Trend to Try: Soothe Your Soul with Biophilic Design

One of the easiest and most affordable ways to bring biophilic design into your home is with indoor plants. If you’re a plant newbie, start with a couple of easy-to-grow plants like peace lily, snake plant or monstera in a pot by a sunny window. If your thumb is green and you have time to tend a ton of plants, create a soul-nurturing indoor jungle by filling a room with foliage. Hang plants from the ceiling, mount them on the wall and put groups of plants on shelves and stands of varying heights.

Bringing muted organic colors into your house is an easy way to get a little biophilic design happening. One of the hottest muted colors going right now is sage green. It’s calming and replicates the color of forests and meadows. Paint walls sage green or add sage green accessories and furniture. Treat sage green as a neutral because it pairs well with so many other nature-inspired colors and materials. Sage green looks great accented with sisal rugs, wood furniture and hardwood floors. And of course it looks good with houseplants. Layering shades of green looks great because it mimics nature.

A simple way to incorporate biophilic design into your home is to maximize the natural light. Keep window treatments simple and minimal so they don’t obstruct the sunlight. Go with sheer curtains, blinds, or shades so the light can shine in. Sunlight is a mood booster, so you’ll feel better in a room where there’s more natural light. Another upside to keeping window treatments at a minimum: you can see outside, so you’ll feel connected to the natural world instead of trapped inside.

Fill your home with textures and materials you would find in nature. Choose wood, stone, and leather for furniture, walls, flooring and accessories. Build a wood slat wall, hang wood paneling, or choose leather chairs and stone tables. Live-edge wood tables and lamps made of driftwood remind you of the forest and the shore. These materials not only look beautiful, but work to summon the calming power of nature.

Go for curve appeal by bringing biomorphic shapes into your home. These curvy forms mimic patterns and shapes that occur in the wild and give a room a calming feel. They’re the opposite of straight lines and right angles that look manmade. Use curved couches, painted arches, round pendant lights, bulbous lamps and tables that swoop, curve and look as if they’re in motion. A lot of modern chairs feature biomorphic shapes, so they’re a good place to try out the biophilic design trend.

The sound of moving water can lower stress and give you a sense of well-being. An indoor water fountain brings the soothing vibe of a babbling brook into your home. Get a small water fountain that sits on a tabletop or go with a larger water fountain that sits on the floor or mounts on the wall. The fountains run on electricity, so plug them in and you’re ready to go. No plumber required. 

Biophilic design is ancient wisdom resurrected for the 21st century. Our desire to connect with nature is in our DNA; it’s something we all have in common. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,” Shakespeare wrote because he knew the natural world had the power to connect us. Bring the outdoors to your indoor life with biophilic design.