By Martin Liptrot • Photos by Ace Misiunas, Brad Nicol, and Steven Dewall
While there have been numerous upsides to lockdown — more time with the family, shorter or eliminated commutes, and the freedom to wear your favorite jogging pants to a team Zoom meeting — there have been drawbacks too.
Our homes morphed from being our little places to escape the outside world into becoming our offices, studios, and meeting rooms too. And as we spent more and more time inside, people started wondering what the impact has been on our wellbeing and emotional health.
California-based Sarah Barnard is a WELL and LEED accredited designer and creator of environments that support mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. She creates highly personalized, restorative spaces that are deeply connected to art and the preservation of the environment.
I spoke with Sarah to find out more about how the pandemic has changed our perspective of our homes, what we are doing to spruce them up, and what new — and perhaps lasting — trends we will see as a result.
First, how did the pandemic affect your life and work habits?
Like many companies, we've been working remotely during the pandemic. More client and studio meetings are taking place through video conferences, and our team is using a work management app to communicate and share information for tasks. Because our process has become so streamlined, we're now taking on more remote clients.
While I miss the in-person interactions, I appreciate all the technology that lets us connect while distanced. It's also become increasingly important to find calm, to look for opportunities for ourselves and our clients to be grounded in nature, and to continue to incorporate that into our design process.
Finding calm in uncertain times is important. How has this changed what people are asking you for?
As a studio, we have always prioritized function, both for pragmatic reasons and because even minor inconveniences in our homes can contribute to fatigue, particularly during already stressful periods. As clients spend more time at home, what were previously only minor issues become harder to overlook, and people want their spaces to serve and support them as wholly as possible.
Clients seek highly functional homes that offer beauty and mental respite when calm is needed, and for many homes, this means putting spare areas to use and visually diversifying our spaces. Guest rooms may be transformed into a home office or a wellness space designated for movement, meditation, or just somewhere for silence — away from technology and the demands of work — where clients can escape the challenges of the day.
There's also an increasing desire to feel surrounded by nature and to enjoy the calming beauty it inspires. Whether this is through natural views of beaches, dunes, lakes, or oceans, or the incorporation of biophilic materials, many people are looking to foster a connection with nature and the outdoors.
Many of our readers have relocated from a city home to what was previously their beach getaway. Are you seeing that too?
Many people are experiencing a shift in priorities and, with that, a desire to spend more time in the spaces that make them feel the happiest and most fulfilled. Here in Los Angeles, as in many parts of the world, that often means being by the beach.
But vacation homes are frequently designed with short-term use in mind. Some clients may need these spaces to be updated to support longer-term or full-time living and have them optimized with additional relaxation elements.
Natural prints can offer a transportive and soothing feature to a room, whether in textiles or wallpapers. Our Kale Tree design team, inspired by the flora and fauna of the mountains, oceans, and deserts that surround us in Southern California, creates custom patterns to connect with nature and bring a sense of calm.
I also love to give extra attention to bathroom spaces to ensure they are as restful and rejuvenating as possible. As most of us start and end our days there, having a spa-like retreat space to bookend our days can help foster mental calm.
What about outside spaces?
Outdoor spaces have always been important, but they have become a home's main social hub, functioning as second living rooms or entertainment areas, requiring more seating and creative layouts to accommodate guests. Outdoor food preparation, beverage storage, and cooking and grill spaces have also helped simplify outdoor entertaining.
We also have seen an increase in indoor-outdoor spaces, with large folding patio doors joining living rooms with patios, or big kitchen windows that welcome chatting with outside guests while preparing snacks and beverages.
Sustainability has also become more important to many of our clients. We've seen an influx in interest for kitchen gardens, which can reduce dependency on commercial farming while offering an opportunity to spend time outside, enjoy nature, and invest in the environmental health benefits of outdoor spaces.
Are people adapting to their surroundings, or adapting their surroundings to suit them?
I think it's a bit of a symbiotic shift, where we are evolving in tandem with our homes. The increased time spent at home has inspired many people to re-evaluate their living situation and priorities, and it has reshaped the way they think about their lifestyle and how that relates to their interior spaces.
Our focus has always been on highly personalized, naturalistic, wellness-focused homes. More and more, people want home environments that can emotionally support and reflect them and their beliefs and ethics — whether through sustainable environmental choices, an interest in supporting local community artists and artisans, or following vegan interior design principles.
People recognize their home's effect and the importance of creating environments that boost health, wellbeing, and happiness.
Sarah's Top Five Tips for Living Well
1. Choose relaxing colors. Greens and creams are soothing because of green's reference to nature and growth, and cream's inspiration of clarity and balance.
2. Incorporate nature. Biophilic design reconnects us to the natural world and can help reduce stress and promote a sense of wellbeing.
3. Bring the outside in. Expansive exterior doors and patios designed for entertaining encourage more time spent with friends and family outdoors.
4. Let the sun shine bright. Maximize and manage the natural lighting available by using motorized shades that align with the rhythms of the day.
5. Everything in its place. Organizing your home is one of the best ways to restore its luster and to refresh your mindset.
Originally published in Beach Happy Magazine, Volume 8 (Spring 2022). Interview by Martin Liptrot. Photos by Ace Misiunas, Brad Nicol, and Steven Dewall; artwork by Reid Winfrey, Renae Barnard, Ruben Vincent, and Susan Hannon. To learn more, visit sarahbarnard.com.
