There is little doubt that a spa environment helps stimulate and soothe the senses. Unplugging is becoming necessary for our well-being as well. Whether it’s seeking relief from our devices or simply shutting out the whirlwind of noise coming from media of all kinds, we’re searching for ways to escape from the pressures of daily life in an ever-increasing tech-saturated world. As a result, interior designers are seeing a rise in homeowners seeking to design a spa-like oasis in their homes. Incorporating natural stone is playing a pivotal role in creating those calming spaces.

Helping to create spaces of health, wellness, and well-being is a growing trend among interior designers as more homeowners are realizing how design can positively or negatively affect their emotional state, according to the 2019 Outlook and State of Interior Design (OSID) report released by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

The definition of wellness is expanding holistically, according to the findings in the report, and people are looking for refuge and spaces to retreat from the chaos of daily life. Interior designers like Kerrie Kelly are responding by creating visually open spaces in the bath area to replicate the spaces one finds in a more traditional spa. Natural stone can help create that calm feeling.

The Luxury of Natural Stone

Interior designer Kerrie Kelly uses Carrara marble on the floor and shower to help create a calm ambiance for her client. Photo credit: Kerrie Kelly Design Lab.

The Roman baths were made of stone, Marie Frenkel, designer and owner of DreamStyle Kitchens & Baths, LLC, reminds clients seeking to design bathrooms to mimic a spa-like atmosphere. “Stone has a smooth cool touch, something you won’t feel with engineered [quartz],” she adds. “It is luxurious and brings us in touch with nature.”

“Calming, softer looks can be achieved by incorporating natural stones like marble, limestone, and travertine in a honed finish,” says Kerrie Kelly, creative director of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab and member of the ASID National Board of Directors. “To achieve a relaxing look, honed finishes are preferred over polished, as the stone’s ‘brilliance’ is downplayed and the ‘soft’ texture helps with the natural wear over time.”

Kelly notes that natural stone is often marketed as a luxury item and like fine furniture, is beautiful and must be cared for. She reminds clients to consider the type of natural stone they’re choosing as some offer better stain resistance than others. For clients who insist on marble in their bathrooms, for example, they must keep in mind that like any natural stone, it should be cleaned properly and sealed periodically. If maintenance is a concern, look for a natural stone that can offer stain resistance but still offer that pure and clean look of a spa.

Frenkel chafes at comments that natural stone requires much more maintenance than manmade materials. She gravitates toward quartzites that look similar to marble but offer better stain resistance. “Granites and quartzites require minimal service and hold up extremely well,” she says. “If you use a textured or matte finish, natural stone has such a luxurious feel.” While manmade materials try to replicate nature, natural stone is nature, she reminds clients.

Another reason Frenkel loves the feeling of natural stone in bathrooms is because stone is good for retaining heat. Heated floors under natural stone feel so comfortable when one gets out of their tub or shower.

Natural Stone Designs and Colors to Soothe the Body and Mind

Limestone, marble, and travertine tend to be the most preferred kind of stones for a bathroom specifically because of the wide variety of size, colors, and textures that are offered, according to Kelly. “The range allows homeowners to create a custom design specifically to their liking,” she says. “Due to its organic origin, stone varies, so it will always be unique to each specific project.”

Frenkel finds that warm tones go well with wood tones. She likes to pair a beautiful teak or walnut vanity with ema Marfil walls and Dark Emperador floors. Since many of her clients want the look of Cararra marble without the maintenance, she’ll often recommend quartzite since it has better stain resistance than marble. “A beautiful white vanity with white quartzite top is so luxurious, especially if you use an ogee edge or another more traditional edge,” she notes.

This DreamStyle Kitchens & Bath project features Crema Marfil walls and Dark Emperador floors. Photo credit: Tree Falls Photography.

Other warm-tone colors for a spa-like bathroom include beiges or browns. For those who find cooler tones more soothing, Frenkel recommends whites or grays. For clients who prefer patterns in their natural stone, she’d recommend Rainforest Green or Brown granite. Those who lean toward cleaner looks with minimal lines might consider Carrara marble.

“Emulating the spa experience at home doesn’t require significant investment,” says Anthony Anguille-Valles, spa director at the spa at dana, located within the dana hotel in Chicago. He feels a spa experience is accessible for everyone and the key to modeling a classic spa ambiance is in reducing overwhelming sensory stimuli, whether it’s through reducing clutter or minimizing the use of bright and flashy tones.

He agrees that Earth tones – like those used in the classic spa setting – should be integrated when possible. “Muted grays, browns, greens, and pinks are all suitable examples,” he adds.

Another way to bring in the spa experience at home is through sound. The healing benefits of relaxing sounds have been well-documented and most spas employ serene sounds in their spaces, whether it’s through music or the serene sounds of waterfalls, rain, or chimes.

Since waterfalls are a function of nature, Frenkel feels there is no better material to replicate the calming sound of water trickling down over rocks than with natural stone.

Creating a Spa-Like Atmosphere at Home

This DreamStyle Kitchens & Bath project uses quartzite to create a spa-like atmosphere. Photo credit: Nick Saraco Photography.

The key to creating a spa-like atmosphere at home is by not only creating a visually open space but also by incorporating luxury elements, whether it’s through using natural stone and curbless showers as part of the design or installing heated flooring and towel warmers. Another design element to consider is using glass enclosures from floor to ceiling to allow natural light to filter through. All of these things help to elevate the look and feel of the bathroom, giving a nod to all we love about a “spa day,” according to Kelly.

“Furniture should be placed to foster an openness to the living space as well as directed toward natural light sources when possible – the latter helping to balance one’s circadian rhythm,” adds Anguille-Valles.

TAGS:  bathroom healing inspire residential megy karydes

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When Victoria Di Iorio was pregnant in 2004, her husband became ill. For almost a year, he suffered from flu-like symptoms that began with a stuffy or runny nose, watery eyes, a cough followed by difficulty breathing, sleepless nights, wheezing, pain, and exhaustion. The symptoms would continue for a week, subside, and re-occur again. They soon learned he was having a reaction to something inside the home.

That realization would change the trajectory of their lives as Victoria started researching safer, non-toxic building products since her husband also happened to be a general contractor. She’d go on to launch Healthy Home Initiative and started her research to find safer, non-toxic building products.

Ninety percent of our time is spent indoors and indoor air quality is, on average, two to five times worse than outdoor air, according to Victoria. “Aware of this sobering fact, my goal is to be a voice – a change agent – to help swiftly and permanently reverse this trend,” she says.

A Health(ier) Home

Victoria began lobbying her husband and in-laws, Peter and Kathy Di Iorio, owners of Dior Builders, an Illinois-based company focused on building and remodeling luxury homes, to change the way did business. A few years later, Dior Builders built their first “healthy home,” as a spec house in Long Grove.

Earlier this year, Dior Builders opened its doors to Healthy Home 2018 in Inverness, Illinois, as part of a tour and in partnership with the American Lung Association Health House program.

Healthy Home 2018 is the first home in the country to be built under the American Lung Association’s revised Health House guidelines, featuring everything from energy-efficient products and innovative technologies, to green building materials such as natural stone and non-toxic furniture and accessories.

Natural Stone: A Healthy Option

Among the many building decisions made for the new home, using natural stone was among them. Unlike other building materials, natural stone contains no harmful chemicals or toxins, making it an ideal healthier choice for a home’s interior.

Victoria chose Fond du Lac natural stone from Wisconsin-based Halquist Stone for the exterior façade of the home. The Princeton custom blend hit all the checkmarks, from being a sustainable material to the aesthetically-appealing hues, shapes and sizes to create an attractive curb appeal, according to Mike Slagle, the salesperson with Halquist Stone who worked with Victoria and her team on the Healthy Home.

There are several things homeowners need to consider when choosing natural stone for a home’s exterior, says Slagle. While his company offers clients 120 natural stone blends, he says most clients have a relatively clear idea of what they’re drawn to, whether it’d be a specific color or texture, which makes it easier to narrow down selections. Sometimes the size of a project will dictate options. For a large exterior façade, clients will need to consider options where a particular natural stone will be available to complete that project, for example. “There are limits to anything that is natural,” Slagle reminds us.

He’s grateful to have been part of the Health House project as it’s a great opportunity to remind clients that natural stone is an eco-friendly building material. He notes that all of the natural stone the company quarries is used – nothing ever goes to waste – adding to the sustainability of the product.

Natural stone was also used as part of the interior of the home.

Colorado Lincoln marble surrounds the DaVinci fireplace indoors and a natural marble top graces a 1920’s dresser that was converted to a vanity for the formal powder room.

Artisan Stone Tile by Stone Impressions also is featured in multiple locations throughout Healthy Home 2018. One of the reasons Victoria was drawn to their pieces is because the company offers one-of-a-kind stone selections that are completely customizable.

“Artisan Stone’s patterns with hand-painted detailing are both classic and timeless and always makes a statement no matter where it is installed,” shares Kedra Pai, a designer with Kedra Chalan Designs.

Kedra chose the Lena tile in custom navy for the 70 square foot kitchen backsplash which served as inspiration for the whole house design. “We couldn’t be any happier with this exceptional installation,” Kedra adds.

In the master bath, they chose Artistic Tile’s newest pattern, Riviera, which is a combination of Thassos and Bianco Carrara polished marble inlaid with Rivershell. It is used as floor tile carpet border to match decorative panel design in expansive shower.

Building a Healthy Home

Building a luxury home of this caliber may not be within reach of many homeowners but everyone can help make their current home healthier, says Victoria.

“We can’t all do everything, but we can all do something,” she insists. Using natural stone whenever possible is one way, but she also recommends limiting wall-to-wall carpeting, taking off shoes at the door and opening windows, even for a few minutes a couple of times a week to improve indoor air quality.

These are all simple and inexpensive ways individuals can make their homes healthier for their family, she says.

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Create Calming Interior Spaces | Incorporating Natural Elements

Fusion Quartzite. Photo Courtesy of Ripano Stoneworks

Many people live a fast-paced stressful existence in spaces dominated by concrete and other unnatural materials. Even in environments where natural stone is used, it can be taken for granted. We focus on its practicality and ability to boost productivity, rather than appreciating its properties that induce well-being. “To be greener, many communities are tight-knit,” explains Debra Duneier of Echochi Design, LLC in New York City. “They’re developed so people can get to a grocery store, beauty salon or post office very quickly.” But such communities distance us from nature and keep us highly stressed, according to Duneier, an expert in purposeful design. An accredited LEED® Green Associate and Certified Eco-Designer, she creates environments using sustainable materials that promote wellness. “Detaching us from nature,” says Duneier, “is like separating a child from their mother.” Like that child will seek to reconnect with their mother, we’re made to plug into nature. Reconnecting with the outdoors by using natural stone helps alleviate tension induced by frenetic living. Natural stone comes from the earth in countless colors, textures, patterns, weights, and thicknesses. Because it is a natural material, it also promotes calm and healing, making it ideal for producing tranquil spaces.

Conscious Design Enhances Wellness

Limestone Tiles. Photo Courtesy of EcoChi.

When designing for wellness, Duneier recommends deliberately combine design standards related to layout and flow with earthly elements like natural stone, wood, and plants. “Every design process requires parameters and on should incorporate green and sustainable materials. Also, when you’re designing your space as a healing environment, make it as toxin-free as possible,” she says. Do this in both interior and exterior spaces. Purposeful space design creates the healthy feelings you’re trying to evoke. “When you bring natural stone into an environment, you feel grounded,” says Duneier, a Graduate Gemologist, and Feng Shui Master Practitioner. “There’s a positive interaction between people and natural materials,” she explains. Because we are organic beings, natural materials like stone create an unconscious biological, mental, and spiritual connection between us and the earth. Conversely, she equates using synthetic products as primary design materials with consuming chemical-laden foods. “Your body doesn’t know what you’re eating and reacts negatively,” she says. “It also experiences environments full of plastics, resins, and other artificial components as foreign.” In both cases, your body is trying hard to figure out what those unnatural elements are so you can’t experience calm. “Natural stone supports wellness because your body is in an environment that it recognizes and understands,” Duneier says.

Choose the Right Natural Stone for the Experience

Slate Countertops. Photo Courtesy of EcoChi.

Different stones evoke distinct experiences, especially combined with other earth elements. Selecting natural stone products based on aesthetics is important but it’s more essential to consider the home or work experience you’re creating. Duneier gives the following examples for guidance. Granite. The hardness, density, and durability of granite generate protective energy and can make you feel secure. Use this stone when you want your home, garden, or workplace to feel this way. Limestone. With its healing energy, limestone is ideal for bathrooms that are being redesigned or remodeled to support a recovery from illness. Soapstone. Because of its energy, this durable natural stone is ideal for to creating a positive and calming environment. Commonly used in kitchens, soapstone is well-suited for art spaces or bathrooms, too. Quartzite. This metamorphic rock symbolizes positive change. Use quartzite if you’re starting a new chapter in your home or business.

Consider the Color and Cut of Natural Stone

Harvest Brown Sandstone and Pearl Travertine and Marble. Photo Courtesy of Lurvey’s Supply.

These factors are essential when incorporating outdoor elements into your interiors to elicit healthy emotions. Balance your natural stone’s color with other elements in your space. Also consider its cut and shape. For example, put dark natural stones where you’ll be spending time reflecting. When installing charcoal, dark grey, or black stones, balance the rest of the space with lighter colors. If you are rational, meticulous, exacting, and clearly define boundaries, you’ll feel supported by the metal energy released by grey or white. Pure white marble symbolizes purity and immortality. “It’s ideal for a studio space and can relieve stress and anxiety in any form,” states Duneier. Bring medium brown, beige, or yellow natural stones into your environment to feel sustained by the earth. These are great in kitchens, but their earth energy is also ideal for exterior settings that include grasses, trees, and water features. Duneier suggests avoiding red, terra cotta, and orange stone. “Their fire energy can ignite passions and arguments, especially in the kitchen. When you have your stone cut, consider making the edges curved, not sharp.” Knife-like edges represent danger, she says, while round ones represent calm and safety.

Don’t Inhibit Natural Stone’s Wellness Properties

Green and sustainable natural stone products and installation processes are good for your body and the planet. Creating an environment that supports well-being requires carefully choosing all design products and materials. Your architect or designer should develop your space with your safety and well-being in mind.

Interior Design Spa Ideas

When Tamara Wills, owner of Allyu Spa in Chicago, decided to open the doors of her spa almost a decade ago, her intention was to create an inviting space for guests to connect with their bodies. First order of business: to transform the industrial space at in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Natural stone plays a big role in many spa designs, but Wills took it one step further by using it as a focal point and creating a transitional piece to bring the organic and industrial feel of the space into harmony.

The historic landmark building located at 600 W. Chicago Avenue was home to the former Montgomery Ward mail order headquarters. It was built specifically to handle the massive works of receiving, processing and shipping millions of catalog orders in its heyday.

Gabion wall at Allyu Spa. Photo courtesy of John Faier.

How Stone Helps Create Balance in Spas

While some would think the space too industrial to work, Wills thought it was the perfect blank slate to create the type of environment she sought for her clients. She focused on using earthy colors, textures, and substrates in the overall design. To help balance the space, she and her team created their version of a supportive gabion wall – a steel cage filled with large Wisconsin field stones.

“It has both a strong and structured industrial feel and a completely organic feel,” Wills says. “There is a walkway between the front, more public reception area, and the back treatment area that is boundaried by these gabion walls.”

To help create an even more intimate feel, they lowered the ceiling so clients feel like they’re entering a cave. “Clients love the wall,” she admits, noting that many clients have found it a popular area to take selfies. “Hopefully, the unconscious feel of passing through stimulates the mind and body to get ready for a transition from over-stimulated and distracted to inward-focused and reflective.”

Spas have been using natural stone in a number of ways and for a number of reasons: from focal points to creating an ambiance. Suzanne Falk, interior designer and owner of Suzanne Falk Interior Design, believes using natural stone within a spa setting does a great job bringing Mother Nature indoors. Stone is elegant, stylish, durable and truly timeless, all attributes one appreciates in a spa.

Essere Spa at Castello di Casole.

In some cases, a spa can natural stone intended for another purpose. Essere Spa at Castello di Casole in Tuscany is housed in the estate’s former wine cellar. One of the most dramatic spaces on the property, the spa took advantage of the space’s barrel-vaulted ceilings and restored stone walls to create a theatrical setting accentuated by long views across an expansive valley. Today, the spa provides full treatments designed to relax and nurture the body, mind and spirit using local ingredients such as rosemary, grape and olive oil, further bringing the beauty of the outdoors inside.

Creating a Spa at Home Using Natural Stone

Even if you can’t make it to a spa on a regular basis, it’s easy to bring that spa-like feeling at home, says Falk, who thinks everyone should have at least one element of a spa in their home bathroom.

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Falk Interior Design.

“A home spa is good for the mind, body, and soul,” Falk says. She recommends starting with inexpensive and small touches such a soothing paint color and soft lighting. Adding elements like plush towels, a beautiful tub, a large shower head, and a steam shower are also easy ways to make your bathroom feel luxurious, she adds.

When clients are ready to incorporate stone, she recommends a limestone or mosaic marble floor, or perhaps trying to incorporate natural stone walls and a marble or limestone countertop.

“Natural stones are luxurious and give you a feeling of serenity,” Falk adds. “Who doesn’t want to have a spa-like bathroom in your home where you can relax and restore?”

Falk also likes to use travertine or marble mosaic tiles on the bath floor because it has a natural roughness and there will be less chance of someone slipping. “On the walls, I like using a more polished stone such as marble,” she says, adding that she loves it for its elegant touch.

Wills agrees that natural stone floors are comforting in bathrooms. “To have bare feet on natural stone feels like a homecoming to the body,” she notes.

“We’re so accustomed to level, unnatural surfaces under our feet,” explains Wills. “I think that most people are wanting time to be inward, self-reflective, and self-nurturing at a spa. Creating a special space in your home to remind you of this kind of self-reflection is an amazing thing.”

She reminds clients that creating that special space needn’t be difficult, yet can be very rewarding. An altar or a quiet corner for reading and mediation will work, she notes. “Any representation of the elements in those areas immediately reinforces our grounding and ability to be present in our bodies,” Wills adds. “I actually have a pile of basalt stones in my meditation area. I like to touch them and pile them up in different ways. The texture and temperature is organic and soothing.”

Allyu Spa tries to engage all of the sense because Wills strongly believes it helps clients connect with their bodies and take a break from their restless minds. Although the space might have been industrial at one point, her intentional earth-based design touches, from textured clay walls, reclaimed barnwood, natural stone and darker richer colors throughout, have succeeded in helping to remind clients of the connection between us and the earth.

Is Stone Healing? | Hospital Healing Gardens

Indiana limestone, created in collaboration with Gonzalez Stone Masons, Private Garden, Napa California. The piece was created to soften the landscape, integrating garden and created harmony between a contemporary garden and an antique façade (opposite side). It is not, per se, a “healing garden” but because of its presence, the garden feels unified and, in a way, healed. Photo courtesy of Alexandra Morosco.

What makes a healing garden, a healing garden?

Virginia Burt, FCSLA, FASLA, often gets asked this question and her answer is always the same. “Any garden is healing and research proves it to be so,” says Burt, principal of Virginia Burt Designs, and a landscape architect who creates landscapes and gardens of meaning for residential clients, healthcare facilities, and unique special projects. “It has been my experience, however, that deep transformative experiences can be facilitated in gardens designed specifically for healthcare settings.”

There is no shortage of research showing the power of spending time in nature. The scientific benefits of clocking in outdoor time range from elevated moods to better concentration.

What is new is the mounting scientific evidence that healing gardens are helping patients undergoing cancer treatment, Alzheimer’s disease, and other health ailments. It’s no surprise that more hospitals and health care centers are adding healing gardens to their campuses. The American Society of Landscape Architects even maintains an entire professional network of consultants who specialize in designing therapeutic gardens.

While Burt maintains that any garden can be a healing garden, she admits that when she designs gardens specifically for a population, such as people with cancer, autism, or a particular segment of seniors, she and other designers who specialize in designing healing gardens must consider the needs of the patients (and staff) as part of the design process.

“You’re making choices that support people going through that journey,” she adds.

The Power of Natural Stone & Intention in a Healing Garden

The design of a healing garden is important to its purpose and natural stones are integral to the process since they serve as the bones of the garden.

“People like stone,” says Burt, noting that the size, type, color, and texture of stone used in a healing garden will be dependent on the project’s intent.

“If you’re looking for it to be relaxing and meditative, you’re going to pick a material that you love to look at, that will inform those goals,” she adds.

Intention plays a big role in Alexandra Morosco’s projects, too. The artist and founder of Washington-based Morosco Fine Arts primarily work as a sculptor in stone and bronze. Her focus, she says, is telling “stories in stone.”

Morosco works as an interpreter or “channel,” as she calls herself, for her clients. “I listen deeply to a story, a memory, a dream or a desire and work to bring that to life through the vehicle of stone or other mediums such as wood, bronze, or landscape elements,” she explains.

Morosco believes there is no better place to heal than where growth occurs, whether it be botanical or an internal spiritual growth. “Gardeners everywhere know that they feel best when they have a healthy garden,” she says. “When the intention of a landscaped or built environment is that of healing – the healing effects can be immense.”

Healing gardens aren’t restricted to places like hospitals or health care centers. Morosco is currently working on a sculpture for a private garden where the central theme is healing.

“Surgery Rock” – The power of stone, from talisman to monument. Do stones potentially hold the power to heal? Some believe so! Photo courtesy of Alexandra Morosco.

“In my work, the commissioning process in itself is an act of healing,” she explains. “My current client is very excited about this process, and it gives her something to look forward to and a will to see something through. It means so much to her she actually took a chip of the stone with her into (cancer) surgery, feeling that this stone and the project had so much power, it would lend her strength through the surgery. This, to me, is evidence that stone has amazing strength and power in ways that are hard to define, but no less real to those who feel it. We see most every culture or religion has had some form of stone that they held in their hand, from prayer beads to worry stones, there seems to be an ancient thread.”

Burt has a number of stories where healing gardens have played a powerful role in the healing process. In some cases, it doesn’t even happen in the garden.

She was working to create a bench for a healing garden using a large boulder and a man who was building a piece of steel to support the boulder visited her in the shop with his then 5-year-old daughter to discuss the project. His daughter, for unknown reasons, hadn’t spoken for two months. He picked up his daughter and put her on the bench, which Burt designed to seem like it was hugging you.

“She was just as happy as can be,” remembers Burt. “She was there, having a quiet smile on her face.”

When the time came to leave, he walked over to her and he say “OK, we have to go.” As he reached for her, she said, “I want to stay here.”

It was the first time she spoke in two months, says Burt.

One of the common reasons designers and architects cite stone as powerful is because stone gives gardens grounding energy. “Sometimes we see gardens that are all color and fire – but we also need grounding energy to balance our energy,” Morosco says. “Even common stone, such as granite and fieldstone has an immense presence of having an ancient knowing, holding space in the garden, like a sage or wisdom keeper. I believe that people are drawn to stone in a garden for this reason, so if it is a sculpture, standing stone, or stone bench, it is all Earth energy and I think people need that, especially undergoing treatments that really challenge the body, fatigue them, or there is a lot of emotional ‘thinking’ about their illness.”

Other Types of Healing Spaces

While hospitals and health centers are among the first places we think about when we think of healing gardens in a non-residential setting, there are other places where natural stone and healing takes place.

“For centuries we have witnessed the emotional healing that occurs at a cemetery,” says Morosco. “I don’t think it is only the inscription. I believe the stone itself holds those in mourning. I have witnessed this by creating a monument for fishermen lost at sea in Ireland, in the Aran Islands. It is not a Healing Garden, but it is a Healing Stone.”

Placed with a backdrop of the sea and horizon as its environment, it holds a place for people to come and sit, pray, or simply mourn, and, hence, heal, adds Morosco. “They can share the space with others, which creates a place for conversation, or they can visit it alone, and share the space with just the stone. People have witnessed and experienced amazing healing there at that stone.”

Another form of “healing garden” is not for the people in it, but for the environment, Morosco notes. “Sometimes stone, or a water feature, can be the only thing strong enough to balance other elements, such as destructive past stewardship, visual blights, or noise pollution, say from freeways or trains. This can merge with Feng-shui, and is worth looking at stone as a viable solution to help heal a space, in addition to becoming a healing garden itself.”