The people’s living space environment has changed dramatically under the rapid advancement of urbanization, and at the same time, the living habits have also changed, the most obvious of which is the increasingly strong pursuit of aesthetics. This study relies on Google SketchUp software to realize the practice of housing architectural space design based on visual art elements and environmental aesthetics theory. Combining the simulation synthesis evaluation method and Likert scale method, we propose an evaluation method of subjective perception of aesthetics, and use the eye movement index as the evaluation index of visual perception of aesthetics in the living environment, to explore the community residents’ perception of the aesthetics of the living environment based on the design of visual art elements. The results of the design practice show that the community residents have a higher perception of the aesthetics of the housing living environment designed with visual art elements, with an average subjective perception score of 4.16 points. In addition, eye tracking showed that residents had a higher average gaze time and eye hopping speed, etc. in the images of the designed housing environment, indicating a superior perception of visual aesthetics. This study realizes the improvement of the aesthetic perception of the living environment in an innovative way by integrating visual art and environmental aesthetics, which provides certain research support and theoretical value for the beautification of the living environment in the process of housing building renovation.
