What is Biophilic Interior Design and How To Incorporate Into Your Home

Updated: Jun 3, 2022

What is Biophilic Design and How to Incorporate in Your Home.

Did you know we spend 90% of our lives indoors? Are you stunned by this number? I know I am. Luckily Biophilic Interior Design is extremely beneficial when it comes to creating a healthy living and working environment. Those benefits are much more than interior aesthetics.

In short, Biophilic Interior Design means incorporating nature into our indoor environment. It comes from the word Biophilia – meaning Love of Nature. Biophilic Design focuses on creating a calming space with a visual connection with nature while improving wellbeing, health and productivity.

Here is How To Incorporate Biophilic Design Into Your Home

Biophilic Interior Design is bringing nature closer to us by implementing vegetation, natural light, textures and materials providing a positive impact on our everyday life and here is how:

1. Fresh Air

Open those windows widely and let the fresh air and sound of nature find the way into your home and your mind. Listen carefully to the sound of birds, rain or wind. Breathing in fresh air improves your immune system function and your mood.

2. Maximise Natural Light

example of biophilic design - increasing natural light

Embrace natural light wherever possible.

Image by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash

Vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin — vital to the regulation of calcium, lowering high blood pressure, helps muscles and overall health. Try to maximise natural light in your entire home by repositioning any piece of furniture, blinds, curtains, anything that’s blocking the full potential of sunlight. I could go on and on about how important natural light is. If you wish to get more in-depth, I wrote a separate article dedicated solely to the benefits of natural light in your home and how to increase it.

3. Incorporate Plants

Get the right amount of greenery, and you will see the difference instantly. I love waking up next to a beautiful Palm Tree (and, of course, my hubby too 😊). Plants are not just gorgeous; they are also natural air purifier and mood booster.

As the Colour Physiology says - Green is one of the most relaxing colours that restores your energy and helps clear your mind. No worries, you don’t have to be an expert on keeping your plants alive. Take a look at the examples of how to choose the right plants here.

Related:

With that being said I am trying to surround myself with as many green friends as possible. My husband says if I could, I would turn our flat into a jungle 😊. I think my home office says a lot:

Example of Biophilic Interior Design elements applied to a small office.

Show off your Plants With These Planters and Stands:

Cane Plant Stand, made.com

Get the plant stand on made.com.

concrete plant pots in light and dark greys

Concrete Plant Pots, Patch Plants

Shop the handmade concrete planters on Patch. Or take a look at my top Planters selection here.

4. Use Natural Materials

To embrace nature even further try and get as much as possible natural materials like bamboo, cork, sustainable timber, stone and rattan in your home. It can be implemented through the furniture, home decor, kitchen worktops, floors, you name it. Living in modern society and consumerism it is vital to be mindful when choosing materials.

Purposely I've listed sustainable materials, as Biophilic design plays a big part in Sustainability and I encourage you to try and implement those concepts to your home wherever possible. See the full list of environmentally friendly materials here.

5. Embrace Shapes of Nature

Incorporate round shaped furniture.

Check out the Whitewash Boucle sofa on made.com.

Nature is all about curves, soft edges, patterns and small imperfections, contrasting straight lines and right angles that we normally used in interiors. The goal is to get the natural feel and cosiness through the curved furniture, curtains made of organic textiles, arch-shaped doors and windows, cushions with different patterns and disproportional home decor as an architectural feature.

6. Sound of Water

Indoor fountain as a Biophilic decorative piece.

Etsy

Handmade fountain from coconut shell & bamboo. Get it on Etsy.

Water sounds create a soothing atmosphere for our mind. Sound of waves is encouraging a peaceful pace of thought processing. The sound of flowing water helps with the deep relaxation of your body and mind, taking you to your own “happy place”.

If you have some space in your garden, making a small pond is undoubtedly a fun project to take on. You could enjoy the sounds of water all day long. But if that’s a bit to a big project for you, getting a small fountain indoors is another great way of accessing those soothing sounds of water. Either way, make sure you use water mindfully and minimise the needed amount.

7. Colours of Nature

Nature is plentiful with colours, each season bringing in a different theme. Don’t shy away from using bold colours in your home. It can be an accent wall if you don’t fancy painting the whole room and it will still have a significant effect on your overall mood. If you wish to get a less permanent option, maybe go for wallpaper instead. Everwallpaper has an exquisite Leaves Wallpaper collection entirely inspired by nature.

Each colour affects your mood differently : “Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions,” the artist Pablo Picasso once remarked. Colours to consider — soft greens, light blues, lemon yellow, shades of brown, pink, bright orange, cream and many more. Learn more how each colour affect your mood here.

8. Add a Piece of Art

Create a wall gallery with a collection of your favourite wildflowers, forest, a picture of a rising sun, singing birds, framed living wall, anything that reminds you on your treasured moments spent in nature. As they say "Art speaks where words are unable to explain."

Creeping Fig Living Artwork by Foli8

Blur the bridge between indoors and outdoors with this Living Art by foli8.co.uk.

Biophilic Interior Design Online Course

If you would like to learn more about implementing Biophilic Design into your home in-depth, I highly recommend checking out Biophilic Design online course by Oliver Heath.

The beauty of his online course is its accessibility; you can take it at any time that suits you and your lifestyle, and he had students signing up from across the globe.

P.S. Enjoy 10% off Level 2: Introduction to Biophilic Design & Biophilic Design in the Home. Use code 'bab10' at checkout.

Read more about why Oliver's courses had some amazing feedback at oliverheath.com.

How To Could Incorporate Greenery Into Your Home

Biophilic Kitchen

Image by Brina Blum on Unsplash.

Biophilic Bedroom

Photo by Cole Keister from Pexels

Biophilic Bathroom

Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels

Biophilic Design Benefits

Access to nature is a biological necessity and bringing it indoors significantly improves our well-being. In an urban world of technology, we somehow got disconnected from what should be natural to us.

Implementing Biophilic interior design to our homes, workplaces, schools, public places has profound health and economic benefits. Using Biophilic design principles in our home home gives us a wonderful sense of calmness and protection, mental restoration and improved productivity.

My favourite quote by Wilson 1986, Kellert 2012: "The benefits of contact with nature often happen on repeated experience. People may possess an inherent inclination to affiliate with nature, but like much of what makes us human, this biological tendency needs to be nurtured and develop to become functional ".

We have all the tools so why not bring in the beautiful outdoors into our indoor world. Not just in our homes but our workplace too. Studies show how important is to cleverly design living and work-space in order to improve health, well-being and productivity.

The positive impact a natural connection has on our productivity, creativity, reduced stress levels and overall health is spectacular. What element will you apply to your home?

BARBULIANNO