Minelli Magazine - Wood Manufacturing

Why custom wood products are the best for interior design

Written by Luca Minelli | October 12 2021

The environment where we live has a significant impact on our lives, affecting us physically as well as psychologically.

Choosing custom wood products for home décor and design is the best choice for several reasons. Wood, in fact, can be important in making the environment healthier and more appealing, creating a direct link to nature.

Besides being aesthetically beautiful, wood has many benefits for humans’ well-being that other materials don’t have.

Let’s discuss these topics in today’s article.

Custom wood products & their effect on people’s health

Today, incorporating natural elements into building construction, including the interior, is a common practice for their positive effect on people’s well-being, stress relief, and productivity.

Wood is considered the best material to use, as it can accomplish three important goals:

  1. it reduces carbon emissions if properly collected and manufactured
  2. it is elegant and prestigious and can be customized according to clients’ requests
  3. it can improve people’s health producing similar effects to those created by spending time in nature

The report Wood – Nature Inspired Design shows the range of health and well-being benefits of living, working, and learning in environments rich in wooden furnishing and fixtures.

Researchers identified many physiological, psychological, and environmental benefits of wooden interiors:

  • improvements to a person’s emotional state and level of self-expression
  • reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and stress levels
  • improved air quality through humidity moderation
  • helping to fight climate change
  • feelings of warmth and comfort

This is particularly important today, as many people spend most of their time inside—especially after the pandemic emergency—with increasing high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.

Using wood for interior design can bring nature inside with all the benefits listed above.

The incorporation of nature and its components into building design has been termed biophilic design or nature-connected design.

Have you ever heard of biophilia?

This term has been used to describe people’s need and enjoyment of nature and the neural, psychological, and physiological benefits derived from a natural environment: lower tension, lower blood pressure, more relaxation, positive mood, and increased focus.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

biophilia is the term coined by the Harvard naturalist Dr. Edward O. Wilson to describe what he saw as humanity’s “innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes” and to be drawn toward nature, to feel an affinity for it, love, and craving.

He believes that since we evolved in nature we have a biological need to connect with it.

As it is not always possible to increase the amount of time spent outside, introducing wooden furniture can be a way to incorporate the physiological and psychological benefits of nature into indoor environments.

Two theories show how nature positively affects people’s attitude:

  • Stress Reduction Theory (Ulrich, 1981) asserts that natural environments foster recovery from stress, while urban environments intensify it. Natural elements, e.g., plants, water, and wooden objects, activate a positive emotional response and a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate.

  • The Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989) suggests that mental fatigue can be reduced, and concentration can be improved by spending time in or looking at nature.

Using wooden products in interior design has a positive effect on people’s health, contributing to create a restorative environment that can help reduce stress, improve cognitive performance, and enhance a positive attitude.

“Forest bathing” has to do with biophilia

The benefits of wood underlie the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, commonly known as forest bathing, which involves simply being in nature, connecting with it through the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

The Japanese government spent about $4 million on shinrin-yoku research between 2004 and 2012, and the country now has at least 62 official forest therapy sites, where the relaxing effects have been observed based on scientific analysis conducted by a forest medical expert.

Wood is the simplest way to bring nature into every type of environment

Wood can be used virtually everywhere—inside and outside—as a design element to complement any style.

Moreover, wooden products within a room have been shown to improve indoor air quality by moderating humidity.

This is particularly important in workplaces, as it has been demonstrated that a poor-quality workplace causing health and comfort complaints reduces staff productivity (Bergs, J. “Effect of healthy workplaces on well-being and productivity of office workers,” 2002).

Wood also has natural sound-absorbing properties, helping create peaceful and comfortable environments.

Wood is also extremely versatile

Besides the positive effects on someone’s body and brain, wood is one of the most versatile materials. It can be finished to look like marble, plastic, or almost anything else if your manufacturer has the right expertise and tools to manage it properly.

Today, an almost infinite number of options and finishing techniques are available to create custom wood products that satisfy each client’s requirements.

Some people want to give a more elegant and prestigious look to indoor objects and furniture, while others prefer to leave wood in its rough, natural state to create amazing industrial designs that enhance unique imperfections, knots, and grains of the wood essence.

Besides its good looks, why should you choose wood for interior design projects?

Here are some benefits of working with wood:

Strength

Wood is lightweight compared with other materials but is very strong and resistant. It can support its own weight even better that concrete, so it’s perfect for furniture and for flooring, roofing, and any other indoor or outdoor project.

Flexibility

Wood can be easily reshaped and transformed if the manufacturer has advanced technologies and tools to manage it properly. Moreover, it doesn’t require moulds: if you want to make some modification, you can do it without wasting time and money creating a new and expensive mould.

Resistance

Wood is naturally resistant to electrical conduction and heat, which means, for example, that it will retain its stability if left under the sun or even in case of fire. Therefore, it is also safer compared with plastic or metal, which will become very hot or even melt.

Sustainability

Wood is a natural material and completely sustainable if collected following the rules and standards of environmental and forestry protection to preserve the natural ecosystem. Moreover, the wood manufacturing process has less of an environmental impact than other materials, especially if the wood maker follows the principles of a circular economy model, reusing scraps during production to create other wooden components.

Finding an expert supplier with the right expertise as well as the machinery and tools to manage wood properly is not easy.

However, if you look at manufacturers with several decades of experience in different industries, you’re more likely to identify the right partner.

Since 1937, Minelli S.p.A. has ensured perfection in the quality and design of each product manufactured, and its experienced specialists serve customers in the best way possible, following rigorous processes and environmental sustainability.

We always put our expertise and innovative technology at our clients’ disposal, doing our best to satisfy them. If you are looking for top-quality custom wood products, please contact us right now!