Tips for an eco-friendly bedroom that soothes your mind and body

Today’s guest post is written by Joyce Del Rosario, an interior design blogger. Joyce works as a Community Outreach Specialist at Open College of Art and Design, one of the leading providers of interior design courses. Enjoy this interesting post!

The bedroom is the place where you should be able to wind down at the end of each day and rejuvenate yourself both mentally and physically. Here are some tips for turning your bedroom into a soothing sanctuary that helps you relax and also blends well with nature.

Choose a restful color

Believe it or not, the colors you choose for your home can have a direct influence on your general mood. The color blue is thought to bring down your heart rate and help you calm down.

Green is restful to the eye, and is generally a choice for bedrooms. Always use low VOC paints that are free of carcinogens and won’t harm the environment or your health.

Bring nature indoors

Letting a bit of nature into your room is a great way to improve your quality of sleep and will also help the room feel light and airy. Plants produce oxygen and keep your air fresh, and some of them like lavender or jasmine can even help you sleep better.

Some other plants you may want to consider for your bedroom due to their air filtering abilities include English ivy, the Peace lily and rubber plants, as they are known to absorb harmful chemical compounds like benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene from the air.

Another way to bring the nature indoors is to use natural elements in your décor. For example, you can create beautiful natural flower arrangements with rocks, rustic branches and a couple of single flowers in a glass vase.

Rustic furniture can also soften the feel of your room, like a table or stool made with an old tree stump, a shelf made with a rough piece of wood, or wicker baskets to hold magazines or other bedroom knick-knacks.

Don’t allow technology into the bedroom

Technology may have improved our lives in many ways, but it certainly hasn’t improved the quality of our rest. Exposure to electronics right before you go to sleep can interfere with your body’s ability to produce melatonin (a sleep-promoting hormone).

If you want your bedroom to be the calming sanctuary that it should be you need to banish all technology, and that includes your laptop, tablet and smartphone; the bedroom should be a tech-free zone.

How do you imagine your eco-friendly bedroom?