Biophilic Design

While biophilia might sound like a strange, futuristic design trend, in reality, it's the perfect blend of nature and inner well-being. Biophilic design has been on the rise these last few years and has only grown more popular during the pandemic as many were forced to stay indoors and quality time spent outside became a scarcity. 

Now, even with the world opening up, people are looking towards their homes as spaces to marry indoor and outdoor elements to create an environment that’s infused with natural and personal touches. With the winter winds fast approaching and daylight dwindling, bringing the natural world inside is more important than ever. Luckily, we’ve outlined a few ways that you can easily bring biophilic design into your home below.

What is Biophilic Design?

First off, what is biophilic design? Biophilic design is all about bringing your love for the outdoors indoors. This concept was coined by the design industry to express connectivity to the natural world through the direct use of nature in the design space. By illuminating your space with natural light and integrating natural elements throughout your home, biophilia harnesses our innate love of nature. Sit back, relax, and take in everything nature has to offer with a Zen, biophilic aesthetic.

How to Create a Biophilic Home

You’ll be pleased to know that designing a biophilic home doesn’t require a complete overall or home renovation. Instead, you can pick and choose the elements of biophilic design that best complement your decor and home design scheme to create a space that’s unique to you. 

1. Use a natural color palette

Start by creating a base with natural earth tones. Gather inspiration from natural color palettes like the forest, sea, and mountains to set a down-to-earth mood. Think sandy beiges, chocolate browns, sage greens, and ocean blues. Infuse these colors through your walls, flooring, countertops, and cabinets.

2. Accessorize with natural materials

Saddle Brook by Daltile

Using organic elements like wood and stone, you can set a Zen mood. This can be through natural wood accents, organic leather furniture, or greenery. Maybe you opt for wood-look tiling in the bedroom and white oak wide planks in the living room or a natural slate in the foyer. Whatever your taste, source your decor from organic elements and materials.

3. Decorate with plants

Plants are perhaps the easiest way to incorporate biophilia into your home. Naturally infuse the outdoors throughout your space with fresh bouquets, house plants, and dried arrangements.

4. Utilize natural light and fresh air

A key element of biophilic design is blending indoor and outdoor spaces seamlessly. The best way to do this is by maximizing daylight with big windows, open-concept spaces, and sliding doors that easily lead to outdoor areas like your back deck or a private balcony.

5. Incorporate water

Last but not least, incorporate water into your design. This doesn’t mean you need to build some crazy waterfall feature in the entryway, but instead draw inspiration from the element of water itself. Maybe for you, this does look like adding an indoor fountain feature or maybe this means bringing in the blues of the ocean through curtains and area rugs or finding a textured print that reminds you of flowing water.