Five Easy Ways to Bring Nature into Your Home
Nature is beautiful. From the humidity of Baltimore Harbor to the cold of the Toronto winter, from the Amazon rainforest to the redwood trees on California’s coast, nothing man-made can quite replicate the splendor of the natural world. It is often synonymous with peace and tranquility, and human nature tends to dictate that we connect with the outside world to escape from the hustle and bustle of our busy lives. By bringing elements of the outdoors into your home,you bring a bit of that tranquility in with it.
Here are five tips for taking a bit of Mother Nature home with you.
- Make use of house plants. This might seem simple enough, but houseplants both refresh and purify the air, and this alone can bring a taste of the forest into a kitchen, living room, or bedroom. House plants also increase a room’s humidity and oxygen, providing much-neededhealth benefits. And adding a simple potted flower or small tree to a living space is, of course, a beautiful way to recreate the atmosphere of the great outdoors.
- Light nature-scented candles. Mother Nature holds a smorgasbord of earthy scents like cinnamon, pine, andpeppermint, all of which create their own unique atmosphere. Walking into a well-scented kitchen or bedroom can make all the difference in the world. The flame itself will also contribute to capturing the essence of the outdoors—fire has a soothing, calming influence that will reduce stress.
- Use natural elements in your decorating.Spruce up a room with a vase of fresh flowers. Add a piece of unfinished wood furniture like a table or chairs. Install wooden countertops in your kitchen. Put in wood flooring. Wood furniture or accessories can be left with the whorls and grains intact, or they can be finished into a sleek, sophisticated look. Acquire a stone or brick fireplace. If it’s in the budget, put in a stone accent wall or a small fountain in an office, library, or workspace. There is a myriad of ways to bring pieces of nature into every room in the house, and each will bring a different personality and tone.
- Be mindful of color schemes. Sometimes bringing the outdoors inside can be as simple as decorating in the right colors. Use earth tones, like browns and greens—and lean more towards the sage and forest greens. Be careful to stay away from bright or neon colors—every color recalls different emotions, and bright colors are often paired with energy and chaos.Indigo, on the other hand, symbolizes meditation, and brown is associated with earth and order.Tasteful purples and grays can also add elements of the ocean, and muted reds and oranges will recall autumn.Green, of course, is nature and life itself.
- Utilize natural light. Every house has access to the sunlight through the windows and doors, and sunlight invites a warming, soothing ambiance. Open the curtains and position furniture away from windows, leaving space for the light to fill. Paint smaller rooms in lighter colors; it will maximize the effect of the sunlight, leaving the room bright and cheerful. Place a mirror across the room from a window, and the reflection will brighten the room. Install bigger (or more!) windows, skylights, or sliding glass doors out to that patio or backyard in Baltimore. Consider exchanging that solid entry door in Toronto for a decorative one with panes of glass that will let the light into an entryway.
Turn off those lamps and ceiling lights, throw open the drapes, pull up the blinds, and make use of the daylight hours.
Bringing the natural beauty of the outdoors into your home is one way to ease the stress of everyday life, and it doesn’t have to be dramatic or expensive. There are many simple ways to incorporate the pleasures of the great outdoors into your home, and the results will be well worth the effort.
Author Byline
Barbara Johnson works in real estate and enjoys finding her clients the perfect homes. She also enjoys gardening and learning home improvement tips from established companies such as Moncada Windows in Canada. She then shares these tips with others through blogging.
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