Wellness and Design - Creating a Healthy and Happy Home

There is no denying it....wellness is the main topic of conversation these days. Although the current crisis will fade, we should all be keep wellness in the forefront of our minds, and a driving factor in our lives. Happy minds and healthy bodies give us all the room to be kind in our personal lives and highly productive in our professional lives.

Did you you know that you can incorporate wellness products into your home design that will not only help you to relax and boost your happy hormones, but also step up your style? Architectural Digest stated that Wellness Real Estate, or building with wellness in mind, was a $134 billion industry in 2017...that was three years ago; imagine what it is today, especially during our current focus on health. Incorporating wellness products into your upcoming remodel not only elevates your standard of living, but makes your home more valuable.

What are wellness products? Let me explain...

DIGITAL FEATURES

Say you plan to remodel your master bathroom. You will likely begin searching for materials and products to incorporate into your new design. You will find that more and more manufacturers are offering products that have added features to aid in relaxation like light or sound therapy, and massage. Kohler offers their Konnect line, containing many products that focus on wellness. For example, their digital showers allow the user to program their shower experience to integrate water, steam, music and light together. They also have designed shower heads that play music, and voice activated led lights in toilets and mirrors that can be programmed to illuminate at set times of the day. It’s even possible to configure your shower to cycle through spa programs that target different areas of your body with varied water sprays and temperatures. All designed to enhance your health and wellness. 

LIVE PLANTS

Maybe your budget doesn't allow for a full remodel, and you are looking for a more simple way of elevating your wellness game at home....what better symbol of a healthy environment than living plants?

Think about incorporating plants into the architecture of your home by installing a living wall, or vertical garden. Vertical gardens have been around for decades, but as the wellness trend increases traction, living walls have exploded in popularity. There is no arguing that living plants elevate people's moods as much as they clean the air. Living walls can be simple or complex, depending on budget and space. Have a larger budget and a big space to fill? Consider hiring the folks at Phoenix-based Plant Solutions, a full service living wall design and installation company.

Smaller space, and more modest budget? Companies like The Sill, Wayfair & Pottery Barn all offer wall hung preserved moss home decor in a number of sizes. The benefits to using preserved moss is that it requires no watering or maintenance, but offers all the beauty of a living plant.

 LIGHT

Another contributor to wellness is light. Ever heard of "the winter blues?" The lack of sunlight significantly affects our mood. The more natural light we have in our homes, the better. Pull back those shades, open the blinds, and enjoy the naturally uplifting effects of the sun.

If you don't have large windows in your home, adding them can be costly, and certainly not an option if you are renting. A more cost effective solution to consider are LED lights that imitate natural daylight. LED light bulbs come in many shades, or color temperatures, ranging from 1,000k all the way up to 10,000k. Do some investigating and check out what color temperature you like best. There are even companies like The Wellness Habitat Co. that have designed LED lighting technology giving the user the ability to adjust the color temperature of their interior lighting to match their natural circadian rhythm (the body's natural sleep pattern). Regardless of budget, upgrading your interior lighting to LED not only brings fresh clean light into your space, but will save you money on your electric bill.

Whatever your style or budget, integrating wellness products into your current design or upcoming remodel is a win-win. Living more beautifully, reducing stress, and increasing the value of your home are all ways wellness design can help you live your best life.