“An interior is the natural projection of the soul.”
Throughout the time of Lockdown a lot of people have realised the positive importance of surrounding themselves around calming nature and their gardens. We’ve been given the gift of time and we’ve suddenly awakened our senses to the things around us; the soothing quiet atmosphere allowing us to hear the birds sing away, the beauty of seeing colourful bright blossom trees and flowers, the empty streets making every stroll a relaxed one, the clear blue skies and some nights a crystal clear moon but most of all being around fresh clean air that leaves us feeling lifted, free and somewhat happy, don’t you think?
It’s been great to see how nature has adapted our mind-set in this time of uncertainty right? Nature has not only suddenly shown its authority over us human beings but it’s become this new comfort for us and the core uplift for us, or maybe for some people it’s become a positive escape from their realities of life at the moment. Looking at yourself and your personal experience with nature during this Lockdown time, would you agree to say that there is a connection between your surroundings playing a positive effect of your wellbeing and keeping you energised in life at the moment?
And as much as we don’t want to think about it, soon enough the reality of 'hustle-bustle' life will soon return and our time for nature will return back to a distant memory. But I think if we were to take a positive habit into the afterlife of Lockdown then why not take the habit of surrounding ourselves around nature into our homes? I have explored different ways that we can do just that so that we can prepare for when nature slowly fades by the phase of “back to reality.”
1. House plants
The easiest way to bring nature into your home is with getting a range of different house plants. The beauty of plants is that they can be placed anywhere in the house but usually known to be found in bathrooms. We have an Aloe vera plant in our home that I brought to experiment for skin care, but why not explore the pretty house plants available and see how they look in your home?
2. Natural light
If your home has the facility to let you then definitely get some natural light into your home surroundings. There are a lot of beneficial facts and theories behind surrounding yourself around natural light. So if you have large windows or a featured skylight somewhere in your home then place yourself around those areas more often.
3. Make use of natural materials
It would be worth maybe trying to increase the use of natural materials in your home, materials like wood or stone. These are common nature based materials that we find outdoors. So, whether it’s the main material throughout your home or a statement feature, like maybe a stone kitchen or bathroom sink, bringing that outdoors to indoors will make a great difference (and give your home a unique quirky feature!)
4. Pretty flowers
As well as house plants, the availability and easy access of getting flowers into your home is unquestionable. There are a huge range of flowers that you can pick from and the beauty of flowers is not only the visual they bring into your home but also the oozing scent they leave your home with. And another perk with flowers is that you can let your personality choice the colour and size of the flowers you want to decorate your home with.
5. Creative wall of nature
I think this is a great and unique idea to let your own personality, choice and have your own meaning on nature explored and exploded onto a wall in your home dedicated to nature and nature only. Whether it be a ‘green wall’ made from interior leaves or a flower wall or even an ocean themed wall, but the purpose is to have a wall that refreshes you through your creativity.
6. Natural themed accessories & natural light colours
Colours play a huge part in how a room shapes and sizes itself because as many people may know, the brighter the colours the more bigger the room will look. And going back to making sure you have as much natural light coming into your home, it is just as important to have warm natural light colours in your home too. So colour tones like cream, beige or an almond white. This will not only bring a bigger feel to the room but it will also brighten your home. And as we all know a room isn’t whole until it has accessories completing those finishing touches, so why not let those finishing touches be your way of bringing nature into the room? From rattan furniture, cosy rugs and throws, forest or ocean themed cushion covers, stone vases, pretty lanterns, tea light candles, nature themed lighting fixtures or calming wall portraits. Making use of accessories is a great way to brighten the vibe of the room with hardly any hands-on work involved but just building on your nature themed accessories.
7. Water features and fountains
There’s nothing more smoothing than hearing a soft water noise in the background of your home. It is said that water features bring a relaxing vibe into the room and this is a great way to bring the outdoors into your home. And most of all there are so many pretty water features available that you are spoilt for choice!
8. Humidifier
I absolutely love my humidifier – I brought mine to help with clearing the air in my room whilst I sleep and it's been amazing. Humidifiers are beneficial not only for adding moisture to the air but they have great benefits for your health when used correctly. From helping with your sleep, your breathing and keeping your skin and hair moist. You can get many different aromatherapy scents for your humidifier, so for example the scent of lavender can bring calmness into your surroundings (as well as bring a refreshing scent into your home!). Lastly my humidifier has a pretty feature of changing colours which is a great treat to bring some brightness into the room.
