Especially for those of us who live in the city, it’s easy to lose touch with the outdoors. For some, severing ties with Mother Nature amounts to a kind of spiritual deprivation, and at the very least, a purely urban existence can increase the chances ofdepression. Even if you live in the country, inviting a little bit of the wilderness into your interior creates a sense of grounded peacefulness. Here are a handful of ways to blur the line and add to your feeling of home.
Bamboo
What’s not to love about bamboo? It’s versatile, eco-friendly, and as steeped in associations of Zen-garden serenity as a cup of jasmine tea. On the functional front, bamboo flooring is a fantastic compromise for the hardwood floor appeal. It’s actually fairly easy to cover an entire room with a DIY bamboo flooring kit, but roll-up area mats can do the trick as well. Bamboo screens deliver a similar vibe, and are a brilliant way to break up small spaces—a studio apartment, for instance.
If you take your feng shui seriously, live bamboo plants are attributed as sources of luck and harmony, and are an aesthetic boon to any space under any circumstances.
Houseplants
“Lucky” bamboo may not gel with everyone’s domestic vision, but incorporating plants in your house is a surefire way to subtly blend the threshold between indoors and out. Some people assume that you need a green thumb to keep live plants looking lush, but if your choose the right flora, they all but take care of themselves. No matter what climes you may live in, there’s a succulent, palm, or lily that will meld with your décor and demand little maintenance.
If you’re willing to put in a little time and TLC, cultivating an indoor herb garden is not only pleasing to look at but practical as well. (As a low-impact alternative, grocery stores like Trader Joe’s often sell live adult herbs such as basil or mint that can provide a hint of an indoor garden.)
Wood
Perhaps tapping into some primeval part of our minds, the look of wood makes us feel at home; secure. There are even psychological studies that suggest the same. Wood floors and even paneling produce such coziness, but rawer cuts are even more evocative. Finished stump chairs and foot-rests, rustic barrel chairs, or even a tangle of driftwood lend the decided mystery of a forest or coastline.
Water Effects
Whether it’s the rhythmic ripples of a pond or the soft trickle of a fountain, water is perhaps the most hypnotic of the elements. Bringing it into your home, on the other hand, can be a bit of a challenge. If you’ve already ventured into territory, live fish can be an easy counterpoint, from a simple goldfish bowl to a more elaborate indoor koi pond.
Perpetually cascading running water is a feat for the more ambitious, but if you’re game, it’s worth it. A number of online vendors offer fairly compact tiered bowl fountains that don’t require gutting your living room. Similarly, awater wall can import the tranquility of a mountain rill with only minimal installation.
The possibilities are as unbounded as your imagination and nature itself. Have fun experimenting with the interaction of natural and artificial patterns, for example, to create a complex interplay of patterns, grains, and colors. And no matter how far you take it, take the time out for trips to a state park, beach, or forest: there’s no substitute for getting lost in the miracle of the wild now and then.
Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in the Los Angeles area. Although Los Angeles is made up of a great deal of buildings, Marcela enjoys getting outside and experiencing nature through camping and walks with her children.
How To Incorporate Nature Into Your Home Design
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