Biophilic Design - Top 5 Tips to bring Natural Elements into your Home
Updated: Aug 4, 2021
Covid has changed our focus and have brought a lot of us back to basics. We want to eat cleaner, live cleaner and be closer and more aware of nature. Not so easy being close to nature with urban living and spending more and more time inside our homes. Biophilic design simply means bringing outdoor elements that you love into your interior design.
1. Indoor Plants
The easiest and most economical option is to add more indoor plants to your home. Plants purify the air and creates a visual connection with the outdoors. Like the clothes we wear, indoor plants also go through fashion cycles, but never out of fashion. Indoor plants suit any interior style – imagine a boho room without a single plant! If you have a heavy industrial style room, there is nothing better than a few well-placed plants to soften the overall look. Indoor plants add texture, colour and dimension to any space. Herbs in kitchens and olive trees are surprisingly easy to maintain indoors or you can add a few sprigs of greenery in a vase if you don't have green fingers.
2. Natural Architectural Elements
Consider adding natural and organic elements to your home if you are not lucky enough to have them already. Beams, cladding on some walls and stone surrounds on fireplaces are some natural elements that will add warmth to your interior. When the time comes to replace those tired carpets and tiled floors you might want to replace it with hardwood flooring.
3. Furniture made from natural materials
Another option to bring natural elements into your home is to use or repurpose furniture made from wood, wicker or rattan. Wooden furniture never goes out of fashion if used correctly and when combined with soft furnishings.
4. Accessories
Baskets (also great for storage) and natural rugs are a way of adding texture and interest to the natural home. Light fittings made from wood or rattan are very stylish and environmentally friendly. Try a stone or paper light fitting for a sleek touch.
5. Nature on walls
Botanical prints have been popular (again!) and so are wallpapers with natural elements. Grasscloth wallpaper is an option if you don't like your walls too busy or simply paint them a great shade of green. Instead of a metal finish on frames for mirrors and artwork, opt for wood or rattan.
6. Natural Light
Whether you are aiming for a biophilic interior or not, the best element in any design is as much natural light as possible. Not only does a light and airy space improve any design, it is also good for our health. We are exposed so much to artificial light on computers, indoor lighting, TV's and phones and this can affect sleeping patterns and other elements of well-being. Bringing nature into the house can be done by replacing small windows with bigger ones, although this is a costly option. Make sure window treatments don’t block the light and views from your garden.
This room I designed for a Bed and Breakfast in Cape Town combines quite a few natural elements, like the green walls, wooden mirror, plants, wooden floor and furniture and rattan chair and bin. The aim was to bring the mountain against which the home nestles into the interior. Want to see more of this home?
"Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation. "
Charles Cook
This blog features designs created with affiliated products.
If you would like help in creating a similar design for your home, have a look at my Virtual Interior Design Services. I would love to help you create your dream interior space.
Thank you for reading this blog and I hope this information was of use to you. If you have any questions, you can contact me - I am always happy to help.