FEATURE Design STORY Regina Cole
Designs for Wellness How to make your home a place for comfort, beauty and health “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”—William Morris, 1880 Home should be a place of comfort, beauty and health, a refuge from a world that assaults us with stimuli and wears us down with noise and stress. While we know this, we don’t always know how to create such a space. Fortunately, there are professionals who can help. “Wellness is not just physical, it’s also mental,” says Paul Chaisson, an interior designer with clients in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and further afield. “On weekend mornings, stay in bed, don’t rush. Allow yourself time to relax, and furnish your home with things that foster that, like a soaking tub in the bathroom.”
38 | BOSTON SPIRIT
With spring just around the corner, it’s a good time to look at home with a new perspective and to make changes that provide peaceful space and a healthy environment. “It need not be lavish or luxurious,” says Massachusetts architect Jason LaGorga. His company, DesignCrossover, provides a full range of architectural and interior design services. “People come to me and tell me that their home just doesn’t feel right, but they don’t know why. Often, with just a few simple moves, we can fix it.” These moves can include simply rearranging furniture to improve the flow. “You live in your own space and become a creature of habit,” LaGorga says. “We can create sightlines, vignettes, little moments that make you pause. There is
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so much visual clutter; I think in terms of simple moves and simple spaces.” It doesn’t get much simpler than reading when it comes to promoting wellness: few things nourish the soul like immersion in a good book. For readers, a comfortable, well-made and stylish chair marries wellness and good design. At Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, it’s all about comfort; the national furniture company with its strong Boston presence offers a variety of great looking and wonderful feeling seating pieces. Company founders and directors Gold and Williams also pride themselves on their company’s labor practices, which include on-site day care, a health-conscious gourmet café, a fitness center, a college scholarship program and a commitment to sustainability. “We strive to cultivate and maintain an environment of mutual respect and inclusion,” they say. “And, as active members of the Sustainable Furnishings Council, we
