Biophilic design is one of the newest trends in the world of interior design and is a step in the direction of greater sustainability. The idea behind this concept is to connect people with nature within the confines of their homes. With the use of elements such as water, plants, and light, the goal is to maximise our connectivity with nature and improve our well-being and productivity.
With an increasing number of homeowners and designers realising the value of biophilic elements in homes to our health and wellness, this trend is already witnessing immense growth. If you want to incorporate biophilic elements in your interior design and don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we give you some of the best tips to turn your home into a haven of well-being, so you can bring a little bit of nature into your very own living spaces.
While many people might think of biophilic design as incorporating plants into their living spaces, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. A lot of homeowners might find the concept of biophilic interiors abstract, unsure about how they can maximise their connectivity to nature.
The key to incorporating biophilic design elements in your home interiors is to understand how every natural element like air, light, and water makes you feel. Understanding your preferred association with these elements can give you a good foundation to decide how you want to design your full home interiors.
The key here is to collaborate with a skilled and experienced interior designer who is best suited to design your home based on your tastes and preferences.
While the first thing that might come to your mind when introducing biophilic designs to your interiors is house plants, there’s so much more that you can experiment with.
One of the foremost things you can do to connect your home interiors and decor with your environment is to make use of natural materials. Materials like rattan, wood, clay, and wool are ideal, and can also add an aesthetic touch to your space. What’s more, they’re eco-friendly and can also be reused should you ever feel the need to do so.
A wooden bench on your balcony or wool furnishings like a throw on your sofa set can be great ways of bringing naturally sourced materials into your home design.
Another brilliant material you can consider using is stone. Using stone offers a range of benefits, with the primary one being its ability to deflect heat and regulate the temperature inside your home. A stone wall, for example, can make for a brilliant addition to your living room and can make your space feel like an extension of the environment outside its walls.
One of nature’s more prized bounties, and one that’s often neglected, is light. Ensuring your home interiors allow ample natural light is one of the best ways of implementing biophilic design sensibilities. Light can play a significant role in improving our moods, and giving us the all-essential Vitamin D.
Whether you do this using large bay windows across every room, or even by incorporating a skylight, there are plenty of ways you can flood your interiors with natural light. What’s more, you can even strategically use mirrors to add to the visual drama of the light filtering into your home.
Sometimes, while our homes allow for a lot of light to filter through, our use of blackout curtains often acts as a barrier. This is where you can consider switching out these curtains for more sheer options that give you the perfect balance between light and privacy.
Air is yet another biophilic design element that can truly help connect your living space to nature. Ensuring that your windows are designed such that you can open them whenever needed can go a long way in allowing some fresh breeze through your home. Couple this with smart mosquito netting, and you can leave your windows open even at night as the temperatures go down.
Another simple, yet effective solution to enhance the quality of air in your space is to add plants like snake plants, spider plants, peace lilies, or even ferns. These are known to help purify the air in your home, offering cleaner air for you to breathe.
Additionally, for ultimate bliss, you can even use devices like air purifiers or dehumidifiers to help improve the quality of air in your space.
Water features are another key element in biophilic design and can be a great way of bringing nature into your space. Be it designer water features, streams or ponds, there are several different ways in which you can implement this.
Water has a special ability to soothe the atmosphere in your home, make you feel calm and relaxed, and reduce stress. Another key benefit of incorporating a water feature is that it can also help mask other unwanted noises that often filter through when living in busy environments.
What’s more, a water feature can also prove to be a haven for birds or any other aquatic life like fish. However, the only thing to keep in mind when incorporating water features is that they must have running water, as stagnant water can quickly become a breeding ground for mosquitoes or other unwanted pests.
Aside from all the different elements like water, air, and light, colour also plays a key role in integrating biophilic design elements into your home’s interior design. Earthy tones like greens, browns, yellows, and blues can be a fantastic way of bringing a piece of nature into your home.
What’s more, they also pair well with neutral colour schemes, making them incredibly versatile.
Among the different colours mentioned above, green typically represents plants and foliage, and if you don’t want to paint an entire wall green, you can also consider using wallpaper. Similarly, browns and shades of yellow represent natural materials like wood and stone, whereas blues represent calming elements like water and the sky.
Turning your home interiors into a haven of comfort that also offers a space for nature’s bounties requires incorporating various elements like the air, earth, water, and greenery. However, ensuring that these elements seamlessly blend into your home interiors demands the expertise of an experienced interior designer who can understand your vision and bring it to life.
At Bonito Designs, we turn people’s dream home interiors into a reality every single day. As the only ISO-certified full home interior brand in India, we’re the best suited to do the same for you. If you want to design your home interiors and biophilic elements, reach out to us for a personalised consultation today!
