Designs for Wellness

Architectural Openings in Somerville

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.”

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 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

Duxiana

Paul Chaisson

educate our customers to understand best practices to ensure a sustainable planet for generations to come.”

While reading, you need good lighting. Lucy Dearborn, president of Lucia Lighting & Design in Lynn, Massachusetts, promotes lighting that is beautiful, effective and green.

“We love the fixtures from Hubbardton Forge,” Dearborn says. “They are based in Castleton, Vermont, so trucks aren’t crossing the country to deliver their products to us. Hubbardton Forge partners with as many Vermont-based and New England-based companies as possible before they leave the region for resources.

“They offer beautiful designs that are also energy efficient,” she adds. “The Abacus, for example is a new product and one of our favorites. It is an LED product that uses locally blown glass—an innovative design.”

The best designers and manufacturers know that our spaces should promote not “ We love the fixtures from Hubbardton

Forge. They are based in Castleton, Vermont, so trucks aren’t crossing the country to deliver their products to us. ”

Lucy Dearborn

President, Lucia Lighting

only personal health, but also the health of the planet. At Architectural Openings in Somerville, Massachusetts, 12 craftspeople make windows and doors from wood, instead of aluminum or plastic.

“We try to save the world one window at a time,” says company president Karl Scherrer. “There are not many options for sustainably manufactured windows and doors in this country. Our windows are so efficient that they make the home more comfortable and make the air cleaner inside the house. A wooden window never needs to be replaced; it can be endlessly repaired.”

Architectural Openings turns all its sawdust, cardboard and wood scraps into fuel for biomass boilers, sending nothing to the landfill.

Is anything more essential to wellness than a good night’s sleep?

We spend a third of our lives in bed, refreshing and recharging our minds and bodies. So why don’t our beds have at least the level of quality and luxury we expect from our sofas?

Technologically, the mattress has always lagged behind seating furniture: the coil spring, patented in the mid-eighteenth century, was used in chair seats and buggy benches long before anyone saw it as a

A Lucia Lighting and Design fixture from Hubbardton Forge: The Abacus

Mitchell + Gold

DesignCrossover

way to a better night’s sleep. Since about 1900, the coil-spring mattress has been the standard. Though there are occasional forays into alternates like waterbeds, Sleep Number, and memory foam, the coil-spring mattress remains the favorite, and for good reason.

Duxiana, a Swedish luxury-bedding brand since 1926, makes its mattresses from all-natural materials, including springs made of high-grade Swedish steel and pine from old-growth trees that create a strong, long-lasting frame.

At the upper level, a Dux bed, as it is affectionately called, is almost infinitely adjustable, with springs that can be raised or compressed via cranks that can be stored when not in use.

“The multilayered spring technology makes it possible for the spine to be aligned all the time,” a company spokesperson explains. “This gives you an extra hour of deep sleep. A Dux bed is not a soft bed or a firm bed, but rather a supportive bed.”

The local showroom for Duxiana beds and furniture is located at 173 Newbury Street in Boston.

Paul Chaisson points out that bedrooms and bathrooms have special wellness potential. A bathroom can feel a spa; a bedroom can be a personal retreat.

In the bathroom, however, make sure to use a safe brand of dental floss. Recent studies have found that some brands contain PFAS chemicals, which have been linked to liver damage, harm to the immune system, developmental issues and cancer, and can persist in people’s bodies and in the environment for many years. Also, find out what’s in your water. If it is full of chlorine or other chemicals, install a shower head filter.

Dane Austin, a Newbury Street-based Boston interior designer, points to an essential element for a restful bedroom retreat.

“Have a ‘no screens allowed’ rule in the bedroom and make time to unwind, catch up on reading and connect with your partner.”

He believes that human connection is the key to a good life and the whole reason for design.

“With the open concept living trend, clients often have no need or desire for a formal living room set-up. We find ourselves crafting inventive uses of the space, including a yoga retreat, music room, art studio and recreation hall, complete with pool table, jukebox and card table. These become rooms that feed the soul, encourage creativity, and connectedness.”

“I’m not one for unnecessary accessories that sit around and take up space in your life,” Austin says. “It’s important to surround yourself with only things that make you happy and bring you joy. Keep treasures from your travels, meaningful family heirlooms, a painting that you had to have, and, yes, comfortable furniture. Donate unwanted items that serve no real purpose and collect dust. Put them to good use at local fundraising organizations such as Boomerangs that provide much-needed outreach while bringing extra income to a worthy cause.”

William Morris, one of the giants of the design world, said much the same thing 140 years ago. Styles change, but comfort, wellness and good design are eternal. [x]