10 Ways to Incorporate Holistic Interior Design into Your Home

In the article “What is Holistic Interior Design?”, I explained that holistic interior design is an energy based approach to interior design, that takes into consideration the impact your home’s interiors will have on your mind, body and soul. In this article, there are ten simple and easy ways in which you can incorporate holistic interior design, aka wellbeing design, into your home to positively boost your overall health and wellbeing.

I. Set Clear Intentions for Your Home and How You Wish to Live

With any homeowner, the ultimate desire is to live your best life in your home, and of creating lasting memories with your friends and family in it. For this reason, it is imperative that before you embark on any interior design work in your home, you set clear intentions about how you wish to live in your home, and how you want it to look and feel. By setting crystal clear intentions about how you wish to live in your home, you can purposefully organise its layout so that it functions optimally for your needs. Without knowing how you wish to live, and no matter how brilliant your home feels on paper; in your heart, it will always be lacking.

2. Optimise the Flow of Energy Within Your Home

A great way to restore balance and harmony within your home, is to optimise the flow of energy. Whilst energy is not something that we see, it is definitely something that we feel. Hence, energy can seriously influence our mood. To optimise the flow of energy within your home, start with decluttering rooms. Remove old, tatty and unloved items, and keep only what is necessary for your room to function. Strategically position pieces of furniture so that they are not fully or partially blocking entrances and windows, and where possible, position furniture away from walls so that sociable seating areas are created.

3. Achieve Good Air Circulation in Your Home

Achieving optimal air circulation in your home is key to ensuring that old, stagnant and stuck energy is replaced with new, fresh energy. Allowing fresh air to flow into your home through open windows sounds extremely obvious, but its benefits, should not be overlooked. Maintaining ambient temperatures and regulating humidity are also key factors in creating the right atmosphere for your home. Trust me, rooms that are too hot or too cold, won’t please anyone!

4. Create Indoor-Outdoor Living Areas in Your Home

Creating seamless connections to the outdoors, helps us to merge with nature and feel more at peace. Optimise outdoor views in your home with large, oversized windows and doors, and keep these openings unobstructed. This will help to extend your line of sight beyond your home’s four walls and create the illusion of space. As we spend more time indoors, the desire to have more space and merge with nature is a major reason why indoor-outdoor living areas have increased in popularity. The benefits to our health, are immense.

5. Enhance the Use of Natural Light in Your Home

It’s no surprise that natural light is more favourable than artificial light. As well as impacting mood, light sends signals to our body’s circadian rhythm so that we know when to be active and when to prepare for sleep. Choose horizontal window blinds that sit behind window pelmets and recesses to optimise light flooding into rooms, and keep windows unobstructed. This will create an illusion of space and alleviate claustrophobic feelings, especially in small rooms. In contrast, heavy draped curtains make rooms feel smaller and claustrophobic.

6. Incorporate Natural Materials into Your Home

Using natural materials is another great way to bring the outdoors into your home. Not only are natural materials more aligned with our soul purpose, they are inherently more sustainable too. Think parquet flooring, which when found in period homes and schools, can quite easily be centuries old. Durable materials such as marbles, granites and quartz surfaces also last decades when maintained properly. Organic cottons, linen, leather, bamboo, seagrass and wool are further examples of natural materials which can be incorporated easily into the design of you home’s interiors.

7. Choose Colour Schemes and Design Styles that Resonate

Trends are just passing phases that will become old and out-dated very quickly… This is an obvious statement, but one you should always remember when designing your home’s interiors. Instead of following trends, follow your heart! Choose design styles and colour schemes that speak to your soul. It doesn’t matter how popular a design style is, or what the latest colour releases are for a given year, if they don’t appeal to you, then there is absolutely no reason why you should have them in your home! Your home is not the cover of a glossy magazine, it is your sacred space and personal sanctuary. Put your own stamp on your home and make it an extension of your soul. Allow your personality to shine through and be proud of the unique space you are creating.

8. Incorporate Botanicals and Fragrances to Boost Positivity

Adding plants and fresh cut flowers is the simplest way to introduce biophilic design elements in your home. Aromacology and home fragrances is another. In Shondaland’s article entitled "Can't Keep Plants Alive? You Can Still Create a Nature Centric Home", I explained that nature inspired scents, can positively influence your mood, cognition and social behaviour. For example, lavender based scents are great for improving sleep and relaxation, whilst lemongrass, sandalwood and frankincense are perfect for relieving stress and anxiety. To help boost your mood and support you throughout your daily activities, I have created a signature home fragrance collection that you may purchase here.

9. Incorporate Mood-Enhancing Sound/Music into Your Home

We all know that music has a positive impact on our souls. When walking into your home, the simple act of having automated music playing as you walk through the door, can be enough to make you instantaneously switch off from a difficult day and relax into your evening with absolute ease. With modern technology at our fingertips, it is incredibly easy to automate audio-visual systems so that your favourite music is greeting you when you return home. Although a very simple element to implement, the positive mood-enhancing impact of music is incredibly profound and beneficial to one’s wellbeing.

10. Minimise the Impact of Noise in Your Home

Whilst positive sounds and music have an incredibly profound impact on one’s mood, negative noises have the opposite effect and can seriously disturb the psyche. Such noises should be mitigated and avoided as much as possible. Soft furnishings, absorbent materials and acoustic panels all act as sound dampeners that can easily be incorporated into rooms for noise absorption. Double and triple glazed windows are also great sound dampening materials for your home, especially for the mitigation of unexpected and uncontrollable noises from external sources.