Going back to roots – living trends with natural materials

Sustainable and healthy

These days, sustainability even sets the tone when furnishing your home. It starts with natural floor coverings made of wood or stone and walls with a limewash, silicate or clay-paint coating, and continues with furniture, textiles and decorative elements. Locally sourced renewable and durable raw materials that can be recycled after use are particularly eco-friendly.

And what’s good for the environment is also good for us. Although furniture made of natural resources still requires the use of glue and other similar products, it generally contains much fewer chemicals. Accessories made of untreated wood, for example, are completely uncontaminated. This helps allergy sufferers in particular to breathe more easily. In any case, it’s a good idea for people with allergies to check their home environment. Anything that contains harmful substances should be disposed of – the aim being to carry out an interior detox.

Not only are natural materials better for our health, they also create a feel-good atmosphere. With natural shapes, untreated surfaces and unaltered odours, they appeal to all of our senses. Warm colour concepts with brown and green shades ground us. Our home then becomes a quiet oasis in the hectic world we live in and allows us to unwind.

Naturally beautiful and stylish

Even from an aesthetic perspective you’re right on trend with natural materials. You can design entire rooms with solid wood and natural stone or create a few semi-natural touches in a somewhat cooler décor. Natural materials add rustic charm or an urban chic flavour to your interior. The japandi and lagom trends make extensive use of wood, etc.:

Japandi is a fusion between Scandinavian “hygge” and Japanese minimalism. With a focus on natural materials, you can create a practical yet elegant style: light wood meets dark wood, glass or filigree black metal meets natural stone. Little irregularities such as knotholes or crooked shapes highlight the natural look.

The Swedish “lagom” lifestyle trend aims to have “just the right amount”, i.e. neither an overly cluttered or an excessively empty home. The aim is to live in harmony with ourselves and the environment. Natural materials play an important role here because striking “just the right” balance also involves sustainability considerations.

How to bring nature into your home

If you prefer a cleaner chic look with concrete walls and pared-back furnishings, there’s no need to turn everything upside down. Instead, you could gradually integrate natural elements into your existing interior. Even with a couple of accessories you can bring more warmth into your own four walls.

• Baskets come in handy in the bathroom, for example. You can store everything in them, from hand towels to toilet rolls, in an attractive way.
• You discovered a charming old demijohn or a glass container at a flea market? Then why not showcase it with style using a few willow or cotton branches, for example?
• In understated designer kitchens, a fruit bowl made of untreated wood or rattan creates a striking contrast.
• Pieces of driftwood could be turned into a structure for a lamp or a cachepot for plants.

Mother Nature herself has many more ideas. You could seek inspiration on a lakeside or forest walk. There, you’ll find things that you could use as natural décor items in your home, such as pieces of bark, stones, branches, twigs, mosses and grasses. Larger items are most effective on their own, whereas smaller ones could be arranged in a bowl or on a tiered stand.