What is biophillic design?

Biophilic design is an approach that emphasises a love of nature. Biophilic design aims to bring elements of nature into our living spaces, making them a healthier and happier place to be.

What are the benefits of biophillic design?

Biophilic designs in living spaces and working spaces can provide a range of benefits, from improved mood, reduced stress and better focus to increased airflow quality and more natural light.

Now you know the advantages of decorating and living like this, read in to find out how to apply biophilic principles to your living space.

1) Increase the amount of natural light you get

One way to use biophilic design in your home is to increase the amount of natural light you get indoors. Natural light is incredibly good for boosting mood and focus and can help moderate our natural wake and sleep rhythms.

Where possible, installing new and larger windows, such as floor-to-ceiling windows, will help you get more natural light into your home. This will mean you can then use electric lights less. If you are concerned about privacy adding natural linen voiles to your windows can work well here. This is because they will provide you with privacy while still letting through plenty of light.

For areas where installing more windows is not possible, you may wish to consider devices like the sun tube, which, by using a clever set up of mirrors, allows you to direct light from the outside of your property through the walls/ floor and into a room. Using a solution like this can brighten up a dark room such as a basement kitchen or cellar.

2) Use plants in your decor

The next way you can embrace biophilic design in your home is to use plants as part of your decor. In this way, you will be bringing the outside in, filling your home with gorgeous natural colours and helping to filter your air. Indeed, the fashion for heavy use of indoor plants has been around for a while and shows no sign of stopping.

Although, you won’t want to buy just any plants for your home. Instead, it’s best to go to a specialist indoor plant provider like beardsanddaisies.co.uk, that have all the most popular species in stock. The great thing about such a provider is that they can easily direct you to the right types of plants for your home decor, from the larger potted plants to the practically unkillable ones!

3) Choose organic shapes

You can also successfully use biophilic design in your home by choosing decor that echos natural organic shapes. This means instead of a typical flat pack table; you might buy one that is carved marble or driftwood.

Similarly, instead of buying typical armchairs and sofas that have a rounder, more organic design can help set off your nature-embracing space perfectly.

4) Decorate in natural hues and tones.

Another way you can use biophilic design in your home is to embrace natural blues and tones. That means carefully crafting a pallet from colours that would only be found in nature,e including greens for trees and plants, greys for rocks, blue for sky and seas and brown for soil. Of course, the great thing about using these types of colours is that there are so many variations that you can work with, so your pallet won’t be limited at all.

Additionally, even if you can’t afford organic design when buying your furniture by staying within a natural pallet you can still pull off a calming biopic look.

5) Use natural materials to decorate

In addition to using natural colours, you can also use natural materials to decorate your home. Such materials can include wood, stone, wool, jute, and bamboo, to name just a few.

Indeed, these are the materials that we have used for thousands of years before we started manufacturing replacement items. This means that there will be plenty of home decor items made from natural materials to choose from, and they come in a variety of styles as well.

For most people, embracing the biophilic look will also mean choosing items that are made from sustainably sourced natural materials as well. This is because there is a strong link between the biophilic philosophy and caring for the environment that they so value.

6) Embrace the fresh air

Welcoming more fresh air into your home is another aspect of biophilic design. A very simple way of doing this is to make sure you open your windows daily and let the fresh new air blow through.

A more extreme version of this idea might be to install things like bifold doors at the back of your property. The idea is that you can easily remove the barrier between the inside and outside and not only encourage more airflow but truly bring the outside in as well.

7) Bring the outside in

While we are on the subject of bringing the outside in, this is another wonderful way to enact biophilic design in your home. The key is to make the transitions between your inside and outside space as smooth as possible. One way you can do this is by using the same themes and colours you do inside as well as out. In this way, you can create one large, cohesive room that contains both inside and outside areas.

8) Use nature-inspired art

Artworks are commonly displayed in homes to add to their beauty and overall decor. The good news is that you can use the biophilic philosophy in the art you choose.

Indeed, there are two options to consider here. The first is to choose artworks that use biophilic designs and colours. An example of this may be to display a triptych piece or even a gallery wall with the motif of leaves.

Another option is to display art that is made from natural materials only. Some good examples of this are macrame, which is made from cotton cord, and woven and needle-felted hangings, which can be made from natural and unspun wool. Then there are the large,r more sculptural pieces that can be made from wood, either drift or carved, and even stone.

9) Embrace nature’s sounds in your living space

Finally, when it comes to biophilic design, don’t forget to include sound in your plan. Indeed, we often ignore just how important sound is to our well-being in the home, only realising it when there is an unpleasant sound we need to deal with, like creaking pipe or noise pollution from outside.

However, the great thing about using natural sounds in biophilic design is that they can help mask any unwanted noises like this. Natural sounds such as the noise of a babbling brook, the wind whirling through the trees, or the ocean lapping against the shore have also been shown to have a very relaxing effect on humans. This makes the ideal sonic backdrop to your everyday life at home.

Biophilic design is about bringing nature into our homes

Biophilic design is all about loving nature and bringing it into our homes. It offers a wide range of benefits, including improved mental and physical health, which makes it an important approach to consider.

To embrace biophillic design in your own home, you can do one or more of the above suggestions. It’s also entirely acceptable to take some steps to make your home more biophilic over time. For example, you may start by adding more plants, and then when it comes time to decorate, choose only natural colours and so on.