With nearly nine out of 10 Americans agreeing that the last two years have been a constant stream of crises, according to The Harris Poll, and with the Mayo Clinic reporting that 83% value health more than any other aspirations, it’s not surprising that wellness retreats are becoming a desired at-home amenity. In fact, client demands for home-based fitness and wellness spaces increased from 23% to 39% during 2021, according to the AIA’s Home Trends Design Survey.
Work-at-home rates have settled from a high of about 71% of employed adults at the start of the pandemic, according to Pew Research Center, to about 35% of Americans are working from home full-time. According to McKinsey & Company’s American Opportunity Survey, homeowners are no longer just asking for more multipurpose spaces that can be used for remote learning, working, and gathering. Homeowners are now beginning to refine what they want, and one emerging trend is wanting the comfort, release, and nourishment they desire from popular wellness resort destinations.
It may seem like a tall order, recreating wellness spaces inside a residential setting, but as with commercial kitchens and spa bathrooms, it’s possible to infuse a space with the essence of the dreamed-about commercial space within a smaller footprint. For many clients, the goal of an at-home wellness retreat is for easy access to a mini-escape from the day-to-day norm.
Creating a supportive environment where a homeowner feels comfortable and calm is more than just incorporating views, yoga mats, and wood flooring. Developing a successful design scheme for a wellness retreat depends on prioritizing the client’s particular goals that can include relaxation, meditation, journaling, Tai Chi, Ayurvedic treatments, massage, and other forms of fitness or relaxation. Plus, as with all wellness spaces, it’s essential to incorporate features that support both activity and inactivity through the use of light, material, and sound.
Layers of lighting that support both activity and inactivity.
Carefully crafted lighting plans are a key part of a successful wellness retreat. Since there are activities like journaling that require task lighting, and other pursuits like meditation that benefit from the natural glow of a sunrise or dimmable ambient lighting that can mimic the 2,500K of a sunset, it’s important to plan layers of lighting that can adjust and support each activity.
“Get-away spaces that are dark and tucked away never work, and will be used as storage spaces,” says Preston J. Bussard, Senior Design Architect with Court Atkins Group. “These types of spaces need to be positioned to take advantage of views, whether it be to an amazing oak tree, a marsh or water, or some other remarkable landscape feature.”
Another option is orientating the space toward an internal feature that incorporates lighting and is designed using biophilic principles. Both recirculating water elements and fire features fit this criteria.
In fact, pairing a fire and water feature together in indoor and outdoor wellness spaces has became in vogue, particularly in custom luxury homes. It is now not uncommon for a premium landscape design to include a seating area centered around a fit table, itself surrounded by a decorative reflecting pool.
Where fire alone is concerned, designers have many options they may not be aware of. While the traditional fireplace – whether square or linear shaped, remains a top-desired amenity for homeowners, other more robust hearth options exist for specifiers to truly make a Wellness retreat stand out from others.
If your project goal seeks to maximize the view of the property’s scenery, an indoor/outdoor see-through gas fireplace from Heat & Glo will come in handy. These fireplace types offers both a view to the outdoors and the hypnotic non-rhythmic movement of a flickering fire.
Another technique for maximizing daylighting is moving the fireplace to the center of the room. A quick scan through Instagram feeds dedicated to interior design will highlight how the mid-century modern trend of a sunken living room and circular central fireplace are making a roaring comeback. These stunning fireplaces with curved glass and 360 degree views of the fire can be custom designed and sourced from Stellar by Heat & Glo, the brand’s tailor-made division.
Nature-inspired elements heal stress and improve health.
Prioritizing natural finishes and organic shapes is another important way to deliver a client’s at-home wellness goals. Experiencing natural materials within the built environment can improve health and stress recovery, according to research, with OnePoll reporting that 75% of people experience a mood boost from connecting with nature.
Natural surfaces means more than just adding space for luscious money trees or bamboo and speccing wood flooring. It’s also about manipulating colors with texture and interior architecture to feel more organic and less like a spare bedroom or empty storage space.
“Volume and scale can help make these spaces more dynamic,” says Bussard. “Possible vaults or some other exaggerated scale can really set these types of rooms apart from the other spaces.”
Healing spaces depend upon pleasurable sounds.
“These spaces are usually get-away spaces,” says Bussard. “Sometimes these are really quiet spaces so unwanted noise and sounds need to be eliminated, but try not to make them too remote or they will be undesirable to a family’s need to be in shouting-range.”
Since unwanted noise leads to high blood pressure, daytime sleepiness, and annoyance, according to a study in The Lancet, it’s a tricky proposition to create a quiet space that’s near where homeowners spend most of their time.
By adding insulation, sound absorptive materials within the space as decor or wall and floor coverings, and introducing rhythmic natural sounds like birds, fire crackling, or water trickling, the unwanted noise can become less noticeable and replaced by soothing sounds that support a wellness retreat experience at home.
For more information about creating a fire feature in a wellness retreat, head over to Heat & Glo.
