Biophilic design – 10 easy ways to connect your home with nature

Biophilic design is a bit of a buzzword at the moment, and you’ve probably seen it mentioned in magazines and online. Put simply, it refers to designing buildings and interiors in a way that reconnects us to nature, with the aim of creating happier, healthier spaces that improve our mental and physical wellbeing. It’s something that’s fascinated me ever since I attended a talk by biophilic design expert Oliver Heath a few years ago, and it really does have a positive impact. Studies have shown that it can reduce stress and anxiety, lower heart rates, improve productivity and even encourage healing – in fact one research project found that hospital patients recover more quickly in wards that have some kind of link with the great outdoors. 

There’s often a mistaken belief that biophilic design just means adding lots of plants and greenery, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about incorporating or mimicking different aspects of nature in the built environment and engaging all the senses. What’s more, it’s something we can all apply to our own homes, no matter what our budget or where we live. Here are 10 ideas to get you started, whether you’re creating a space from scratch or looking for simple measures to improve an existing room. 

Colour

Using colours that represent elements of the landscape is a particularly easy way to forge a connection with nature – and that doesn’t automatically mean shades of green. Earthy browns and ochres, sunset pinks and watery blues all echo hues found in nature, as do many neutrals – just think of the pale silvery grey of a misty sky, the off-white of birch bark or the greige of a rocky cliff.  You can be as immersive or as constrained as you like, too, going all out with entire rooms painted in natural colours, restricting yourself to a feature wall, or just adding a few accessories here and there. 

The two bedrooms above both use nature-inspired colours, but in very different ways. The top one (a room I designed for a client) pairs a forest-green feature wall with stoney grey; the other is decorated in a warm, earthy terracotta.

Materials & texture

Another simple biophilic design trick is to introduce natural materials and textures into your interiors. And it’s a very effective one – it provides a tangible connection with nature that we can experience through sight and touch, and its power is well documented. One Australian study, for example, revealed that people sleep better in beds made from real timber. Wood, linen, stone, bamboo, wool and rattan are the obvious choices, but they’re far from the only ones. In fact many sleeker materials that wouldn’t necessarily spring to mind – marble, granite, iron, copper – are actually found in nature, meaning you don’t have to restrict yourself to anything rustic if that’s not your style.

This sophisticated bathroom is far from rustic but it still makes use of natural materials and textures in the form of richly grained oak and grey stone. See more of this Copenhagen home here.

Organic shapes

Imperfect and irregular forms inspired by nature can have a big impact in any space. I love clean-lined furniture, but I always try to break it up with a few more organic shapes, whether that be branches of foliage or a wavy vase. You really don’t have to go overboard – all you need are a few items to offset the straight sides and precise angles that normally characterise the built environment.

My own home is characterised by pared-back furniture with clean lines, but I also incorporate more organic shapes through ceramics, foliage and artwork.

Geometry & pattern

It’s also easy to mimic nature through geometry and pattern, as more regular and repeating forms are found throughout the natural world. Just think of the hexagons in honeycombs and snowflakes, the dimples on fruit skin and the concentric rings formed when things break the surface of lakes and ponds. 

The hexagonal tiles in this beautiful kitchen replicate a geometric pattern often found in nature. The textures of the cupboard doors and worktop accessories add another connection to the natural world.

Plants

Plants are proven to improve our mental wellbeing, and they also make indoor environments healthier by purifying the air, releasing oxygen and softening the acoustics. You don’t need to have particularly green fingers to reap their benefits, either, as there are plenty of easy-to-care for varieties to suit different levels of light and humidity – see my top picks here.  

Plants provide numerous benefits, and even small ones can make a big difference. See more of this stunning London home and my own bijou kitchen here and here.

Scent

Scent is perhaps the most powerful of all the senses, instantly triggering emotions and deep-rooted memories. So it only follows that natural scents can have a particularly powerful effect on the spaces we inhabit. There are all sorts of different ways to incorporate them into our homes – candles, room mists, diffusers, flowers, herb bundles, essential oils – and they can be used to evoke different moods, transforming the ambiance from energising to uplifting to calming as needed. 

If you want more inspiration for using natural scents, I can highly recommend Lesley Bramwell’s brilliant book Fragrance Your Home, which is packed with practical advice and easy-to-follow tutorials. 

I use nature-inspired scented candles throughout my home, opting for different fragrances at different times and in different rooms according to my mood and what I’m doing.

Natural views

Just as important as bringing elements of nature into your home is establishing a visual link with the natural world beyond it. If you have any kind of green view, be it the countryside, a park or just a slice of your garden, then try making the most of it with a well-placed chair or window seat where you can sit back and gaze out. But don’t worry if your home looks straight onto walls or other buildings, as there’s still plenty you can do to – placing a potted plant or a small tree by your window, growing some herbs or flowers in a balcony box, or even just putting up an artwork depicting a natural landscape. 

The Danish cabin shown in the top of these two images has beds and seating beneath roof lights that connect the interior with the surrounding woodland. The city apartment in the lower image has no natural view, so the owner has added external greenery through balcony planting. Find full tours of these homes here and here.

Fresh air

Think how refreshing it is to step outside and breathe in a big lungful of clean air…  And how tired and groggy stuffy indoor environments can make you feel. Well, that should give you an indication of the importance of having good ventilation at home. The most obvious solutions, of course, are to fling open the windows or install a mechanical ventilation system – but the former can be tricky when it’s cold or you live in an urban area with lots of traffic and pollution, and the latter is often very pricy. So, choose windows with air vents that you can leave open without significantly altering the indoor temperature or noise level, add a few plants (see above), and make sure kitchens and bathrooms have working extractor fans. You might also want to invest in a portable air purifier that you can move from room to room as needed. 

I live in the middle of a city, not far from a busy road. Having air vents in the windows (just visible here) means I can let in fresh air while still blocking external noise.

Light

Natural light has a huge impact on our health and happiness. It not only aids the release of serotonin and melatonin, the hormones that regulate our body clocks, it’s also a major source of vitamin D – something that’s vital for our mood, our bones and our muscles. And there are lots of ways to enhance the natural light in your home, from big changes like adding internal glazing or rooflights to smaller tricks such as using mirrors to bounce light around – see a blog post with all my tips here. 

These small Swedish apartments maximise natural light with internal glazing and carefully positioned mirrors. See more of both homes here.

Darkness

Finally, our sleep-wake cycle is guided by natural circadian rhythms, so not only do we need daylight to help us get up in the morning but also darkness to wind down at night. Harsh artificial light – and particularly the blue glow of computers, TVs and phone screens – plays havoc with this pattern and can significantly disrupt our sleep. So, make sure you introduce soft light sources (a dimmable lamp with a warm white bulb, or even a few candles) that you can use in the evening to replicate the transition from sunset to dusk to darkness. 

Soft, warm light sources like this dimmable lamp help us wind down in the evening by mimicking what’s happening outside. The blue glow of screens has the reverse effect as it resembles bright daylight and tells our bodies to wake up.

If you want my help creating a happy, healthy home that connects you with nature, find out more about my e-design and interior consultation packages here.

Images two, five, six, eight, nine, 10, 13 and 16 by Abi Dare; images one, four and 11 by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects; image three by Jotun; image seven by Mandarin Stone; image 12 by Fredrik Karlsson for Alvhem; images 15 and 16 by Elisabeth Daly