In Harmony with Nature: Sustainable, Judgement-Free, Vegan Home Design

When considering eco-friendly home design, interior and architectural designers recognize that our clients seldom seek to achieve environmental perfection but rather hope to make an increased commitment to sustainability, health, and wellbeing through home design. While there is a consensus regarding individual actions to minimize ecological harm (recycling, limiting single-use plastics, and reducing our meat and dairy intake), there are instances where it may be challenging to weigh some benefits over others. For example, is it better to ship a sustainable material from far away or use a less sustainable material sourced locally? Should recycled, upcycled or vintage leather be used if it means not replacing an item as frequently, or is it preferable to entirely avoid animal products? 

Painting by Karrie Ross

With our studio's focus on wellness and sustainable home design, many of our clients ask for eco-friendly and vegan design that aligns with their values. Veganism has become increasingly popular. GlobalDate reported that between 2014 and 2017, the vegan population in the US increased by 500%. (1) An additional study by Nils-Gerrit Wunsch found that about 50% of millennials were interested in a primarily plant-based diet. (2)

Similar to vegan eating, there are many approaches to vegan home design. While some people may want zero animal products in their home, from avoiding beeswax finishes to adhesives made from animal bioproducts, many people are just beginning to consider vegan home design options. As with all our design clients, our goal with vegan clients is to understand their values, priorities, and needs and offer well-researched options that align with their ethics and design goals. 

Weaving by Aneesa Shami

One of our studio's core beliefs is that one size fits one. While there are numerous positives to adopting a vegan lifestyle, there are many reasons that veganism is not entirely suitable for everyone. Acknowledging and respecting cultural practices, dietary restrictions, accessibility of food and resources and health choices, it is vital to avoid alienation and sweeping judgment. While we strive to offer vegan home design options to all of our clients, it is crucial to consider ranging beliefs and personal needs, including options that acknowledge a wide range of views.

When we do use materials such as wool or leather, our studio takes extra considerations into the sourcing and use of these materials. Researching these items enables us to make conscious selections in the options we share with our clients and offer alternatives when appropriate. We can also ensure that these products are well crafted and enduring to sustain generations of use. 

We frequently work with local artisans and small businesses to create custom items directly suited to our clients' home design needs. By fostering close relationships with craftspeople, we can participate in every element of the process and ensure that we know where and how materials are sourced. Working with artisans also gives us flexibility when designing for vegan clients, making it easier to communicate and customize to avoid animal products. 

Painting by Renae Barnard

In our online shop, Kale Tree, you will find our design philosophy reflected in our product options. While every product offers a vegan option, we will occasionally incorporate materials like wool, which we find offers many benefits as a natural, biodegradable, and durable home decorating material. Additionally, most of our products are highly customizable and can be tailored to our client's needs, no matter how they choose to incorporate their values into their lives. 

With a non-judgmental approach, our studio hopes to reach the widest number of people, whatever their relation to vegan design, and leave the door open for vegan options and materials that a client may not have previously considered. We welcome clients to be open about their preferences to support them in creating personalized, sustainable home design for their specific lifestyles and needs. 

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).   

1 – https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4959853/top-trends-in-prepared-foods-2017-exploring-trends-in-meat-fish-and-seafood-pasta-noodles-and-rice-prepared-meals-savory-deli-food-soup-and-meat-substitutes.html

2 - https://www.statista.com/statistics/875526/share-alternative-diet-us-generation/

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

Can the Design of Your Home Aid Recovery From Past Trauma? Research Says 'Yes'

As interior designers, we operate from an awareness that because we create the built spaces that our clients inhabit, we exercise tremendous influence on their lived experiences and the ability to make a tangible difference in our clients' mental, physical, and emotional health. (1) While it is easy to accept this as a given in more passive terms, there is an increasing necessity around the active, rather than incidental, cultivation of safe and healing built spaces. At Sarah Barnard Design Studio, we aim to bring an inclusive and trauma-informed approach to home design.

Between 1995 and 1997, Kaiser Permanente conducted a study looking at the health effects resulting from the trauma of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). (2) The parameters around this study were narrow, focusing primarily on abuse, neglect, and domestic strife, without including factors such as trauma due to racism, deportation, illness, or war. The study's participants were also far from a broadly representative group, with nearly 75% of participants identifying as White. Yet, even within these minimal boundaries, the findings were stark—approximately 66% of the study's participants reported ACEs in their personal histories.

If we consider the types of trauma the study excluded and the adverse experiences that occur in adulthood, the implications of this study are significant. It is fair to assume that traumatic experiences are widespread among adults. Particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the mental and emotional fallout of which we are only beginning to understand and measure, addressing the effects of trauma has taken on a new urgency.

Much of the discussion around trauma-informed home design has focused, understandably, on public and institutional contexts often directly connected with health and social services (3). As understanding around the way that physical spaces affect our mental, emotional, and physical health have expanded, so too has demand for spaces designed with health and healing in mind. Where once function and safety were the primary concern in, for example, mental health facilities, home designers are now looking at how to make these spaces soothing and restorative.

Knowing what we know about how widespread the experience of trauma is, it is reasonable to expand our thinking beyond institutional spaces and apply the principles of trauma informed practice to home design, as well as to the way we interact with clients. Our goal is to create spaces that manage the effects of trauma by reducing sudden sensory arousal, while also being actively healing and restorative.

This process begins with creating a safe and inclusive environment for our clients from a project's inception to completion. While it may be safe to assume that most adults carry some form of trauma with them, we don't know what a client's background is unless they feel safe to tell us. We aim to approach our clients with a sense of inclusiveness and sensitivity, allowing ample space to voice their needs. A certain amount of vulnerability and humility lies on us as designers as we hold ourselves accountable for maintaining this safe space for our clients. This accountability allows us to create homes that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also personalized and inclusive to each individual and their needs. As designers, we must keep an open flow of communication between ourselves and our clients, ensuring that communication remains understood on both ends. 

Creating an inclusive space starts with mindfulness and care around the way we communicate(4). There is no default listener. Our intention is to allow people from all walks of life feel heard and understood. We are committed to educating ourselves on inclusive language, as certain words may carry racist or ableist subtext. Finding alternatives to non-inclusive language is one component of this, and it helps to avoid language that presumes the ethnicity, gender identity, or experiences of the listener. To maintain our goal of holistic inclusion throughout our studio, we apply these communication values to our client interactions, internal conversations, and interaction with vendors. By holding ourselves accountable even out of sight of clients, we ensure that inclusivity remains a core principle of our studio.

Painting by Michelle Jane Lee

When we begin each project, our goal in taking a trauma-informed approach to home design and decorating includes finding ways to reduce sensory overstimulation. Sensory triggers can be hugely disturbing for neurodivergent people (particularly those on the autism spectrum), as well as people with chronic migraines, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Alzheimer's, and other chemical or sensory sensitivities (5). Spaces designed with inclusion in mind for neurodivergence and disability will create an environment that feels safe for all users along various spectrums of need. However, even neurotypical people can experience stress from sensory overstimulation, impacting their health and emotional resilience (6). We address this need in home design by creating varied paths to shelter from intrusive sounds, odors, and light. In addition, we empower our clients to limit and customize their exposure to sensory stimuli (7). One way to achieve this is to create smaller sensory retreats within the home, balancing the calming quality of openness with the comforting sense of being enveloped. We use color psychology, textures, and other sensory elements to comfort our clients. Some of this may overlap with general design knowledge of what is considered calming, and some may be specific to each client's taste and sense of comfort.

Painting by Kevin Moore

Our goal as a studio is to create spaces where clients can relax and restore their senses. We achieve this in our projects by intersecting the client's sensory needs with their aesthetic tastes. There is much importance in including art in the spaces we design. At Sarah Barnard Design Studio, art is considered an integral part of home design. Great care is taken not only in the selection of art but also in how and where it is displayed. That said, while there are general notions of what makes a piece of art soothing for a viewer, from the color to subject matter. Ultimately, the most crucial factor is what the client wants to see every day. Clients will benefit most from seeing art that evokes a sense of calm or happiness; however, what that can look like varies widely from person to person. As designers, we offer our guidance and expertise in selecting art for the home.

We can achieve restoration through home design by providing access to nature and integrating natural themes into the spaces themselves. The biophilic design movement has focuses on making nature an integral theme in the home. Biophilic design has tremendous benefits for our emotional, mental, and physical health (8). Views of nature, particularly ones that provide a sense of continuity with the indoors and outdoors, can be one way to achieve this. Prioritizing the use of natural and organic materials can also promote restoration and wellness for our clients. A connection to nature can be undermined by toxic materials that are produced in ecologically harmful ways. On a more symbolic level, we can incorporate nature into an indoor space through organic imagery that evokes the natural world through shape, texture, and color.

Recently, our homes have become even more of a center point in our lives. For many of us, our home has become a workplace, school, and place for recreation all at once, increasing the need for therapeutic and restorative spaces within the home. Unfortunately, mental and emotional restoration has become harder to achieve now that our homes serve more functions than ever. As designers, we must be creative in our approach. We can create boundaries in the home without putting up walls, for example, using a screen to designate an area as a workspace, where the day's stressors can remain out of sight when it's time to relax. We can place extra care and attention into places in the home that offer privacy, letting them act as retreats from the rest of the living space. Thinking beyond a room's most basic function in this way can open up opportunities to create calming, restorative environments in less traditional spaces.

As designers, we have a tremendous opportunity to alleviate trauma by creating healing spaces for our clients while implementing a warm, understanding, and inclusive design process. We may never know or see our clients' struggles, but we can approach each project with empathy, compassion, and practical design knowledge to address their needs. As gratifying as having our clients appreciate our work, it is even more gratifying to know that we can make a tangible difference in their health and happiness.

Ceramic slug by Joseph and Marjorie Lake 

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).   

Works Cited

(1) https://dcf.vermont.gov/sites/dcf/files/OEO/training/2019/Trauma-Informed.pdf

(2) https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html

(3) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/business/mental-health-facilities-design.html

(4) https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/guidelines-inclusive-language

(5) https://www.hksinc.com/how-we-think/research/sensory-well-being-for-adolescents-with-developmental-disabilities-creating-and-testing-a-sensory-well-being-hub/

(6) http://universaldesign.ie/What-is-Universal-Design/The-7-Principles/

(7) https://www.asid.org/lib24watch/files/pdf/8477

(8) https://www.fastcompany.com/90333072/what-is-biophilic-design-and-can-it-really-make-you-happier-and-healthier

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

Secluded Staycations: Luxe, Little Known, Los Angeles Birding

One of the most rewarding aspects of birding is finding new and unexpected spots to point your binoculars. Bird enthusiasts in Los Angeles have an abundance of options when it comes to the sheer diversity of bird species and places to observe them in the local region, but the hunt for new places to explore is always part of the fun, and the more unlikely the better.

One surprising alternative to the same heavily trafficked parks and hiking trails is hidden in plain sight—some of the best hotels in the L.A. area feature spectacular birding from the comfort of their grounds and even the privacy of their rooms. In this time when we find ourselves keeping closer to home, these hotels offer opportunities for tranquil birding staycations without risking travel or crowds.

A Quiet Canyon Retreat

The Hotel Bel Air is a birder’s paradise with Old Hollywood pedigree tucked away in the canyons. The Bel Air has an elegant and distinctly Southern California style, updated in 2011 with a more contemporary feel that still nods to its rich history. The best birding at the Bel Air is on the canyon side rooms, which attract a host of avian visitors to their secluded private patios.

If you want to stretch your legs, the grounds of the Bel Air are extensive and designed almost like a botanic garden, with plant species labeled and ample room for observing the wildlife attracted to the lush foliage. One of my favorite garden flowers at the hotel is the pink abutilon that trails along the walking paths on the lake side of the property. The lake itself draws a variety of indigenous waterfowl and is also home to the Bel Air’s beloved swans, whose images appear as a recurring motif throughout the hotel. The Swan Lake Suite (a favorite of Cary Grant and Gene Kelly) boasts a breathtaking view of its namesake.

Greener Pastures on the East Side

The Langham in Pasadena is the East Side’s answer to the Hotel Bel Air, with a more traditional feel to its design. The Cottages at the Langham have patios that open onto the grounds, where the flowering plants attract hummingbirds and other pollinators just outside your door. If you choose instead to stay on the seventh floor of the main building, you’ll be treated to an eye level view of woodpeckers as they flit and peck about the treetops. Strolling the grounds in the early morning or dusk, expect to see (and hear!) geese flying in formation overhead.

If you’re looking to venture beyond the hotel grounds, the Huntington Library and Gardens and Descanso Gardens are both close by and offer more opportunities for safe and distanced outdoor exploring and are each home to more than one hundred species of birds. Both gardens currently require advance ticket reservations to maintain a reduced capacity for safe distancing.

A Breath of Fresh Air on the Beach

Lovers of sea and shorebirds will find their birding utopia at the modern and beachy Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica. The ocean-view rooms claim breathtaking Pacific Ocean vistas from their balconies where you can watch gulls soar through the air, sandpipers scamper across the beach, and pelicans make spectacular dives for fish.

If you keep your eyes on the waves, you may be treated with a view of a pod of dolphins or migrating humpback whales (look for the spouts!). Although the ocean is the main attraction at the Miramar, you can also roam to the readily accessible hiking trails in the nearby Santa Monica Mountains, where red-tailed hawks make their home.

In Los Angeles, we’re lucky to have the biodiversity of the natural world so deeply integrated into the city itself, where it’s easy to enjoy the wellness benefits and calming presence of nature alongside the comfort of a polished urban environment. For bird loving Angelenos, adding new species to your life list while recharging in a serene environment is just a reservation away.

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).   

There's No Place Like a Healthy Home for the Holidays

This year is already coming to a close, so that means the holidays are just around the corner! This year has been a challenging one, so let’s spread some holiday cheer by following some simple, yet meaningful home design ideas to brighten up the holidays.

Reconsidered Rituals

Part of having a healthy, happy home is creating family traditions. An easy practice anyone can start implementing is home decorating for the holidays. No matter what your family celebrates, it is fun getting into the winter spirit! Decorating can be anything from fashioning a homemade wreath for your front door to making your own candles for your menorah. Many of us are celebrating the holiday season differently than we have in the past, creating an opportunity to incorporate new traditions. Exchanging ornaments and a handwritten note is a special way to connect with loved ones you may not be able to see in person this year. This simple act may help you feel closer to family far away!

Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice

Fabricating handmade winter decorations is a great activity for your entire family! A fun and simple idea is to string together your own felt garland. Felt balls can be found in nearly any color imaginable to match your family’s needs. So whether you want red, green, and black for Kwanzaa or blue and white for Hanukkah, the options are endless! Felt garland is not only pretty to look at, but is made from wool, an inherently renewable and recyclable material. We like sourcing wool from small sustainable farms where the sheep are treated like family.

Choosing decorations inspired by things you love all year round will help your decor seem more personal to your family. If you're a bird lover, use this as a starting point when decorating. Look to local artists or online shops who make bespoke decorations that fit the holiday theme of your choice.

If your family celebrates Hanukah, you may want to opt for beeswax candles for your menorah since they don't produce any toxic chemicals or soot. Or if you’d rather use a vegan alternative, there are now organic vegetable wax candles made specifically for menorah’s!

The Serotonin Schedule

Decorating for the holidays early may alleviate stress and anxiety. According to Business Insider, psychologists have found that those who decorate early are much happier because it helps you tap into the holiday excitement before everyone else and leaves you feeling less stressed come Christmas time. Additionally, you can use this time of year as an opportunity to slow down, tend to your home mindfully, and take that time to appreciate and enjoy your home design. Take stock of what you have, and cull any items for donations that no longer serve you. Connecting with and expressing gratitude for your home is a great first step of decorating that may be a grounding and mood-boosting experience.

The Indoor Forest

Biophilic design goes hand in hand with holiday home decor. Biophilia is our innate desire to be close to nature–and biophilic design aims to make healthy and comfortable interiors by meaningfully incorporating natural elements into our home design and work environments. A large component of holiday home decor is foliage. Greenery can be anything from a leafy garland on your mantle to mistletoe in your hallway. This holiday season, try decorating your home in more natural elements such as pinecones, nuts, and branches. If you live near a woody area you can forage for these items yourself, or if that isn’t an option for you, look to your local farmer’s market or nursery for help. Your house will feel like an organic winter wonderland full of crisp natural scents and foliage that's unique to your home.

Your incorporation of nature doesn't have to stop once the holidays are over - you can enjoy the benefits of biophilic home design all year round! Kale Tree Shop, founded by Sarah Barnard Design, is a great resource for nature inspired home goods. Each product takes inspiration from the natural world, ranging from abutilon wallpaper to ginkgo leaf wall sconces to upholstered chairs influenced by the silhouette of a great dane. Biophilic home design elements can bring joy and warmth to your home, no matter the season!

The Holiday Hormone Connection

Decorating for the holidays is not only fun, it can contribute to spikes in your dopamine levels, which is a hormone that boosts feelings of pleasure. One factor that leads to these enjoyable feelings are the bright lights and colors. Chromotherapy increases happiness and boosts your energy levels. Another prominent factor at play are all the cozy scents that come from Christmas trees, eucalyptus and pine scented candles, and homemade treats. So this year you may feel extra gratification when putting out holiday décor knowing that there may be real health benefits!

As you begin to prepare for the holidays, remember the importance of creating traditions with your family. Although the holidays may not be quite the same this year, surrounding yourself with winter décor that you thoughtfully sourced, may bring you some needed joy this season. So remember, think handmade, look to nature, and surround yourself with home design elements that make you happy, and you’ll have a beautiful winter wonderland right at home.

The Sarah Barnard Design family wishes you all the warmth and happiness!

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

The Healing Power of Interior Design: Design's Impact on People, Places and the Planet

Leading wellness home designer, Sarah Barnard, WELL AP + LEED AP speaks as part of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Virtual Conference.

Transcript: Hi, I'm Sarah Barnard, WELL AP, LEED AP and ASID Ones to Watch Scholar. Design has the power to profoundly impact healing. As we collectively navigate this new way of living many of us face challenges maintaining our wellbeing amid trauma and chronic ambiguous loss. When we embrace empathy as the foundation of our design process we help to increase agency and reduce adversity. Together, we can make all built environments supportive, restorative spaces.

What’s Next? Design’s Impact on People, Places and Planet (Opening Keynote) and State of the Society. "ASID turns the traditional keynote on its head with a virtual, crowd-sourced program mining the best names in design as they explore the meaning of "Design Impacts Lives." Then join ASID leaders for the annual State of the Society address...Design has the power to impact lives and tackle challenges on a global scale. What’s next? Hear from those impacting design and those impacted by design in a collaborative keynote that shows the power of community in the digital age. This special, crowd-sourced program will highlight diverse thoughts from clients, end users, consultants, manufacturers, educators, students and of course, designers as we share what’s next for design and the personal stories demonstrating the impact the profession has on the people and world around us."

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

Cosmopolitcal Design: A New Modality Harnesses the Connection between Home and Nature

With global society and climate in flux, mapping out new ways to live and create in the world has become an essential project. Amid the competing approaches to this transformation, the philosophical school of cosmopolitics, as its name suggests, addresses this challenge in a uniquely holistic way and presents an entirely new perspective on the human relationship with the world.

Albena Yaneva, in her introduction to What is Cosmopolitical Design?: Design, Nature, and the Built Environment, explains that “Cosmopolitical thinkers...see nature as no longer being unified enough to provide a stabilizing pattern for the experience of humans; it is not ‘out there,’ a simple backdrop for human activities.” Cosmopolitics distinguishes itself from cosmopolitanism by positing a relationship with nature and its non-human denizens defined by cohabitation rather than dominance. As Yaneva writes, “These thinkers abandon the modernist idea of nature as being external to the human experience—a nature that can be mastered by engineers and scientists from outside.” 

How does this cosmopolitical perspective manifest in the world of home design? To Yaneva, “It challenges design...to encourage the enactment of new relationships both within and potentially outside the designed space.” Cosmopolitical home design is deeply tied to its locality and integrated with its environment. Yaneva describes cosmopolitical design as “required more than ever to address the primordial question of what it means to live together. That is, the co-existence of humans and non-humans, of how they share space and find ways to live together in peace.”

Because the cosmopolitical way of thinking is so all-encompassing, the approaches to incorporating cosmopolitics into home design are fittingly varied and can be scaled to projects as vast as urban planning or as circumscribed as landscaping a backyard. Manifestations of cosmopolitical home design can range from home renovation with the local climate in mind (for example, placing windows for optimal warmth or cooling of interior spaces) to pollinator-friendly gardens teeming with plants indigenous to their region.

To interior designer Sarah Barnard, WELL AP + LEED AP, bringing cosmopolitics into her home design practice means cultivating spaces that are specific both to her clients and as well as to the local environment and that encourage an accord with the natural world. Sarah says, “Finding ways to harmonize the design of a space to a specific environment instead of working against it is both challenging and rewarding. When a designed space and its greater environment are fully integrated, the effect is almost easier to feel than observe.”

Sarah explains, “I always look for opportunities to create inviting connections between the indoors and the outdoors. This continuity with the natural world is beneficial for emotional and mental health—it’s not just a source of beauty but nourishment.” For an artist’s bungalow, Sarah created a visual continuity between lush indoor plant life and the garden outside, and then took it a step further. Sarah designed the outdoor garden to support pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. The garden is a Certified Monarch Waystation, providing resources to support migrating Monarch butterflies by providing food, water, cover. Sarah said, “Designing homes for wellbeing doesn’t have to stop at the comfort of the client. Incorporating elements of design that nurture the local ecology deepen our relationship with nature and result in spaces that are unified with their surroundings.”

This particular expression of cosmopolitical home design can be achieved even with limited outdoor space. For an oceanview penthouse, Sarah transformed a balcony into an inviting habitat for local and migrating wildlife by adding potted olive trees and an herb garden. “Considering plants not just for their decorative beauty but also what they can offer to the local environment is a concept that works on virtually any scale,” Sarah says. To decorate the interiors, Sarah selected natural and eco-friendly furnishings and textiles, adding that “Organic materials have a gentler environmental impact, and from a wellness perspective, are kinder to the people who live with them.”

When selecting materials and furnishings for home decorating, Sarah often looks to her clients’ priorities to guide her approach to creating spaces that embody a cosmopolitical perspective. For one high-rise suite, the owner’s love of animals was demonstrated not only through the choice of art and decorative objects, but also wanted this care toward animals extended outside home design and beyond aesthetics. Sarah addressed this by using exclusively vegan materials and furnishings for this project. Sarah explains, “No space exists in a vacuum—every object and material we use has a footprint that goes well beyond the front door, so considering the story of the materials we use and the impact that they have on the world is a way to invite cosmopolitical ideas into home design.”

Sustainable materials can also have unexpected origins. For the kitchen of a historic craftsman bungalow, Sarah installed a countertop made of recycled beer bottles, a non-extractive alternative to a more traditional quarried stone countertop. “Not only is the material beautiful and environmentally conscious, but there’s also a little whimsy in how it reinvents something ordinary and adds character to the space,” Sarah says. The implications behind cosmopolitical home design may be weighty, but there is always room for playfulness.

“When I look at my work from a cosmopolitical perspective,” says Sarah, “I see tremendous opportunity for creativity. We are seeing our way of life change in real-time, and as a home designer, I’m lucky to be able to be a part of facilitating that transformation for my clients.”

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

Interior Design for Wellbeing: A special presentation at the Helms Bakery Design District

Interior designer Sarah Barnard photographed by Ace Misunias.

Hosted by OM and PLP SoCal, the inaugural session of OM Chats gathers leading voices in architecture, interior, and product design for a morning discussion about the ideas shaping home design and wellness. Speakers include Sarah Barnard, WELL AP + LEED AP, principal of Sarah Barnard Design, Julie Smith-Clementi, AIA, IDSA, architect and product designer, and Adaeze Cadet, AIA, LEED AP, BD+C, vice president at HKS.

The discussion centered around how to design spaces and products that reflect a broader — more empathetic — understanding of the human experience in the workplace, health care spaces, educational facilities, and wherever people gather and live.

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. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).