12 Ways to Promote Wellness in Your Home

Interior designer Shannon Ggem thoroughly studied how design can affect health in health care-related settings. Then she worked on two self-contained room types for immunocompromised children undergoing lifesaving treatment, and for their accompanying family members, for the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House. She is also a speaker on biophilic design for the National Kitchen and Bath Association.

Biophilic design is based on the idea that people have an innate tendency to seek connections to nature. Because we spend so much time indoors, bringing organic materials, shapes and colors that remind us of nature to interiors helps us feel connected to the natural world. In the bedroom seen here, Ggem used natural colors and fibers to promote wellness. For example, the cotton velvet settee is a deep leafy green.

A fiddlehead fig adds a natural element to the corner of the room and helps with air filtration. The homeowners also wanted wall-to-wall carpeting in the bedroom for sensory purposes — softness under their feet and sound control. “This carpeting is 100% wool, which is natural and which humans have figured out how to keep clean for many years,” Ggem says.

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