Wellness comes home

As an international community, we are in the midst of exceptional times which place an unprecedented focus on our homes. The impact on our daily lives of our personal spaces and the four walls we call home has never been so significant. 

We take a moment to consider how our homes can support our wellbeing in these unsettling times…

A haven.  

Our homes can act as a haven, providing sanctuary and creating opportunities to ensure our mental and emotional wellbeing is actively maintained and nurtured, if curated to do so. 

Taking the time to focus on our immediate surroundings and filling our homes with healthy triggers can have a significant impact on our mood and physical self. Visual prompts can provide structure: a pantry stocked with fresh produce, a kitchen table with fresh flowers or an inviting nook always ready to be curled up in with a book.

Declutter your home in the vein of William Morris “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” to create clean, balanced spaces capable of providing moments of peace.

Look at the layout.

Breathe new life into your space by looking afresh at the layout and flow of your home and furniture. 

Consider the kitchen table corner you always walk into, what's stored on the cupboard shelf you can never reach or why there is never enough floor space for the kids' train track and how rooms can be used best. Would the living room actually be better as a dining room? Can the kitchen table be moved to allow better flow around the room?  

If you can, create individual spaces that allow for relaxation and productivity. Allow for spaces to linger and pause alongside areas for concentration and work, and reflect on how these rooms connect.

Look at multi-functional furniture and how a side table might be a desk by day and a hall table by night. Or a media unit might double up as drinks cabinet for the new Friday nights in...

Materials make a difference. 

The natural world is an obvious source of inspiration for introducing a sense of organic calm and tranquillity to our homes. Natural materials and actual greenery can help invite the outdoors in, promoting a connection with our instinctive, organic surroundings. 

Plants, fresh flowers or introducing colour palettes that embrace natural tones all help us reconnect with nature as we draw upon the inherent beauty of natural materials and their warmth and tactility to provide comfort.

Invite the outdoors in.  

Further taking your cue from nature, look to tune your home into the rhythms of the natural day to tap into instinctively balancing patterns. 

Rooms can be orientated to catch the best light of the day, bringing with it an uplifting and calming effect, and be sure to make the most of your windows; keep them clean and pay close attention to where seating is placed in your home to maximise exposure to natural light.

Clear rooms, defined spaces, bringing plants indoors and tuning into nature can all help create an environment that supports self-care in the same way our mind and body practices do.

In these challenging, difficult and unsure times, the instinct to make our homes into calming, simple spaces we can retreat to just became a whole lot more important. So, perhaps we can embrace the opportunity to bring some wellness home?