Design Tip of the Week: How to Make Your Home A Sanctuary

Normally, I post a little design tip of the week on my Facebook. This week's design tip was a little too long to be a Facebook post, so I included on the blogger. In keeping with my stress-free new year theme, this week's tip is how to make your home a sanctuary. Our lives are stressful enough outside of the home, and you know exactly how it feels to come home from a long, busy day to find your house in shambles. There are also ways, besides keeping neat and orderly, that you can execute a calming look to your home. Some of these tips are from my dear friend, Dr. Weil.

Step 1: Bring the outdoors in. Green plants, fresh cut flowers, and pieces of rock, etc. are great ways to bring nature indoors, especially in the winter when it feels like you will never escape the walls of your home. I try to have fresh flowers in my house every week. It does wonders to your mood:

Adding seagrass to walls is also a great way to evoke a calming, naturey feel:

Step 2: Create an atmosphere of love. Display handmade or meaningful gifts or art that remind you of a happy time or place photos of family and friends around your home: 

Step 3: Clean out clutter. A low-maintenance home is refreshing after a day of hectic meetings, errands and chores. Fewer items can mean less frustration. Also, I have a rule I try to follow every night before I go to bed. Emphasis placed on the the word "try". Do a 5 minute sweep up. Put away everything that's not in its place before you go to bed. It literally takes 5 minutes and saves you an hour or more later trying to put a mess away that was created all week:

Step 4: Set aside a room or area for peace and calm. A place for spiritual reflection and meditation can provide shelter from noise and distraction. I think the world would be a much better place if we all had this bathroom to unwind in:

P.S. I have totally gotten into a bath ritual. I fill up my tub with bubbles and lavendar or chamomile bath salts, pop on some Adele pandora, set up a stack of mags, and light an amazing scented candle. I look forward to this like a kid going to Disney World. It's so easy to create a spa environment in your bathroom.

This is on my wish list to add to my spa bath routine. I'd love to check out the Diptyque store in NYC next time I'm there. I'd love the gardenia one. I have a gardenia that smelled like heaven when it bloomed and then quickly became the biggest ***** to take care of. What a high maintenance biotch that thing was...Anyway.

Step 5: Paint a room to suggest a mood. Blue = Relax:

Any ways you create a calming environment in your home?