The beginning of a new year is always a great time to take a step back and evaluate one’s priorities and goals. Taking steps towards healthier living and personal improvement continue to be the most popular resolutions year after year.
Prioritizing wellness can easily begin at home through wellness-focused interior design. This refers to design that focuses on improving the health and well-being of inhabitants by providing adequate daylight and views of nature, using colors that promote mental well-being, maintaining healthy indoor air quality, and more. With the help of an experienced interior designer, you can transform your home into a sanctuary of physical and emotional wellness, contributing to a happy and healthy attitude essential to tackling problems calmly and maintaining a positive outlook toward life. Here are some ways to get started.
The Sustainability Mantra
Sustainability and wellness design go hand in hand. Sustainable design refers to creating long-lasting homes with low environmental impact. A great place to start is by talking to an experienced green, eco-friendly interior designer who can source safe furnishings and finishings for your home, as well as identify existing sources of air toxins, including PVC roller shades and mainstream mattresses.
Sustainable design involves integrating healthy and sustainable materials into the structure and design of spaces, including in furnishings and decor. This approach values using solar power sources, upcycled and recycled items, and eco-friendly materials like cork, bamboo, cane, wood, and rattan. It seeks to reduce plastic and waste, and limits the use of harmful materials.
These conscious choices can ensure a timeless home that actively works towards keeping you healthy and inspired.
Biophilic Design
Humans have an inherent connection to the natural world. Being outdoors and immersed in the freshness of nature instantly creates a calming, soothing feeling, allowing our minds to release tension and help us attain clarity in thinking. This is where biophilic design comes in. Biophilia refers to a deep affinity and love for nature. Biophilic design focuses on bringing the beauty and wisdom of the outdoors into interior spaces to harness the health benefits of nature, improve productivity, and promote wellness.
One of the simplest ways to incorporate biophilic design into your home is with greenery. Add plenty of plants to fill your home with freshness since plants also act as air purifiers and mood uplifters. Consult your interior designer to learn about plants that enhance air quality and their optimum positioning in terms of sunlight and ventilation. Succulents and cacti are easy plants to get started with before you move on to larger plants. Tending to and caring for plants can in itself become a meditative activity and help create balance, focus, and connectivity with life.
Similarly, decorating your home with artworks of nature and using fabric with nature-themed prints in furnishings and decor also work as fantastic mood boosters.
Including water features like an indoor fountain or an aquarium is another wonderful way to bring the seductive and soothing power of nature indoors.
Ventilation for Freshness
Breathing fresh, clean air is a huge factor in wellness design. Ensure healthy air circulation by allowing plenty of fresh air to flow indoors and removing stale, stagnant air and odors. This can be achieved by using large windows, high ceilings, vents, filters, and HVAC systems.
For cases of known Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) issues, it helps to hire a specialist who can bring their measurement tools to your home and develop an IAQ improvement plan. They can identify any issues your home might have with radon, mold, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
If there are no known air quality issues, and if you aren’t suffering from typical IAQ symptoms, including coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, or chronic headaches, you can visually inspect for mold and use a $20 home test kit for radon. Although we, as a design-build studio, help our clients navigate all such IAQ issues, there is some good do-it-yourself guidance on the EPA’s website and in this Washington Post article.
With foundational/structural IAQ issues behind you, your sustainability-focused interior designer will help you navigate the product choices that are low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In particular, this includes paints, wood preservatives, glues and adhesives, particle boards, and furniture with cushioning (chairs, sofas).
Adding plenty of greenery to your home decor can significantly improve air quality. Additionally, smart-home-enabled air quality monitoring systems, humidity-sensing bathroom vent fans, and integrated cooktop-vent hood technology can help keep indoor air fresh.
Good ventilation systems can help rid your home of moisture, dampness, smoke, odors, dust, and pollution. Uninterrupted air flow is essential for improving the life of your home and its inhabitants.
Ensure periodic inspection of mechanical and electric ventilation systems, as these may cause adverse effects if not maintained well. Finally, make sure to use eco-friendly cleaning products to maintain your good indoor air quality.
Lighting it Right
Daylight is a crucial element in keeping the biological circadian rhythm balanced as part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Our eyes detect light that tells our brains when it’s time to rise, work, play, and sleep. The right kind of light at the right moment helps support and maintain our bodily functions. This is why it is important to plan layouts that ensure plenty of natural light inside.
In spaces where the structure doesn’t allow for sufficient natural light, artificial lighting systems that can mimic the passage of natural daylight may be used. These lights can replicate the natural colors of daylight during the day and thereby help enhance mood and boost productivity levels.
These kinds of circadian rhythm lighting systems are hugely popular in commercial spaces to help boost employee productivity. Now homeowners are also switching to smart lighting systems that allow them to feel energized and refreshed during the day and sleep better during the night.
By carefully selecting lighting colors, one can support moods, recovery time from stress, and sleep quality. If you are interested in optimizing your home’s lighting, make sure to raise the topic with your interior designer at the beginning of the design process.
Colors for Wellness
Like lighting, colors can also have a huge impact on your mood and wellness, so it’s important to surround yourself with the right colors to reduce stress and promote positivity. Neutrals like black, gray, white, and brown invoke a peaceful ambiance and can also establish a balance by serving as beautiful backgrounds to layer other passive and active complementary colors.
Active colors like yellow and pink are bright and can excite the mind and boost creativity. Biophilic hues like blues and greens are known to create balance and enhance relaxation, calm the mind and help with mental focus.
Soft blues are great choices for bedrooms, spas, and wellness spaces.
Restorative Spaces
An important aspect of wellness design is consciously creating restorative spaces dedicated to emotional and physical nourishment. Carve out a personal sanctuary to promote wellness and healing in a quiet nook or unused room. This could include home gyms, a yoga and meditation room, and home spas that could include a hot tub, steam room, and sauna.
Make sure that the restorative space fits your particular needs. If you have a massage therapist regularly visit your home, make sure that you design your home to include that. If you prefer relaxing in an ergonomic, zero-gravity recliner, design a space to support your ideal experience. Whether you prefer to use a headset or speakers, subtle lighting or darkness, or the inclusion of scented candles, oils, or incense, your home sanctuary should be designed to be your rejuvenation cocoon. In fact, the better the space fits you, the more likely you are to use it and benefit from it.
General Organization and Decluttering
A disorganized space can lead to stress and anxiety, create imbalances, and distract you easily. Marie Kondo your home. Design smart storage in creative ways to hide necessary but not-so-pretty items and exhibit pieces that are meaningful to you. Ensure you have designated spaces for everything in your home.
Towards a Healthy Future
A home designed for wellness helps to bring its inhabitants into harmony with both life as a whole and each other. It becomes a sanctuary. It nourishes.
If you are in Central Indiana and wish to renovate your home to reflect your commitment to living a life of wellness, reach out to us for a truly white-glove renovation process. From design to construction, we do it all under one roof to ensure the best experience and outcome for your project!
