BRING THE OUTDOORS IN
Encouraging a house plant collection has more wellbeing benefits than just purifying our air. There are countless studies on the benefits of nature on our mental health, lifting our mood and making us more productive.
Jamie Song, who has almost 350,000 followers on his Instagram account @jamies_jungle, says that caring for his 100-strong houseplant collection improves his mental wellbeing. “When I’m watering them, I feel calm,” he says. “It’s like a form of meditation.”
Others say nature and plants boost their creativity. “Being surrounded by nature revitalises me,” Frieda Gormley, co-founder of House of Hackney, says. “It’s my biggest muse, which is why we feature it so much in our designs.”
The concept of incorporating nature into a home is known as biophilic design – and while it can be done by literally bringing in plants, it’s also much more than that. It is, Santos says, “when we orient a window towards a green park or when we create a skylight that allows people to see the rhythm of natural light.”
It is also in action when we choose natural materials such as wood and rattan over man-made in our home furnishings. Ben Allen, an architect and founder of Studio Ben Allen (studiobenallen.com), refurbished his two-storey maisonette with materials including oak, brass and natural rubber flooring to create a “warmer and more intimate space”
. Some materials, such as copper, bronze and stainless steel, are enjoying a renaissance also because of their antibacterial qualities – something we all appreciate mid-pandemic.
But the trend towards nature is reflected in the patterns we’re seeing in homeware designs as well. “Our print designers looked to large leaf forms, verdant hues and shadows cast by trees for this season’s textiles,” confirms Andrew Tanner, design manager at Habitat (habitat.co.uk).