Biophilic Design: The Primary Bedroom

Our home is clearly influenced by the principles of Biophilic Design. The idea living innerconnectedly with the outdoors has always inspired me, as I believe that nurturing our bodies, our minds and each other cannot happen completely without remaining rooted deeply in the natural world, whether in a city or rural setting.

In our past home, we blurred the lines between our exterior and interior by growing overhead vine canopies, erecting living walls, using outdoor mirrors where safe and advantageous, installing an outdoor shower, creating living + dining + play spaces in the garden, and keeping our windows, glass doors and skylights uncovered. But, as folks loved to remind me daily, that was a major perk of California living that doesn’t extend to most other regions.

In this new cottage, which exists in a very different climate, we blended the outdoors with the indoors even more deliberately and extensively, while operating with the unique realities of living on this dot on the globe.

Each of the four rooms in the house is meant to pull focus to the natural world around us and spark our innate instinct to interact with it. One of my favorite examples of this is the design of the primary bedroom.

Here are some of the more notable bedroom features that help us establish a harmony with the land enveloping us:

Venting Skylight
An oversized venting / remote-operable skylight (by VELUX) ushers in fresh air, abundant sunlight, and twinkling stars. The skylight’s screen prevents curious dragonflies and bees from entering.

Casement Windows
Four casement windows and one stationary window fill two of the four walls of the bedroom. While the windows are generous in size, we selected divided lites in order to prevent bird strikes— and, thankfully, there have been none that we know of. Each operable window has a screen that can be popped in or removed within seconds as desired depending on the season.

Natural Wood Floors & Shelves
Our wooden floors, nightstand tops, headboard ledge, and sink shelf are all made with ethically river recovered and building reclaimed, character-filled pine and cypress board remnants from the Goodwin Company. While we lightly sanded the wood in order to remove deep-settled dust, everything except the headboard ledge was left unstained and natural in order to preserve the color, texture and matte finish of the wood. Each of the 500+ pieces has a story to tell from years of impact from insects and sap, and every board has naturally-occurring curls, knots, arching grain patterns or vertical pinstripes.

French Doors
Much like the windows, the divided lite French doors leading to the porch allow us to leave a sizable portion of the room open to the outdoors. (We will soon have a screen on the porch to keep the mosquitos and snakes from finding their way into the home.)

Oversized Double Pocket-Doors
The oversized double pocket doors, when slid open, generously connect the bedroom to the windowed and skylight-filled main room. This gives an wrap-around, panoramic view of the wooded setting from the bed, as 3 of the 4 walls — plus the ceiling — reveal the outdoors and provide natural airflow.

Wooden Trim with Natural Whey Stain
The wood trim was hand-painted with a Natural Whey Stain made from minerals, and natural pigments. This stain is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional synthetic stains.

Lime Paint
The bedroom walls and ceiling are painted with a mossy green-brown Lime Paint. This Lime Paint is free of solvents, and toxic chemicals, and is composed of all natural material and mineral pigment that provide a durable, breathable coating. Lime’s high pH makes it a naturally mold and mildew resistant finish.

Plants, Found Objects & Woven Materials
To further feather the transition between outdoors and in, we included plants in a variety of species and formats. Driftwood, branches and feathers found by our children fill the room for decor, sentiment and function. A linen-wrapped pendant lamp dangles from a snapped branch. A raw, handmade, reclaimed wood bed frame (reused from a previous project) grounds the queen-sized, organic Avocado Green Mattress. Various essentials are held in vintage rattan picnic baskets, and woven materials can be found throughout the accents, lighting and furnishings. Linen textiles further soften the room. And, of course, the ever-present dog hair tumbleweeds really tie the room together. 😃