Step one: Make a list of items that make you happy on sight

Dopamine design is all about what brings you feelings of delight. Though this can take any shape or form, try to think through items that immediately give you a rush of satisfaction just by looking at them. Don’t worry if the items themselves aren’t design-ready — an eclectic, personal mix will only add to the charm of your dopamine zone. You can integrate any category that speaks to you, like:

• Memories: Pictures with loved ones, concert tickets, mementos from trips, gifts from friends
• Identity: Art of your favorite movies, pictures of people that you admire, books that you love, framed quotes, pottery you’ve made
• Fun: Cute trinkets or prints, oddball items (like that frog ashtray you found at the thrift store)
• Mood: Candles, essential oils, plants, record player/records or Bluetooth speaker, aroma diffuser, tarot cards, candy bowl

Step Two: Display them creatively

Once you’ve collected your feel-good pile, display them throughout your home on surfaces, storage spaces and décor. Here are a few of our favorite ways to display the things that bring a smile to our face. 

Floating Display Shelf

For lighter items like pictures and small plants, consider an affordable, sturdy hanging shelf. You can easily snag one between $25- $50 — just make sure your displayed items fall below the maximum weight listed in the product description. Hang the shelf at eye level in your living room or bedroom. If you hang somewhere like the kitchen or the bathroom, just make sure that your shelves won’t get splash-back from showers, sinks, etc. 

Bookshelf

Standing or built-in bookshelves are ideal for heavier items, like weighty frames, hard-cover books, ceramics, sculptures and large decorative items. Though bookshelves of yore were often straightforward, rectangular boxes, you can find a wide range of shelves that can accommodate your personality, like this adorable cactus. When arranging the shelf, make sure to include items of various sizes, shapes and weights to create a good visual balance. 

Bar Cart 

Bar carts aren’t just for bottles and drinkware. In fact, these rolling storage spaces are often ideal for placing mementos that will add even more joy than your next cocktail. Have a great photo from girls’ night out? Want to feature your favorite print? Need a place for your grandma’s vintage plates? Think of the bar cart as your own personal Cheers, the place where you go when you need a shot of happiness, in alcohol form or otherwise. 

Gallery Wall

Okay, this one is controversial. Though some are vehemently anti-gallery-wall, the design has endured for years and is still an excellent way to showcase what you love. While traditional paintings and pictures are the natural choice, you can also include tickets, programs, drawings, menus or other outside-the-box keepsakes from the best moments in your life. Opt for a package with various sizes and customizable mattes, or collect frames as you go at your favorite secondhand shops. 

Windowsills and balconies

Even when you can’t get outside to enjoy nature, you can get a dose of the outdoors through your window or on your balcony. Though the most natural items to store here are your (light-loving) plants, you can also keep anything here that helps you get some perspective. This is the perfect place for an aroma diffuser that smells like the season, fruit bowls or even blankets and pillows to create a cozy nook. (Just don’t store mirrors, electronics or other items that react to sunlight.) Consider these spaces a connection between your sanctuary and the world outside. 

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1. Central Phoenix

Rosson House

Based on appearances alone, if any building in Phoenix is guaranteed to harbor ghostly apparitions, it is the historic Rosson House, with its gingerbread trim, ornamental ironwork and golden witch’s hat turret. Built in 1895, the opulent Queen Anne Victorian-style mansion reportedly has been haunted since 1981, when the museum’s caretaker was fatally shot on the grounds. Visitors and staff have reported seeing unusual shadows and hearing phantom footsteps, experiencing doors locking and unlocking on their own, and feeling heat from an unused fireplace.  

Communicate with the caretaker — or others in the spiritual realm — during a Séances & Spiritualists Tour. The inherently spooky attempts to contact the dead were a popular pastime during the Victorian era. For a more modern celebration, Halloween at Rosson House promises a fun-filled evening full of candy and costumes that’s perfect for a first date or a family outing.

The Stockyards

For the ultimate frightful feast, head to the restaurant the Food Network named the most haunted in the state. Just don’t be surprised to find an extra guest at your table.

Part of an actual stockyard and slaughterhouse in the early 1900s, The Stockyards originally was built to feed the workers. In 1947, the steakhouse officially opened and quickly gained a reputation for serving delicious Western-inspired cuisine — and for spooky encounters. Helen Tovrea, wife of the first owner is said to still haunt the property. Some guests have seen a woman in red reflected in the bar mirror. Others tell stories of disembodied voices, footsteps, and dishes and paintings that move on their own. If you go, sit near the mural that showcases a woman in a red dress, said to be Tovrea, and perhaps she will join you for a drink.

Orpheum Theater

For more spine-tingling entertainment, head to one of the most haunted buildings in downtown Phoenix. Built in 1929, the Orpheum Theatre is no stranger to ghostly guests and supernatural shenanigans. Four spirits, including ones of original owner Harry Nace and a purring panther-sized feline, are said to haunt the former Vaudeville venue. The most famous is a little girl named Maddie. She has been known to bop audience members on the head, shush them during performances and even photobomb unsuspecting selfie-takers. Enjoy a first-class performance or classic movie or join in on a haunted tour and learn more about the true phantoms of this opera house.

San Carlos Hotel

As the curtains close on your night of eerie adventures, check in to the San Carlos Hotel. This historic boutique property was a frequent go-to for the elite of Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Clark Gable, Mae West and Marilyn Monroe. But some guests never checked out.

The spirit of a young woman named Leone Jensen who jumped off the roof just weeks after the hotel opened in 1928 is said to still roam the rooms. Her final accommodation, Room 720, is particularly popular with ghost hunters. Hotel guests report visions of a woman in white standing near their bed, lights turning on and off on their own, and laughing and crying children in the hallways. Sleep well.  

2. Tempe

Casey Moore’s Oyster House

Located in the early 1900s former home of William and Mary Moeur, this Irish eatery known for its seafood and beer selection is a longtime favorite of Arizona State University students and Tempe locals alike — and of its original owners. The spectral shapes of the Moeurs have been seen floating up the stairs and dancing on the second floor long after the restaurant has closed.  

Other spirits aren’t as content. In the 1940s, the property is believed to have been a bordello, and one young woman named Sarah, who is said to have been strangled by a jealous lover, remains onsite, haunting the restaurant as a poltergeist. Diners have noted hearing disembodied whispers, forks flying off tables, and pictures falling off walls. Will the ghosts you meet be delightful or disruptive? Down some brews and find out.

Four Peaks Brewing Co.

Your terror tour of Tempe continues with a haunted brewery tour at Four Peaks Brewing Co. Housed in a former creamery that dates to the late 1800s, the brewery is known as much for its ghosts as it is for its namesake craft beer.

Since it first opened in 1997, the brewpub has been the site of strange and mysterious happenings. From ghostly apparitions to weird noises and missing equipment, the presence of unknown supernatural forces is undeniable. Nightly ghost tours share the history of the property, from early workers whose spirits have never left, to a nearby tragic train crash in 1898 that still echoes throughout its walls.