How to build wellness and emotional connection into your home.

Living your best life starts at home. Our homes are the foundation for our lives not just in the shelter they provide but as the environment that impacts many aspects of our life journey. Your home should be a sanctuary that fuels the energy in your daily life to inspire, comfort, motivate and grow.

A surprising discovery that I’ve made as an interior designer is the connection between aesthetics and personal wellness. Just think about the word design. Through creativity, intuition, and effort, we bring something that did not exist into being. In the same way, by designing our approach to wellness, we create new conditions within our bodies that improve our lives. There is an intimate link between the physical, spiritual, and emotional—and design lies at the center of it all. It is a tool we can use to better ourselves and our homes. 

My interior design business was built on this belief. I want to help people find wellness, calm, and peace within their homes. Our living environments and mindsets are connected. Below I share 3 areas of wellness in interior design that I focus on to improve the energy of a home.

1. Starting your day – Here’s an essential question I ask clients as we start to discuss the emotions created in their homes….how do you start your day?  What is the first thing your feet feel when you get out of bed in the morning? The first thing you see, or hear, or smell?
   Those first sensory experiences set the tone for the rest of the day. Just like starting the day off with moments of gratitude or mindfulness helps prepare our mindset, the energy from our environments immediately affects us too. 
   What is the first thing you see when you open your eyes in the morning? Is it a piece of artwork that inspires or brings back memories of joy? Or is it a pile of laundry? What is on your ceiling? I love to put wallpaper on a bedroom ceiling so when you lie in bed, you see something to emotionally connect with.
   Is the floor cold and startling when you step out of bed, or is there a soft, cushioned rug under your feet? Does the bathroom floor chill you to the bone, or are the floors heated? If you’re renovating your bathroom, take this advice—alwaysgoforheated!It’s an expense no one regrets.
2. Down Time – I always ask my clients where they go within their homes for “me” time. Where do they go to make themselves a priority in their day and to give their mind a chance to pause and breathe? 
   I firmly believe that everyone should have a quiet space to go think or read or just be within their home, away from the activity of the family or their work-from-home job. It is one of the most common design decisions I focus on in my work. I try to suggest a reading space in every bedroom, and work to place reading benches in hallways, dead spaces, or rooms that too often become storage like offices or sunrooms. I call it the “Do Not Disturb” special: this is a critical environment for anyone because it makes your home a place for your mind and body to rest. 
3. Colors – Colors can be the simplest thing in the world or the most complex. We all attach meaning to colors, most of the time without understanding exactly why. What’s your favorite color? Go ahead, I’ll wait…. 
   Okay, so whyis that your favorite color? I know my answer. “Because it speaks to me. I have an emotional connection with it.”
   So what do colors say to us? It’s very personal. There are shared feelings and guidelines about the usage of color. For example, there’s a reason why spas always contain natural and neutral palettes as opposed to loud ones—some colors soothe while other colors stir.
   I had a client once tell me that he never knew how much having yellow wood in his family room stressed him out until we changed the color to a pale gray. Now when he steps inside, he breathes a sigh of relief and comfort.
   Don’t be afraid to explore—when you find the right color for your space, you’ll know it. It will speak to you. It’s not as much of a foreign language as you might think.

While having discussions with clients about laundry in their bedrooms might seem strange, I have come to accept that is part of my job. Intention, intuition, design. All of these elements can complement lives or cause disharmony if left unattended.

Look up now from reading this. Are you home? Where are you seated? How does it feel? I hope the above opens your mind to new ways of thinking about wellness and emotional connections within your home. Remember, your best life begins at home, so make sure your home environment is a priority.

By Jeanne Collins of JerMar Designs

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Jeanne Collins is an award-winning interior designer who left the corporate world behind to find her true self through design and internal reflection. Her firm, JerMar Designs, works with executives and entrepreneurs, focusing on projects that combine sophistication and balance with inner and outer wellness. Winner of the 2022 Luxe Magazine Red Award, she was also recently nominated as an HGTV Designer of the Year. She chronicles her journey and the approach that changed her life and work in her memoir, Two Feet In: Lessons from an All-In Life. Learn more at JerMarDesigns.com.