Design Help, Wellness and a Little Woo Woo
Your home is one of your most important assets. You need it to be not only attractive and comfortable but also, supportive of the healthy lifestyle you want to lead!
A bright, well-planned kitchen for prepping healthy meals; a
bedroom designed as the perfect respite; a beautiful, comfy common area or two
for reconnecting with yourself (and your loved ones!); inspiring spaces for
your workouts; and color schemes that soothe and refresh you. Making your home
‘user friendly’ doesn’t mean you have to give up the aesthetics you want either.
Quite the contrary! In fact, how your home looks is actually super important!
When Wellness and Design Collide
Maybe it’s a new concept to you but wellness design is an
actual ‘thing’. You might say, Shiree’ I know what design and wellness are but
what’s Wellness Design? Wellness Design is a fairly new concept that was first
conceptualized by architects, designers and builders in an
attempt to create building standards that protect you from the hazards
of toxic building materials like asbestos and formaldehyde.
But there are other facets to Wellness Design too. Your home
has the ability to elevate your mood, and energize or relax
you but most importantly it can inspire you to live a healthier, happier,
more balanced life at home. Unfortunately, if your home is dragging you
under instead of supporting you, it can have the exact opposite effect. Let’s
get you some real results post haste so you can get moving on your home today.
And my friend, I've got you covered in this week’s article.
Color
Color is a powerful design tool and one of the
easiest ways to engender feelings or emotions in your home. But reaction to
color is highly subjective and each color comes with its own attributes and/or
stigmas attached. For instance, yellow can feel sunny and cheerful for some
people and signify cowardice for others. Pink is a pretty, feminine color that
some love and other’s find cloying.
When you create spaces with health and well-being in mind,
choose cooling, restful colors like cool blues; soft lavenders;
pale blue- greens; the palest blushes; and crisp, clean neutrals.
Cool colors recede, meaning, like a hairline they “go back” so when your walls
are painted in light, cool colors it visually increases the size of the room.
It adds depth at the end of a room, hallway or garden path. To give your home a
healthy feeling and visually enlarge your spaces, use light, cool colors with
minimal color changes and minimal darkness to lightness contrasts meaning keep
everything fairly light, even if the colors are different.
How your rooms flow;
how you place furniture; how densely you furnish your home; the amount of
natural light it has; the ceiling height; even the dimensions of the doors all
add up to the overall feel of your home. A home that’s open with plenty of
natural light, natural materials, healing colors and clean lines give your
home, and thus, you the feeling of wellness and contentment. When each element
is chosen within these perimeters the result will be a home that’s healing to
your frayed psyche.
The goal is to
create a home where you feel your best, most healthy self: organized, and on
top of your game.
If your home needs a
new floor plan, Chief Architect Room Planner is super easy to drag and
drop and helps you easily visualize your furniture or remodel in 3D. For bigger
jobs we use a Chief Architect rendering program. Your furniture layouts
should be kept simple and straight forward. Nothing should be put on angles.
Not rugs. Not sofas. Not fireplaces. Not kitchen islands.
Start placing
furniture first with a large scaled piece like a large cabinet, at least 72
inches wide if you can. This acts as storage for entertainment equipment and
also as an excellent visual anchor for the rest of the room. Having an 'anchor’
piece (like a cabinet or fireplace) as I like to call them, and knowing where
to place them will later simplify building the rest of your layout around it. I
also prefer to plan the living room around an entrance facing sofa whenever
possible.
Next identify any
door-to-door traffic patterns (most living rooms have more than one doorway).
Always keep traffic patterns clear of furniture and cords. Remember don’t get
creative with furniture layouts. Save the creativity for your furniture styles,
fabrics, rugs and accessories.
Choose sofas under
90 inches for small rooms. For large rooms, choose sofas 90 inches and over.
Sofa tables and end tables are cumbersome and “busy” next to the sofa. Instead,
use the cocktail table as a place to set drinks and save the end tables for
between chairs. If lamps are needed next to the sofa use beautiful, swing arm
lamps. They come in a variety of metals like shiny nickel and brushed brass.
Too much furniture
is just as disconcerting as too little. Too much looks silly and too little
feels impersonal. For the average size living room you need a 110 inch
sectional or one to two 90 inch sofas, two 34 inch armchairs, two wood framed
accent chairs, one cocktail table, and one to two end tables for between the
armchairs. I like to do two armchairs and two open wood framed accent chairs in
large living rooms.
Materials
Building and remodeling with natural materials throughout
your home respects your health and allows you to feel your best when there.
Ever been in a room that feels noxious? The wrong flooring or paint will do
that. Natural solid, hardwood flooring is one of cleanest and safest
options with few caveats. There are many green options for finishing or staining
the wood, and a few less toxic glue options for sensitive types. Other
great “wellness minded” flooring choices are tile and natural stone,
though they are hard surfaces to stand on. Bamboo and some linoleum
and some carpet options are more comfortable options but not as ecofriendly.
The Wellness Home at a Glance
Soothing colors and comforting textures
Supports healthier eating habits
Provides space for exercise and down time
Nature via enlarged window space
Fresh flowers and plants in the home
Features for a better night’s sleep like room darkening
curtains
Better air quality and ventilation
Non-toxic building materials such as bamboo flooring, low
voc paint and wool carpet
Supportive spaces for child and adult care such as assisted
bathing, dressing and feeding
Water filtration systems
Luxury bath designs and features
Accessibility/having certain items within reach in the
kitchen
Functionality such as space planning, rocker style light
switches, lever doorknobs, touchless kitchen faucets or single-handed faucets
Safety such as textured flooring and even, consistent
flooring transitions
Bringing joy home via mementos from travels, heirlooms,
gifts from loved ones, artwork, books and things you personally find to be
beautiful and useful
Kitchen amenities like pull out drawers or hydraulic pop-up
drawers to keep counter appliances out of sight, walk in pantries, and swing
out corner cabinets; stream lined or low-profile cabinet and appliance fronts
Zones for specific tasks and number of cooks
Smart refrigerators with built in family hubs; food
inventory capability; smart faucets that automatically gauge water temperature
Anti-bacterial surfaces like quartz counter tops. Wood and
many stone counters harbor bacteria, germs, fungus and mold
That’s it for today! And if you would like to learn how to create inviting retreats in your home; create spaces for exercise so you have more options (and stop missing those workouts!); and get all my basic how to's on kitchens, work zones and techy kitchen stuff then download this free workbook The Wellness Home, 5 Ways to a Soothing, Supportive Home for Women with Arthritis and Chronic Pain today!
Bye for now, Shiree
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