand entryway when you have a…normal room?

• Comfortable distances and things within easy reach. Items shouldn’t be on tall shelves, chairs shouldn’t be gigantic or impossible to get out of, and people in chairs should be able to have a conversation.
• Human ceiling and window height: Standard (8-9 feet) feels balanced in most rooms, High (10-12 feet): can feel formal and less cozy. Techniques like contrasting paint colors (think ¾ wallpaper with white above) or thick moldings can ground a space.
• Human size zones. Even if a room is overly large, human-scaled furniture groupings can solve this problem.

To understand the power of human scale, think of spaces that lack it:

• Enormous foyers in public buildings (this is often done intentionally to show that you in an official space, a subtle message to stand up straight and behave yourself!)
• Overly high ceilings in a home feels emotionally and literally cold.
• A huge place like Costco makes you feel insignificant and like a cog in a machine.

This doesn’t mean you can’t do anything if your home feels too big and impersonal! Adding any of these elements to a too-big space will ground it.

• Indoor plants that are the size of people
• Darker wall paint in rooms with high ceilings
• Tall floor lamp in a corner to visually fill the space.
• A large, plush area rug to ground a seating area.
• Oversized artwork or a gallery wall to break up tall walls.

It is about creating environments that feel comfortable. If you walk in and think “wow, how grand!”, no one be comfortable there.

2. Windows of Appearance

This principle says: a person can appear here at any time.

Everyone (everyone!) has a memory of driving by a house lit up at night and seeing the people within. It creates this feeling of longing. This is an obvious window of appearance, where people are literally appearing in the window, but there are many other ways to do it!

• Open windows
• Curtains
• Windowboxes
• A candle or vase of flowers in the windowsill
• Leaving a light on inside near a visible window at night

It’s not about whether someone is actually at the window! This is about subtle hints of human life and activity that make a space feel alive, even when nobody is currently in view.

Again, examples of when this is missing are often quite effective at making the point.

• Flat office windows. They feel like big side florescent lights using to light up spaces but not much else.
• Mirrored or tinted windows. Creepy.
• Completely shut-off windows. Does anyone still live here? Is the window broken? Are the people alive inside?

This is one of the easiest ones to add to your home, but it’s still so rare because everyone is concerned about sealing things up as tightly as possible for efficiency. Be human and different.

3. Spaces for Planned (and Unplanned!) Interaction

This principle says: more than one person is here!

The seats have to be comfortable and you have to be able to sit down without being asked or feeling weird.

• Wide hallways: wider spaces allow people to comfortably pass each other and potentially pause for a quick chat.
• A chair in the bedroom
• Kitchen islands or breakfast nooks with a few chairs
• Bench or a couple of chairs on the porch or by the entryway.
• Porches and patios

And when a place is not built for humans to actually talk to eat other’s it’s obvious!

• Open floorpans that are “build for entertaining” but have nowhere too put furniture in a natural group.
• Kitchens with no eat-in spaces
• Uncomfortable furniture
• Common rooms that feel so awkward everyone retreats to their bedroom

Interaction spaces are about creating opportunities, not forcing them. It’s about two seats under a shady tree on a hot day, not a dining room table where everyone is forced to stare at each other.

4. Handmade or High-Upkeep Materials

This principle says: a person was here to make this, and they’ll be back!

The craftsman people’s the space with his work. Someone who cares for that item peoples the space with their work as well. If you stumble into a house and a plant that’s alive and a handmade quilt, you can be the humanity in it. If there’s a plastic fern and a polyester blanket, who knows where someone even still lives there

Make sense? Good.

Examples of items that “people” a space

• Handmade items: This one is easy! Handmade pottery, quilts, baskets, embroidered items all work.
• Houseplants, cut flowers, or a well-tended garden: Anything that dies quickly without care reminds the viewer that someone is there. Even a filled bird feeder works!
• High-upkeep materials: A floor that needs to be waxed, copper that needs to be polished, lawns that need edging. They show the evidence of the action, and thus the person who did it.

It’s not about everything being handmade or requiring labor-intensive maintenance. Even a few thoughtfully chosen items, cared for over time, add a human dimension to a space

Low maintenance and artificial things are everywhere now

• Mass-produced décor: Identical items found in many homes lack a personal connection and can make a space feel generic.
• Shiny, sterile, plastic surfaces
• Disposable items

This is easy to add, but easy to mess up

They are all just ways to say “humans made this house, and humans live in this house”. Seems so very simple, but so many items seem to say “machines built this house, and for no particular reason.”

But these simple principles hold the secret to a space that feels deeply personal and alive. Start small… open a window, cut some wildflowers, set a chair at the foot of your bed. It all males a difference.