How neurodiversity can be supported and celebrated through furniture and decoration in the home.
7 April 2025
BY NEUROKIND DESIGN
Although we sometimes take them for granted, our furniture items are incredibly important to our everyday lives – they facilitate the daily rhythms and rituals that play out in our homes. They allow us to rest, to play, to gather and to regulate. The way we furnish and decorate our spaces also provides us a medium for self-expression, giving us a sense of autonomy, ownership and control, which can be very beneficial to our wellbeing and sense of belonging in our homes. As they are often objects that are impermanent or flexible in nature, furniture and decoration are two of the easiest elements that you can adapt and adjust in your physical environments to suit your needs and celebrate your strengths and interests.
There are many aspects to consider when choosing furniture in particular, including:
•How it is arranged (orientation, position, relationship to other items or aspects of the home).
•Materiality and texture.
•How you move around it and how it affects the spatial layout of the room (see our space layout blog for more on this topic!).
•Mobility (how easy it is to move if needed).
•Ergonomics (how well it suits your body shape, size and posture).
•Suitability to purpose.
•Adaptability or versatility.
We hope that this list of considerations might help you reflect on what your needs are and how your furniture might better meet them, or how you can re-think how you use your furniture in your home.
The Research
To understand how furniture and decoration can play a part in creating a neuro-inclusive and neuro-affirming home environment, we first looked to research around the benefits of prioritising flexibility and adaptability in spatial environments. Many of the studies around this topic is focused on learning environments, however we believe that similar benefits may apply to home environments. Research student McKenna Ansara's thesis project on flexibility in the design of autism-friendly learning spaces found that providing flexibility and variety in design approaches in learning environments for adults was beneficial to supporting different needs, wellbeing and independence [i]. The study involved a literature review, as well as surveys and interviews with support workers who work with autistic individuals. A key recommendation from Ansara's study based on her findings was to provide adjustable and adaptable furniture to support a variety of needs.
Another study by researcher and teacher Heba Al-Jayoosi, focusing specifically on flexible seating options in a classroom environment, found that providing choice and variety resulted in improved motivation, collaboration and engagement [ii]. The study group incorporated neurotypical children and 57 pupils with a range of neurodivergent diagnoses, including autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia and developmental language delay. As part of the study, multiple alternative seating options were provided including rocking chairs, wobble stools and standing desks, and students were given choice over their desired seating. It was reported that neurotypical students also benefitted from the intervention.
Research also suggests that movement-based furniture can be a useful regulation tool. A 2017 study by Nader Matin Sadr and colleagues has shown that the use of dynamic seating in classroom environments can decrease the need for self-stimulatory behaviours and increase communication and social engagement in those with autism [iii]. An ADHD related study conducted in 2022 has also shown that dynamic furniture can improve focus in classroom environments when used appropriately to help meet the sensory input and cognitive needs of neurodivergent individuals [iv].
So, how can we apply this knowledge to the home environment to support a diversity of needs? Below, we suggest simple ways that you adapt furniture and decoration in your home environment and provide some image-based examples. [1]
1. Integrate furniture that is flexible, varied and adaptable.
Consider integrating furniture that can be moved easily, has multiple configurations or is adaptable. This is a great way to support shifting or varying needs on a fluctuating basis without having to make major changes to your home. This might mean your space looks different from hours to hour, day to day. For example, a modular couch can be rearranged and reassembled to become a cosy cubby for retreat and quiet regulation after a long day at school or work, and then be rearranged again to become a social space for one-to-one family conversations.
Consider having a variety of seating and table options, particularly in communal spaces, with different heights and levels and comfort to accommodate different needs and uses [v]. For example, some people may prefer to sit on the floor, whilst others might like to sit on their own in a quiet corner to retreat or to observe from a distance.
2. Embrace the unconventional.
Don’t be afraid to arrange furniture in your home in ways that challenge conventions. We all think differently and have different needs; embrace your strengths and what works best for you over keeping with tradition. For example, a dining room doesn’t need to be a traditional dining table and chairs – it could look like eating meals sitting on the floor if you prefer it. A lounge room could be an arrangement of modular pieces facing outwards or in alternative arrangements, rather than facing inwards. For example refer to the 'lounge landscape' image below. A bedroom doesn’t need to be a room with a traditional free-standing bedframe – it could be a small, cosy nook filled with soft bedding if being enclosed helps you feel safe and regulated.
We encourage you to experiment to find furniture configurations that suit your individual needs and are inclusive of the needs of others in the household.
3. Integrate furniture that you find regulating.
Furniture can also be very useful as a regulation tool, particularly if you are a sensory seeker or benefit from stimming. Seeking out furniture that allows you to move can be an effective way to keep yourself regulated and focused. Consider implementing items such as rocking chairs, spinning chairs, hammocks, bench swings, exercise balls or wobble chairs. These can also be a source of novelty if you find change and new experiences regulating. This type of furniture can be useful in areas like your home office, study and social spaces to stimulate focus.
Examples of movement-based furniture:
Furniture can also facilitate regulation through the tactile (touch and texture) and proprioceptive (bodily awareness) senses. For some, gentle or deep pressure can be regulating. For example, a plush lounge chair that hugs the contours of the body may feel calming for those who like gentle pressure. Furniture that encloses the body, like egg chairs and cocoon pods, can provide a feeling of security and retreat. This kind of furniture can be great in down-regulating spaces like quiet spaces, bedrooms and lounge areas.
4. Consider how decoration can contribute to your sense of joy and your state of regulation.
Decoration is a great way to express and celebrate your unique interests, personality and strengths. You might have an abundant collection of houseplants that you love, or an appreciation for sea shells. Whatever it is, make space for the objects that are meaningful to you and give them pride of place. If you have collections or items that bring you joy and that you’d like to display, consider incorporating shelving in places where you can easily see them without them becoming distracting or getting in the way of your day-to-day activities. You might also like to curate a small selection of items which you can then swap out and change every so often to keep up a sense of novelty if that is something you enjoy, whilst preventing your decorative items from over-taking the home.
However, everyone’s tolerance for visual stimulation and the amount of ‘stuff’ in their home is different, and this can be especially tricky to navigate if different members of the household have different preferences. Those who are hyper-sensitive to visual stimuli may find excess furniture and decoration overwhelming or dysregulating, in which case a more mindful approach may be appropriate.
This may look like:
-Establishing respectful boundaries and designated spaces for personal decorative items.
-Being selective about artworks or posters with strong patterns or bold colours.
-Reducing or eliminating ornaments, especially those that don’t have any meaning or sentiment attached to them.
-Removing any superfluous items or keeping them in closed storage.
For more information on how you can manage clutter in your home, see our ‘Visual Noise’ blog, linked here.
If you’d like to learn more about how to support neurodiversity through furniture within your home, get in touch with us today. We’d like to hear from you!
Endnotes:
[1] We recognise that environments are rarely occupied by one, and some of the strategies we suggest may not address opposing needs. However they are intended to inform, empower and create conversations about how neurodivergence can be supported and celebrated in our physical environments. In the case of differing sensory needs in environments occupied by multiple people, we recommend prioritising adaptability, control and flexibility as much as possible.
References:
i. Ansara, McKenna. 2022. "The Design of Autism-Friendly Learning Environments: Exploring Flexibility in the Built Environment as a Means to Support the Variability of Individual Manifestations of ASD." Student Thesis; Sheridan College. https://source.sheridancollege.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=swfaad_theses
ii. Heba Al-Jayoosi. 2023. “Evaluating the use of flexible seating to create inclusive classrooms.” The Churchill Fellowship, March 27, 2023. https://www.churchillfellowship.org/news-views/blogs/evaluating-the-use-of-flexible-seating-to-create-inclusive-classrooms/
iii. Matin Sadr, Nader, Hojjat Allah Haghgoo, Sayyed Ali Samadi, Mehdi Rassafiani, Enayatollah Bakhshi, And Hossein Hassanabadi. 2017. “The Impact of Dynamic Seating on Classroom Behavior of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Iran Journal of Child Neurology, 11(1): 29–36. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5329757/
iv. Stanić, Valentina, Taja Žnidarič, Grega Repovš, and Gregor Geršak. 2022. “Dynamic Seat Assessment for Enabled Restlessness of Children with Learning Difficulties.” Sensors (Basel), 22 (9) :3170. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093170
v. PAS 6463 2022 (BSI). https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/insights-and-media/insights/brochures/pas-6463-design-for-the-mind-neurodiversity-and-the-built-environment
Disclaimer:
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