Wellness: Truth or Buzzword?
How and why wellness has been at the core of interior design
The topic of wellness has been popping up all over interior design media lately. In fact, talking about wellness seems to be the hottest marketing tactic for just about everything these days.
You may be thinking -I get the wellness push on vitamins, doctor visits and yoga class but, what does interior design have to do with it? Isn’t it more about paint chips, plush pillows and furniture?
Yes, it’s all that and SO much more! Let’s dig in.
The Wellness Movement
Covid-19 certainly fueled this wellness movement. Quarantining at home, we grew painfully conscious of how much our homes serve our daily lives. They literally kept us safe, entertained, schooled and employed. They instantly became much more than just roofs overhead.
And let me tell you this – long before wellness became a marketing trend, interior design had a place at the wellness table. While your home may not be a gym or a doctor’s office, it happens to be one of the top contributors to your well being.
"Architects and designers have a greater ability
to improve public health than medical professionals"
Claudia Miller Allergy/Immunology
UT School of Medicine, San Antonio
Wellness is a composite state of health that includes the physical, mental and spiritual. You can practically see wellness in someone’s eyes, in their posture, their voice. The lack of wellness —physical, mental or spiritual health, is notable too. Wellness is what equips you to respond to the inevitable stressors of daily living and create balance in life. Whereas wellness vibrates and expands, the lack of wellness feels like a dark hole.
We humans have been actively cultivating wellness for millions of years in millions of ways. It’s been our drive to stay alive. Since this is a blog about interior design, I will demonstrate how we humans cultivate wellness through the design of our homes. Interior design is not just a show, it’s a powerful tool that can nurture the whole of your physical, mental and spiritual health. Interior design is about wellness at its core.
Physical
Let’s start with the physical. Did you know that the shape and proportions of a room influence how you feel within it? Have you ever entered a space and felt it was inviting? While another made you retract? The position of windows and doors can give you a sense of security, or induce fear and anxiety. The layout of a room has the power to aid you in relaxation, increase efficiency, improve the depth of your sleep, and even your ability to focus. Understanding the ways your body reacts to physical space begins to unlock opportunities to design for wellness.
Mental
Mental health benefits of interior design are especially vast. Identify what stresses you out and interior design can be a problem-solving machine. No place to put your stuff? A well-designed storage system reduces the adrenaline that spikes every time you can’t find something. Proper lighting can raise your serotonin and make it easier to get things done. Comfortable furniture can turn on the oxytocin to help you unwind at the end of a tough day. Room darkening draperies can be like melatonin that helps you fall asleep and get the rest you need. Design creates spaces for rejuvenation, connection and celebration, which turn on the feel good chemicals in the brain.
Spiritual
Spiritual wellness, the deepest and most personal kind of human health, is nurtured when a home interior reflects the most aspirational, best internal self of the person or people who live there. In doing so, it becomes a daily affirmation of that person’s life. Design made deeply personal is truly powerful stuff! It affirms someone’s place in the world, and through that place, life is both meaningful and beautiful.
Interior design has been a powerful tool to increase wellness all along. It responds to the unique physical, mental and spiritual needs of the person or people who live there. Why should a home be anything less?
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