Increasing Wellness and Happiness Through Your Home Design - Design Tips For Parents
After a decade of experience designing healthcare interiors, I've seen firsthand how our environments can profoundly impact our well-being. In this blog, I'm excited to share with you practical design solutions you can implement today, that will transform your home into a sanctuary of wellness and happiness for both you and your children. Join me as we explore how thoughtful design can enhance your family's quality of life, creating a harmonious and joyful living space that everyone looks forward to spend time on. If you tired of tripping on your baby and toddler toys, all you want is to be able to relax and enjoy your home without sacrificing your child's play, these Interior Designer tips will help you fall involve of your home again and look forward to the memories you are making together as a family, reclaim the elegance, wellness and happiness you strive.
I've mention on previous posts the importance of spending time in nature and the benefits that we get out of that. There is tons of research that shows that even just 10 minutes each day can:
Decrease anxiety
Decrease depression
Increase productivity
Increase Concentration
Increase creativity and there is tons more.
In this post, we are going to talk about how to bring nature into your space (beyond just adding plants), so that you can enjoy those benefits, even when life gets in the way and you are unable to spend as much time outdoors.
Why is this important? I have taken so many Montessori courses, conferences and reading so many books about the importance of creating a "Yes Space" for your children (that is indeed extremely important and we will touch on that on another post) However, I don't hear a lot about the importance of creating a "Yes Space" for the parent! This is even more important because, the way you feel in your home, is going to reflect on the way you act, the way to talk to your children, your productivity, happiness and the memories you create together.
Lets dive into the steps:
Tip # 1 Display your treasures:
If you are a parent of a baby that is already walking, a toddler or even preschoolers and kindergarteners, you know how long it takes when you go on walks with your littleones; because you likely take all this time to get everything ready and everyone ready to go, then, once you are outside every five minutes your children are stopping to pick up sticks, admirer nature, pick rocks and admire flowers. This is amazing, that is what we should be doing as adults! admiring the little things that nature gives us. However, at the end of the walk you end up with so many sticks and so many rocks that your kiddos want to bring home.
First, I tent to tell my children to pick and choose what they want to bring home. There are some things that we cannot bring and we need to leave them in nature for other children to enjoy. But for those beach walks when you pick all these shelves, or those rocks and pinecones that they end up choosing to bring: don't just put them away, DISPLAY THEM. Not only this is bringing textures and natural finishes into your space, but also creating stories and memorable time spent. Imagine if at the end of that walk, you have dinner and you display those in a beautiful plate on top of your dinning table, you talk about what did you like the most of that walk? What colors did you see? Would you like to go back? and you just continue building the conversation and connection from there. This is meaningful time that you are creating and remembering together, you are gaining a lot more than just the looks and decor.
When you display them, remember this major tip: there's a good saying: "it's not about what you say, it's how you say it"; the same is true with design. Often times, it's not about what you're displaying, it is how you're displaying.
Step #2: Let that Natural Light come Inside Your Space
Now if you take nothing else out of this video remember this: natural light is the most important natural element that you can bring inside your home! It will not only make your space look brighter, cleaner and bigger, but it will also increases your productivity, your happiness and overall wellness. I can tell you that in every single space that we've designed, whether it's education, libraries, Healthcare spaces, hospitality and workplace; before we even start to visualize and understand the concept that we're going to design around and how we're going to design it, before we dive into our client's wants and what they need, we make studies about where the light is coming from, the whole building is laid out based on where the natural light is coming from. The key here is to get in the habit of as soon as you enter a room, open up those curtains, open up those shades, if your children that are old enough, you can let them help you; this is going to make them feel even more empowered that they're doing something and they're taking something off your plate.
Step 3: Natural Textures and Materials:
Those woods, those stones, those ceramics. If you have a stone countertop, let It shine. If you have especial items that you bought years ago that are made of natural material especially, bring them out don't wait for that "especial day", or that "especial holiday", or that "especial party"; enjoy them every day, you deserve it, you got it. The biggest takeout here is to decorating with the things that YOU LOVE AND CARE ABOUT THE MOST and also to use them every day.
Step 4: Your Color Scheme
If you have a specific theme that you want to implement in your home, maybe it's that cabin in the woods, or maybe it's that cottage house you stayed at by the beach, you want to look at those colors, not only inside the hotels or the houses, but also on nature. Colors in nature at the Bahamas vrs a place in the mountains are so different, so pay attention to those colors that you see in those pictures and inspiration images and bring those inside your home through paint, through blankets, through pillows, through anything specific that you constantly use.
Step 5: Wall-coverings, decals and your picture frames
I think this is often overlook, especially the wall treatments and YOUR vacation pictures with natural backgrounds. if you really want to create a specific scenery in your room, or any location in your home this is a great affordable solution.
Additional things to consider:
If you notice, I never mentioned going out and spending all this money buying all this "natural looking decor; I a firm believer believer that you should decorate with things that you love and use the most. Not only again not only is going to give you the look that you want but it's also going to bring those memories, those special moments that you spend together at that place, during that vacation, on that walk, on that hike.
Another point I didn't mention is plants, I mean it is a given that you can bring plants inside the space and enjoy the colors and natural shapes, but I wanted to give something more than just your traditional things you might have already hear.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Written By: Andrea Meats
