Creating a healthier, more beautiful lifestyle in your home happens with Wellness Design details like air quality, mood enhancing color schemes, organizing your home via zones, and having space in your home for exercise.

 

 

 

Via Lisa Laura Schwabe

So, when you’re an active woman like you and I, you need an environment that supports you physically and emotionally. And a dysfunctional home can have a very negative effect on you, even if you don’t immediately recognize it.

Okay, let’s get you a deeper understanding of what it takes for you to thrive at home. I’m excited! I hope you are too, and I hope you’re ready to make some lasting changes right now!

 

 

Source unknown.

 

AIR QUALITY

Clean the Air in Your Home

Having fresh air in the home is important for your health and feels incredible! It’s one of the main tenets of Wellness Design. Because our homes contain toxins such as off gasses and chemicals from synthetic carpet, paint and plastics opening the windows, even at certain times during cold weather months will clean the indoor air. You will feel a distinct difference in your home on the days you open your windows and doors. You’ll not only breathe easier, but did you know you’ll also experience a significant boost in your mood similar to being outdoors, in nature?

Using your weather app, on days when it’s feasible, open your windows for just 20 to 30 minutes a day during the most clement part of the day. For summer it might be early morning. In winter, it might be 1:00 in the afternoon.

Plants are Great Air Scrubbers

I never understood why having greenery in my home made me feel so good until I started studying health, wellness and the connection we humans have to nature. This is called Biophilia.

Biophilia is the innate love we humans have for things from nature. So, biophilic design is a concept used in the building industry when designing elements and features from nature into residential and commercial buildings.

Some Benefits to Indoor Plants

They …

 

• look so pretty!
• oxygenate and clean the air.
• help the home’s inhabitants fend off sickness.
• reduce your stress load.

 

 

 

My Favorite Indoor Plants

 

• Maidenhair fern
• Boston fern
• Myrtle topiary
• Fig trees
• Snake plant
• African violets

 

Snake plant is the best indoor plant for cleaning the air.

 

 

Design Ideas with Plants

I love plant features in the home. Plants look best in groupings of two, three, five and seven. And hey, the more live plants, the better oxygenation!

One store that always carry all sorts of cute, metal ‘stands’ is Home Goods. I like to buy their metal bathroom ‘stands’ normally made for towels and bathroom paraphernalia and repurpose them for plants!  

 

• Indoor plant racks and stands for ferns and violets
• Window atriums for ferns
• Large fig trees in a beautiful basket, for larger rooms
• Tall topiary in pairs flanking your sofa or tabletop
• Baskets with fresh, potted flowers
• Plant walls
• Plant pods in the kitchen, for herbs and lettuces.

For more on plant walls, visit greenoasis.com.

 

 

COLOR

Using Color in the Home

Warm colors like red, orange and some yellows excite and stimulate. They are good for active spaces. Warm colors advance. On walls, they visually decrease the size of the room yet they visually increase the size of an object.

Cool colors like blue, green and some shades of purple are restful. Cool colors recede. On walls they increase the size of the room. They add depth at the end of a room or garden path. To visually enlarge your space, use light, cool colors with minimal color contrasts. To make your spaces feel more intimate, use warm colors with multiple color contrasts.

 

 

ORGANIZATION

Clearing the Clutter

A cluttered home causes anxiety and contributes to arguments; missed workouts; poor eating habits; lost items; missed deadlines and more. A cluttered home even contributes to… more clutter!

What you really need is impetus and the best impetus I’ve found for getting organized is to clear out all the clutter. Discard, repurpose or donate anything that drags you down or that you no longer use.

 

• Baskets, bins and crates in different sizes drawer dividers (bamboo is nice!)
• Labeling gun for binders and labels
• Manila labels for labeling baskets
• Tote bags/kitchen pot rack hangers for hanging totes
• Ties for organizing electrical cords and wires
• Binders, pocket divider pages and a triple hole punch for organizing papers that can’t be stored digitally
• Lifts and pullout drawers for inside cabinets
• Lazy Susan’s
• Professional or DIY closets and cabinets

 

 

ZONES

Using All the Zones in Your Home

Opening up the unused rooms of your home gives you choices and freedom. If your home could talk it would tell you that a closed off bedroom is like a leg that’s fallen asleep! If you fail to plan a use for your spare room, someone will make plans for you. Don’t let it become a dumping ground.

Here are some ideas for repurposing your spare room.

 

• Meditation room
• Mudroom
• Playroom
• Workout space
• Crafts/sewing room
• Media room
• Sunroom
• Home office

 

 

Exercise at Home

The biggest obstacle to healthy habits is follow through. By having a space you love that’s designated for exercise, you create impetus which makes it easier to follow through consistently.

Can you carve out a wonderful corner of your formal living room that’s seldom in use? Can you repurpose the guest room and maybe expand the window space? What about transforming a sewing room into a workout space? Would it be of better use as an exercise space or yoga room?

If the space is attractive and everything is close by and in attractive containers, you’ll be more likely to follow through!

 

• Treadmill
• Peloton or Stationary bike
• Rebounder
• Two-, five- and ten-pound hand weights, two of each.
• Yoga mat
• Stability ball
• Kettle ball
• Hand towels
• Full length mirror
• Bands/Ropes
• Flat screen television Stereo
• Inversion board

For more goodness on Wellness Design, check out my article How to Get a Wellness-Inspired, Living and Dining Room .

 

 

Thank you for stopping by Joy of Nesting today! 

Wellness Design is a huge topic! Creating a healthier, more beautiful lifestyle in your home is easy when you have my pretty little, easy to skim download, the Wellness Home Check List that gives you quick, at-a-glance details on the many aspects of wellness design.

Here’s that link again. Bye for now!

 

Shiree’