I’ve always been drawn to health and wellness, and personally, some of my favourite spaces to experience are spas. When I’m traveling, I love seeing how different spas approach wellness and the environments they’ve created around it. Wellness interior design allows you to create spaces that help you relax and reset.

Some of the most memorable for me have been Nordic and thermal spas. There’s something about spending hours moving through hot and cold experiences, sitting outside, being surrounded by nature, and actually disconnecting from everything else that’s going on in your life.

And I think that’s what makes wellness spaces particularly interesting from a design perspective.

We’re so rarely completely present anymore. We’re working, checking our phones, thinking about what we need to do next, or moving from one thing to another. But when you go to a spa or another wellness space, you’re intentionally setting aside time to take care of yourself. Your phone might be put away. You’re slowing down. You’re paying attention to how your body feels and giving yourself an opportunity to reset.

In those moments, your environment becomes an incredibly important part of the experience.

Creating a Space to Reset

When we think about wellness, we often think about the treatment itself, a massage, facial, sauna, cold plunge, or whatever service we’ve booked.

But think about how different that same treatment could feel depending on where you’re experiencing it.

The environment surrounding you can either support the feeling you’re trying to create or distract from it.

For me, a great wellness space gives you the feeling that you’ve stepped away from everyday life for a little while. That doesn’t necessarily mean every wellness space needs to be quiet, neutral, or minimalist. The experience could be luxurious, natural, intimate, energizing, or something completely different.

What matters is understanding what that particular business wants people to experience and then creating an environment that supports it.

Designing for Presence

I think one of the most interesting things about wellness spaces is how present we actually are while we’re in them.

Think about sitting in a sauna overlooking the trees, relaxing beside a thermal pool, or lying in a treatment room before a facial begins. You’re probably noticing things you wouldn’t normally pay attention to.

The warmth of the materials around you.

The lighting.

The view.

The temperature.

The textures.

The quiet.

Even the transition from one area to another.

You’re actually experiencing your surroundings instead of simply passing through them.

That’s why I think designing wellness spaces requires creating an environment someone is going to physically experience while they’re in a much more present state, and using the right materials and techniques to provide that experience.

Wellness Doesn’t Have One Look

Some of the most amazing spas I’ve experienced have been completely different from one another.

A Nordic spa surrounded by trees creates a very different feeling than a beautiful hotel spa in the middle of a city. A cosmetic or aesthetic clinic may want to feel polished, elevated, and sophisticated, while another wellness brand may be centred around organic materials and a deeper connection to nature.

That’s what makes these spaces so interesting to design.

Instead of deciding that a “wellness space” should look a certain way, I think the more interesting question is: What does wellness mean to this particular brand and the people coming here?

From there, we can start creating an environment around that idea.

Maybe wellness means escaping into nature.

Maybe it means luxury and taking time to indulge in yourself.

Maybe it means feeling confident and taken care of.

Maybe it means shutting everything off for an hour and having absolutely nowhere else to be.

Those are completely different experiences, and the physical environment should reflect that.

Creating a Memorable Experience

Before working in interior design, I spent years working in marketing and branding, and I’ve also worked in event planning. I think that background naturally influences the way I look at commercial spaces now.

I’m always thinking about the entire experience.

Not just which material should go on a wall or what furniture should be selected, but what all of those decisions are creating together.

What will someone remember?

What makes this particular place feel different from somewhere else?

How do we take the feeling the business wants to create and translate that into a physical environment?

In a wellness space, that might mean thinking about how someone transitions from the outside world into a place of relaxation. It might mean creating moments throughout the space where someone can stop and enjoy where they are rather than simply moving to their next treatment.

It could be something dramatic and memorable, or it could be incredibly subtle.

The point is that the experience is being considered as a whole.

The Environment Becomes Part of the Wellness Journey

When I think back to wellness experiences I’ve really loved, I don’t remember only the treatment I had.

I remember where I was.

I remember sitting outside between thermal experiences. I remember the feeling of being surrounded by nature. I remember the grounding stone features. I remember the ambient lighting. I remember how different it felt to spend a few hours completely disconnected from the normal pace of everyday life.

The environment becomes part of that memory.

And I think that’s what makes wellness spaces such an exciting area of design.

People are coming into these spaces because they’re choosing to invest time in themselves. They’re taking an hour, an afternoon, or sometimes an entire day to step away, reset, and focus on their wellbeing.

Interior design has the opportunity to support that entire experience.

For me, that’s what makes designing a wellness space such a special opportunity. It’s thinking about how the environment, the service, and the feeling the brand wants to create can all work together to give someone a self care experience they’ll remember, and walk away from feeling a sense of peace and joy.