Category: Interior Design

5 Ways to Design for Wellness in Your Home

Many companies are adopting a hybrid work model for the future. This change in work environments has and will continue to influence the way people use their homes. Our homes are not only places where we live but also office spaces, places to exercise, and places to play. Including the following healthy design ideas in your home can improve your overall well-being, both mentally and physically.

  1. Biophilia – Biophilia is popular in interior design to connect people with nature. Studies also show biophilia supports productivity, physical health, and psychological well-being. Utilizing windows for natural daylight and open airflow is one way to incorporate biophilia. Using calming colors and natural materials can help improve mental well-being. Another simple way to add biophilic elements to your home can be to add indoor plants, which can help improve the air you breathe.
  2. Home Gym – Physical activity contributes significantly to our physical health, mental health, and psychological well-being. Movement and getting our blood flowing can help stimulate our brains and gives us a clear mind. A home gym also helps eliminate the excuse of not having time to get to the gym; it’s a win-win!
  3. Office Space Separate from Living Space – With more people working remotely post-COVID, it’s essential to separate our workspace and living area. Designating a work area can be accomplished by creating a nook, a completely closed-off room, or even outside of the house like a coffee shop. Having a separate space makes it much easier for us to remove ourselves from work when the day is over, which will improve our well-being and quality of life.
  4. Outdoor Living Space – This can be especially nice if you don’t have a lot of square footage in your home. Having a nice outdoor seating area can encourage us to gather outside and enjoy the fresh air and could even double as an office space! Including a garden in your outdoor living space can enable you to source your food or ingredients for homemade meals.
  5. Healthy/Sustainable Materials – These could include any materials that are locally sourced, durable, and long-lasting. Reclaimed or recycled materials like wood or metal are also good options to have in your home. Also, low or zero VOC paint can help to improve the quality of air that we breathe.

Incorporating these elements into your homes is a great start to bring a sense of wellness into the places we live. All of these elements can be designed into new homes and can also be added to existing homes. Take some time to consider how you can start implementing these ideas to improve your quality of life!

Contact Danielle King, IIDA, NCIDQ, LEED GA @dking@wellogydesign.com to share your products or insights on healthier design materials.

6 Materials to Create a Healthier Environment

by Danielle King, IIDA, NCIDQ, LEED® GA

Perhaps you, like me, have become much more cautious of your environment as we move through new precautions due to COVID-19. Do you question what germs reside on that surface? Who touched this lever before me? How do I avoid touching the most common component of the door but still open it? What choices can we make in our environments that both ease our peace of mind and create a healthier atmosphere? A healthy interior space starts with healthy materials. Here are our picks for the top six healthy products that have created excitement amongst our design team…
1. Xorel ArtForm Panels

Benefit: Provides necessary acoustic properties as well as being bleach cleanable and red-list free.
2. Bradley’s WashBar Advantage

Benefit: Touchless soap + water + dryer fixtures ensure a cleansing process that is touch-free.
3. Chemetal Copper Laminate

Benefit: Studies have shown surfaces containing copper can slow the spread of acute respiratory diseases.
4. Fabrics with SiO silicone

Benefit: Inherent to bacterial growth and resistant to diluted bleach and most cleaners.
5. Shield’s solid surface casework

Benefit: Surfaces are durable, seamless, non-porous, and cleanable, thus the perfect solution for any healing environment.
6. Bradley Corp’s Verve 

Benefit: The cast-in-place quartz washbasin is seamless, non-porous, mold & mildew resistant, and resistant to household cleaners.
These are products I can get behind! Several of the products are also environmentally friendly. We are seeing a surge of healthy materials in the industry. As the demand for healthy products increases, so will the availability and choice. At Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.), our mission is to enrich people’s lives by creating places of well-being. This belief starts by specifying healthy materials. By selecting sustainable materials, we have a greater impact on the ingredients and processes that go into creating healthy spaces, and in turn, make for a healthier environment for all. Let’s get started, we have much to do to improve each and every space we inhabit.
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