Healthy Design

Healthy design is more than just including certain materials or colors into a model home. Health and wellness is a way of living and by extension designing. We just passed the one year anniversary of COVID-19 officially being named a global pandemic. And if we’ve learned nothing during this time (and I would say we have learned so very much), it’s the importance of health and wellness, especially in one’s home.

One way to help promote health and wellness within one’s home is by bringing nature and the outdoors to interior design. There are a variety of ways to design with health and wellness in mind including:

Planting Plants

Not planting as putting seeds in the ground. Rather, planting as in placing plants throughout a model home. While having live plants offers tremendous health benefits, having live plants in a model can be tricky. Fortunately, there are a plethora of very real-looking faux plants that can still help improve health and mood. You won’t get the air-purifying benefits, but you will get the visual (and mood enhancing) perks.

Create a Wall-o-Plants

Another option to including more plants (real or otherwise) is to create a plant wall. This helps to provide a boost of greenery, as well as, acting as creative dividing points in open-floor plans. Sometimes our designers will include a variety of shapes and sizes to make it fun and more mood enhancing.

In this plant wall below, the design helps to draw residents into this multifamily lobby, giving them an instant feeling of freshness and nature.

Use Natural Materials

Natural exposed materials — such as wood, wicker, rattan, and stone — all work well in helping to bring the outdoors in. Further, with natural materials, you are less likely to bring toxins and other harmful or unhealthy pollutants in your model home (amenity space, etc.). From wicker storage baskets to wooden shelving, opting for materials inspired by outdoor spaces will help to add a touch of nature.

Additionally, designers can imitate nature by adding outdoor cues such as fresh flowers for a floral smell. The same feeling of being relaxed and free in nature can be brought into your model home, amenity and other common spaces by engaging the senses.

Color with Nature

Coloring with nature means using colors found in nature to illicit feelings of the outdoors. For example, our designers often use green to evoke the earth, grass and plants, blue for the sky and ocean, and yellow for the sun and flowers. Neutral tones such as white, cream and beige will all make your interiors feel more natural, clean, and fresh. Nature is full of color and we love playing with combinations that speak to the desire of health and wellness in one’s living space.