‘Wellness Rooms’ Are Claiming Space in Many Homes

Our homes have been multitasking for a while now. They may be where we work, they are certainly where we play, and in today’s stress-filled world, they’re often the place where we feel most at peace.
Spurred by the pandemic, dens became offices, extra bedrooms became workout zones, dining rooms morphed into multifunctional creative spaces.
Often, we’re seeing rooms transformed into sanctuaries of self-care: welcome to the “wellness room.”
“Small sophisticated home gyms, music rooms, meditation rooms and Zen gardens are some of the wellness spaces we’ve designed recently,” says designer Gonzalo Bueno, who owns the firm Ten Plus Three in Dallas. “Spaces for wellness, retreat and recharging are all really popular right now.”
Bueno and his team combined several of these ideas in a home renovation in Austin, Texas. There is an outdoor Zen garden, flanked indoors by a meditation room on one side and the soaking tub of the primary bath on the other, with both facing a serene green space.
Holistic high and low tech “Soundbathing,” where you immerse yourself in soothing instrumental and natural sounds, has become popular at many professional spas. Now, companies are making versions for the home, or you can set one up yourself.
Create a low-tech soundbathing studio with some comfy pillows, yoga mats, essential oil scent and dimmed lights or candles and then either play or use recorded sounds of chimes, singing bowls and gongs. You can find links to meditation sounds online.
There are full-size beds available that use low frequency sound and vibrations, or you can find cushion-y mats with some of the same features, far less costly.
Traditional saunas use steam, but infrared light saunas are an easier-to-install alternative for indoors. Several makers offer single, two-or three-person versions made of wood or just an insulated fabric. Fancy ones come equipped with Bluetooth audio and color-changing lights.
If you really want to splash out on an in-house, multi-sensory, luxury experience, there are shower units integrating tech into customizable water, steam, lighting and music.
Quiet and maybe deep Jack Ovadia, whose eponymous design firm is based in New York, created a one-person onsen, the Japanese deep-soak-style tub, for a Phoenix client. The cocoon-like space has a contemplative wall of terrazzo pebbles and a pretty, petal-bedecked chandelier above.
But he also is doing wellness rooms that can multi-serve with a sauna and then an invigorating cold plunge tub. In his own home, he has an area to practice yoga and Pilates.
“Having a private space is essential," Ovadia says. "A wellness room should be a space where the outside world dissolves; no background noise, no movement beyond your own. This is where you go to let go; to drop into something quieter, something deeper.”
Celebrating creativity solo or with your peeps Your ideal wellness room might be a little more energetic than the serene, spa-like versions.
“We’re designing more music rooms,” Bueno says, “which isn’t surprising since music is so healing. “
He notes how much fun it is to work with clients who have a passion — “art, yoga, music or entertaining” — and design spaces to help bring that passion home.
“Recent clients had an extensive vinyl collection," he says. "Others have wanted a room to enjoy music during large family gatherings.”
Materials and accessories to set the mood Make sure the size of the space suits your activity and you use materials to set the tone.
“Bring in warmth and a sense of calm with things like natural tan oak, cork, bamboo, neutral tones and organic textures,” Ovadia says.
Small table lights can be set on a timer to play calming nature sounds. Some offer a soft amber glow or an array of soothing day-to-evening hues. Invest in a comfy sectional if you have space, or look for flop-worthy giant beanbags and squooshy oversize chairs.
If it’s an energy-filled space you’re after, Bueno has some suggestions for lighting that kicks things up a little, or a lot.
“We did a home gym with red accents, to bring in passion and motivating energy,” he says.
Engaging art can add to that vibe. Bueno mounted a clubby neon work in a large music/family room that says, “This Must Be the Place.” In the red gym hangs a contemporary piece that reads, “Keep On Keeping On.”
And for the quiet well room? Dreamy nature photographs, prints or mural wallpaper would be the chef’s kiss.
If you don't have room for a wellness room Nowhere to stake out a wellness room in your own place? You might have something similar in your hometown.
Public wellness spaces are becoming places to jive and gather as well. So-called social spas offering traditional spa services, as well as group hangout spaces and social activities, are popping up around the US.
“It’s the new nightclub,” Ovadia says. “Self-care is evolving into a shared experience, becoming a prominent scene rather than just a side routine.”

The Zurich Zoo’s beloved gorilla of more than 40 years has been put down after a long struggle with declining health, a zoo official in the Swiss city said this week.
N’Gola was 47 and one of the oldest male gorillas in European zoos, said Zurich Zoo director Severin Dressen.
He was a Western lowland gorilla — a subspecies of the great apes found in Africa and listed as critically endangered — and because of his mature age he was a silverback, after the gray hair on his back, The Associated Press reported.
N'Gola had suffered a host of health ailments, including arthritis, a heart condition and a tapeworm infection. He had been on painkillers for several years, eating less, and losing weight and muscle mass.
“It’s a hard decision to euthanize a silverback,” Dressen said.
"We’ve seen a crash in the wild over the span of three generations of 80% of the population," Dressen said about the decline of gorillas in the wild. Zoos can be helpful for research and public education about species protection, he added.
N'Gola was born in captivity and fathered 34 children. He was known for his sensitive side, taking “care of his harem, his group of females,” Dressen said.
In 2012, the female Nache in his harem suffered a burst appendix during advanced pregnancy, and both she and the unborn baby gorilla died, according to the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuricher Zeitung.
N’Gola spent weeks whimpering through the zoo enclosure looking for her, the report said.
Dressen also recalled a time when N'Gola looked after a baby gorilla in the group. "The mother wasn’t there, and he kind of — which is not a typical silverback behavior — took care of that baby.”
As for humans, N'Gola mostly ignored "other bipedal species on the other side of the glass” of his enclosure, Dressen said.

‘Wellness Rooms’ Are Claiming Space in Many Homes