HOME IS WHERE THE HEALING IS

Safia A Naqvi | 18 Jan 2026

DESIGN STORIES: SKETCHES, SCRIBBLES & DOODLES OF A DESIGNER'S THOUGHTS

We are living in a time when people are spending most of their time at home – working remotely either full-time, or in a hybrid format. Even young adults in many universities have the option of attending classes online, some having completed almost their entire degrees from their bedroom! Online gaming means that children don’t even have to go to their local park anymore, and with younger and younger children owning mobile phones and iPads, this trend is set to continue. With the rise in popularity of online shopping, online meetups, online book clubs, online workouts, and even online retreats (!), there is no doubt that our homes have become, in many cases, almost our whole world.

It therefore makes complete sense that our homes should function optimally and be designed to provide the best physical and mental health environment. Remember the saying ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’? Your body is your first home. If the body is housing the mind, our homes are housing our bodies, so by extension, ‘a healthy body in a healthy home’.

As an interior designer, my job is not just to transform spaces and make them beautiful. My first priority is to design interiors that revitalize the body, mind and soul. A home that is at odds with its residents has a negative impact on their health; this effect can be very subtle, accumulating over the years, or it can be felt straight away. You might not realize it, but the clues are there: perhaps you feel a negative energy within you when you come home; you might get antsy, frustrated, even easily triggered; you can't find anything when you need it; maybe the colours in a certain room feel ‘off’ or ‘too loud’ or even sap your energy, making you feel deflated and tired; perhaps you are starting to get frequent headaches. You are not imagining it – our environment has a deep impact on us.

This issue is very important for me, so we are going to be taking a deep dive into this topic. How do we create interiors that heal us?