Imagine walking into a space where every wall holds meaning, each object has been carefully chosen with purpose not just aesthetics. A space that makes you feel energetically recharged. In an age of overstimulation, burnout and algorithmic design, the greatest luxury is presence. Not performative stillness but real, felt presence—spaces that centre, soothe, and awaken. This is the new aesthetic: soulful interiors that are emotionally intelligent, spiritually attuned, and intentionally curated. As a pioneer curating for well-being, I see this as the soulful interior—a new benchmark for emotional, energetic, and aesthetic design.
Notions of luxury have been known to evolve through the ages from Versailles style opulent baroque and rococo finishes to soho house style comfort. But today, its truest expression is far more intimate. It is the stillness one feels in a room where everything has been chosen with care. The gentle pulse of presence in a painting that speaks directly to your soul. The comfort of textures that root you into your body. This shift is more than a trend. It’s a cultural reawakening. And it’s one I’ve witnessed firsthand while curating collections for private residences, hospitality spaces, and corporate sanctuaries across the globe. The desire is universal: clients want spaces that feel as good as they look. The spaces people now want are less about self-display and more about self-regulation. They need to decompress from the sensory assault of modern life—and they’re turning to design as their first line of emotional defence.
A cultural recalibration
We are living through what I often describe as a collective spiritual pivot. The post-pandemic world has shifted our sense of what matters. At the height of lockdowns, homes morphed into sanctuaries, and suddenly aesthetics were no longer about show—they were about survival. Light, material, and visual harmony became tools for mental clarity and emotional balance.
Art in this new paradigm is no longer a backdrop or investment asset—it’s an active element in shaping mood, memory, and meaning. Increasingly, I work with clients who want art that acts as a tuning fork—aligning their energy, elevating their rituals, or even counterbalancing architectural tension.
And the data mirrors this shift. According to the Global Wellness Institute, the wellness real estate sector doubled from $225 billion in 2019 to $438 billion in 2023, and it is projected to reach $912 billion by 2028, growing at nearly 16% annually. In this context, soulful design is not a niche—it’s the next frontier.
Design That Feels
What defines a soulful space?
To me, it’s a space that grounds as much as it speaks. One where energy flows with intention. Where art is not decoration, but a mirror for the psyche and a portal for inner alignment, intentionality is key.
While the term “wellness” has often been aestheticised into oblivion, it’s gaining a new kind of traction in the design world. But this isn’t just about spa-inspired spaces. It’s about interior ecosystems that align with human rhythms. Natural light as circadian regulation. Clay and wood as grounding agents. Colour palettes that mirror psychological seasons.
This is where my practice comes in. I curate beyond style—into sensation. When choosing art for a client, I consider how a piece interacts with the light at dawn. Is it hung low to engage in conversation or high to project its energy. Whether its presence will uplift or ground. Whether it speaks to the narrative and aspirations of the inhabitant or merely the trend cycle.
Globally, a constellation of designers, architects, and artists are embodying this new ethos:
- Ilse Crawford, renowned for her sensory design philosophy, emphasizes emotional resonance over visual bravado. Her interiors—from Ett Hem in Stockholm to the Refettorio Felix in London—are warm, tactile, and profoundly human. “Design,” she’s said, “is a gut feeling.”
- Axel Vervoordt, whose work with Wabi-Sabi minimalism infuses Belgian farmhouses and Venetian palazzos with a deep sense of stillness, describes his approach as “an invitation to introspection.”
- Ashiesh Shah, one of India’s leading design voices, blends brutalist structure with Zen sensibility. His Mumbai home feels less like a showpiece and more like a temple of silence.
Their work affirms what I believe: soulful interiors are about spirit.
Many of my clients are drawn to spiritual philosophies such as Vastu Shastra, Feng Shui, and chakra theory—not out of dogma, but curiosity and a quest for calibration. These systems offer subtle yet powerful blueprints for energetic harmony. Beyond provenance and shopping lists there’s an increasing quest for art with purpose. Pieces that hold intention.
There is a misconception that “soulful design” is simply earthy tones and incense. But true soulful design is strategic. It’s about editing your environment with the same care you would a poem. What’s omitted matters as much as what remains.
In practice, I often begin a curation not by asking “What do you like?” but “What do you long for?” Peace? Creativity? Reconnection? Each answer leads to a different curatorial arc: as an example this might look like kinetic abstraction to energise, ritual sculpture to ground, photography to awaken memory, it’s not so formulaic though, as it changes based on individual narrative.
And this is where the soul meets strategy—when aesthetics are driven by inner architecture, not outer optics.
The most significant shift I’m seeing is this: people are designing for their inner lives—not just their visitors.This marks a tectonic cultural change. Homes are becoming sites of inner repair. Offices are being reimagined not just as functional spaces but as emotional landscapes. Art, architecture, and spatial design are merging with psychology in ways we’ve never seen before.
Art has always carried resonance through materiality, direction of strokes or application, with some artists intentionally incorporating sacred geometry, healing frequencies, and biomorphic forms into their practice. It has always been both a visual and vibrational intervention.
I’ve loved the way Haroun Hayward’s richly textured abstractions draw from global musical and spiritual traditions, and offer an entry point into emotional complexity. His use of rhythm, colour, and pattern taps into something almost primal—his paintings pulse with vitality yet contain a meditative undercurrent. On the other hand, Ritika Merchant brings a mythopoetic sensibility to contemporary interiors. Her meticulously detailed watercolours weave together folklore, cosmology, and the natural world, offering symbolic storytelling that resonates deeply with the subconscious. Her work is ideal for spaces of introspection—bedrooms, reading corners, or sanctuaries—where personal transformation is quietly underway.
The soulful aesthetic is also tactile. It is the quiet of linen, the groundedness of clay, the breathability of untreated wood. In soulful spaces, materials are chosen for form and feel. Brands like Zanat, Loro Piana Interiors, and Faye Toogood champion this ethos, creating furnishings that feel alive in their subtlety. In an age of AI and acceleration, we crave grounding. And the spaces we inhabit must evolve accordingly.
If the last decade was about conspicuous consumption, the next one will be about conspicuous consciousness.
Soulful spaces don’t just look different—they feel different. And in a world where our outer lives are increasingly performative, the most radical act may be to design something that speaks only to you.
That, to me, is the new luxury.
Sneha Shah is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree and London and Mumbai based artist, poet, curator and wellness practitioner. She founded Curaty, a socially conscious art advisory firm dedicated to the transformative power of art in 2019. With a background in fine art and art history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and University College London, Sneha’s work bridges creativity, spirituality, and well-being. She is passionate about helping people connect with art not just visually, but emotionally and soulfully. Sneha is an active voice on Instagram and LinkedIn.
