LAST NIGHT I DREAMT I WENT TO MARNANIE AGAIN

Spring has sprung! Or will, in a few days. While it may not look quite like it outside just yet, stores are laying out their spring collections and patios are humming with people looking at beautiful urns and planters, dreaming of filling them with an abundance of colour soon.

The rush of energy makes many of us want to refresh our indoor spaces, too. We beat rugs, wash curtains, change cushion covers...celebrating the loosening of another winter’s grip.

In Design a Healthy Home, Oliver Heath shows how one can transform one’s space for physical and mental well-being.

“When it comes to interior design, all too often we use it as a way of expressing our identity, to show our style, status, power or wealth,” he writes in his foreword. “These are all extrinsic, or external, considerations. What if we were to turn this around and instead take an intrinsic approach, drawing on what matters the most to us, making every design choice an opportunity to improve our physical and mental well-being? What would it look, feel, smell, or sound like? Could your home make you feel better?”

And he proceeds to show just how a home can do just that, make us feel better.

One of the approaches he describes is biophilic design, an ethos that builds on the innate human attraction to nature and all that is alive.

Cue those planters! And colour, patterns, texture, all inspired by nature.

Designer tips include:

• Use colours in your home in the same proportions as you might find them in nature.

• Try a group of images. Hang photographs and artwork of natural landscapes that suit the mood of the room.

• Fit your curtain rails to overshoot the window so you can pull your curtains back fully to let in all available natural light.

• Reduce visual clutter. Living in untidiness keeps the mind active, as it visually reminds us that we have things to do.

As many of us continue to work from home, a home office space is more important than ever.

Heath suggests positioning desks under or near a window to maximize exposure to natural light. This also allows you to notice seasonal changes outside.

Which is a great idea, I think, recalling the series Severance in which people spent hours trapped in a brightly-lit but monochromatic windowless space. The idea was to convey a futuristic, dystopian place and they succeeded.

So yes, desks near windows!

There are tips on how to make each room inviting, including a section entitled The Power of Soup.

When it comes to lunchtime at the Oliver Heath Design Studio, we gather to eat a bowl of fresh soup every day. At some point mid-morning, the question “what soup shall we make today?” will have arisen, resulting in a short deliberation and a quick trip to the nearby greengrocers.

We may not all be able to follow suit every day, but we can certainly commit to “dedicate space and furniture that will help bring people together over shared activities and skills”.

And since they embrace biophilic design as stated at the outset, there are sections packed with information on caring for plants, saving floor space with table top and hanging plants, propagation and ideal plants for every room.

Colour is Home is another book packed with bright ideas to lift your spaces out of the blahs. But more than that, it’s an ode to Marnanie, the gorgeous home in Australia that designer Charlotte Coote shares with her husband Geordie.

And it comes with delightful anecdotes about how she got started on her journey.

“My first memory of ‘design’ per se comes from the time our family was living at South Yarra’s grand Poolman House in Melbourne. It was 1986, I was six, and my father was in the process of restoring and decorating the entire house. One night I went to visit him in his study as he worked. I vividly remember Dad showing me the textile he had chosen for decorating my bedroom – he explained that he would be using it to upholster the walls and bedhead, and also for the curtains and bedspread. I recall having a very strong feeling of anger and distaste. I didn’t like the fabric he had chosen and I told him so. Incredibly, he passed the textile books to me and said, “Well, here you go then, pet. You find something more ‘suitable’. I quickly went about choosing a delightful high-quality pink chintz with an off-white background. I remember feeling so proud once the room was completed. Even as a six-year-old, I was enchanted by the notion that my choices could make a room more beautiful and joyful to live in. I still have the original bedspread – a reminder of my very first foray into design.”

The beautiful part in this little tale is that her father John Coote was a renowned interior designer.

This book, too, comes with designer tips.

• Design principle number one – timelessness. Avoid trends. Trends tend to develop from one great design that is adapted and developed by others, and then rolled out en masse.

• Be faithful to your own taste, because nothing you really like is ever out of style.

On creating a colour scheme, Coote echoes Heath: Take note of what you an see outside the window. Your interior should feel like it makes sense within its surroundings. Choosing a colour that complements the outdoors is a great way to start.

There are pages upon pages bursting with colour. Pictures of rooms with bright walls, textiles with patterns and textures that invite you to reach out and touch, artefacts that hold a personal meaning.

A few are a little overwhelming, and there’s too much going on in some rooms.

But she’s the designer, what do I know, I think. Maybe I should get a little adventurous? Then I remind myself of Coote’s own words: The best rooms have something to say about the people who live in them.

So I plan on being guided by the expert, on introducing colour in my space. But in small, even baby steps. A little splash here, an accent there. But I am dreaming in colour!