Natural Living

Make your home a wellness hub

Is your home working hard enough to support your wellbeing? Here are some ideas to up its game for 2019

With a few simple tweaks you can give your home a wellbeing makeover with these tips and ideas…

Plant a herbal garden

“The easiest medicinal herb garden to create is a tea garden,” says renowned herb grower Jekka McVicar (jekkasherbfarm.com). “Choose herbs that you would use both as natural remedies and for culinary purposes in the kitchen, for example mint, rosemary, basil, marjoram, lemon balm and lemon verbena, thyme and fennel.”

Embrace colour therapy

Energise your home with a rainbow of shades, says colour therapist Valerie Logan-Clarke (colourtherapyhealing.com). “Colour changes your energy. It affects us on all levels: physical, emotional and spiritual,” she says, “and we’re all practising colour therapy every day, from the clothes we choose to the flowers we pick or plant into our window boxes. It’s just worth understanding a little about what they mean.

“Red, orange and yellow are related to the base, sacral and solar plexus chakras. They are energising and warming. Red helps us with security and courage; orange is about selfrespect, standing in our own power; yellow is about trusting ourselves to make our own decisions.

“Green – the heart centre – is all about love and self-love. It’s also incredibly important given all the pollutants in our lives as it nurtures our immune system. The vibration of green resonates with the thymus gland in the chest.

“Blue, indigo and violet – the throat, brow and crown chakras – are very calming. You have to be a bit careful using them in a north-facing room as they’re also cooling. They help with stress and sleep.”

Create a home spa

Recreating the opulence and relaxation of a spa break isn’t easy, but a few practical tricks will elevate your bathroom to a place of sanctuary.

Under £50

Sort, streamline and store the family’s clutter into cupboards, drawers or stacked storage boxes. Make sure there’s a lock on the door. Fit blackout blinds to windows or internal glass doors.

Under £250

Install a heated towel rail for endless warming hot towels. Re-grout tiled areas to freshen up the whole room. Invest in a wireless sound system to play your immersive soundtrack safely.

Over £500

Install underfloor heating. Upgrade your electric shower to a quiet-running model with multiple water flow settings. Install a sauna – a one-person cabin can be installed in just 1.2m square.

Oxygenate your rooms

“Having plants in your bedroom creates such beautiful and peaceful imagery to wake to. Also, as most cacti photosynthesise at night they produce oxygen for us, increasing the comfort of our sleep and bedroom environment,” says Gynelle Leon, owner of PRICK (prickldn.com). “The key to cultivating plants in a small space is to select small pieces, make use of all window sills (which are just perfect for cacti and succulents) and to exploit untapped space by hanging plants in front of windows.”

Fix chi traps

Help qi energy flow free around your home with feng shui expert and coach Alexandra Lees’ (wuweiwisdom.com) DIY cures…

Problem: Darker rooms or corridors stagnate energy flow.

Fix: Increase the size of existing window openings, introduce a rooflight or sun tunnel, or simply add a large reflective feature mirror to these spaces.

Problem: Narrow or pinched spaces restrict energy flow.

Fix: Relocate any large, bulky furniture or selectively remove internal walls to enlarge and open up smaller spaces.

Problem: General clutter and untidiness disrupts energy flow.

Fix: Introduce purpose-built and wellorganised storage zones by converting an unused loft or under stairs area.

Cancel noise

With the World Health Organisation defining noise pollution as seriously harmful to human health, it’s worth addressing your home’s soundscapes. “Noise cancellation doesn’t necessarily entail a huge overhaul of the room with additional sound-deadening walls,” says soundproofing expert Jack Derbyshire (soundproofingrus.com). “There are all sorts of creative and cheap ways to keep noise out and the home looking great. Soundproof paint, rugs and curtains, and materials with speckled or raised surfaces. Work to absorb and keep out sound. Curtains over the door can act as a natural sound barrier. Rugs can be great if you live in an flat and the noise is coming from below, and paint can be useful just to smother an audible TV set on the other side of a wall.”

Nail your sleeping quarters

Have you turned, aired or checked your mattress lately? Recommendations to replace this hard-working bed topper every seven to ten years come (surprise, surprise!) from manufacturers. Even so, with ‘get more sleep’ on every health wish list it’s worth investing time and money in your bed. Checking for broken springs or saggy spots will help you avoid the back pain of an unsupportive mattress. When it is time to replace, an organic wool option (check out cottonsafenaturalmattress.co.uk) naturally retards fire, so, pricey though it is, you can dodge added chemical treatments.

Future-proof your cooling

Intense heatwaves are set to become more common as climate change bites, so investing in sustainable cooling systems will save you from turning to energy-guzzling electric fans or using precious water to cool down. Installing continental-style shutters, a simple way to protect south-facing rooms from roasting, while improving your home’s insulation will help stabilise temperatures in summer and winter alike. Moving heat-generating appliances to a garage or utility room will make kitchens a bit cooler.

Make a meditation space

Few of us have entire rooms we can re-purpose, but a converted garden shed, heated garage or quiet corner of the house where you won’t be disturbed can function as a helpful place to practise mindful breathing and more.

• Your space has to be a pleasant place for you to spend time in, so try to choose somewhere cosy, lit by natural light and otherwise calm. Clear away any distracting clutter, and make a level space where candles and incense can safely burn without your supervision.

• Next add a meditation cushion, yoga block or exercise mat and several meditation shawls, especially if your space is in an outbuilding or shed. You’re aiming for pared-back comfort, so a few carefullychosen comforts will work better than a cocoon of fluffy layers.

• Take a moment at the start of each session to set an intention for this space, defining its new purpose for you and spiritually engaging with this new corner of calm. Keep it hovered, dusted and stocked with fresh flowers to keep you returning.

Rewild your garden

“My postage-stamp-sized garden is dominated by my beloved maple tree, so years of plantings ended up as scraggly disappointment,” says Alice Peck, author of The Green Cure (CICO Books, £12.99) which publishes in February. “I gave the garden a year to do as it wished and it turned green! Ivy climbed up the fence, chamomile I’d forgotten took off and beautiful weeds which aren’t necessarily unwelcome – Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod – flourished. I hang planters on the fence to grow herbs for cutting and a few flowers for colour. By giving in to the location, my little garden went from a place of struggle to a lovely place to be – outdoors alone or with friends, to meditate, and take the green cure.”