How Do I Integrate a Healthy Lifestyle and More Wellness Focused Ideas into my Home or Cottage?
As the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, we naturally spend more time indoors. We tend to seek warmth, comfort, and ways to take care of both body and mind. This week our Home by Tim + Chris designer outlines two ideas for building more of a focus on health and wellness into your home or cottage environment!
Warming Up to Wellness: How Saunas Support a Healthy Lifestyle
Watch the video of our client’s lakeside sauna on Sturgeon Lake:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Gg95ieTzU4XQ0bvi5Zc9vl__NPQTpsZ8
One timeless ritual that’s making a strong comeback in home and cottage living is the sauna. Once considered a luxury, saunas are now more accessible than ever, with designs to suit every space, style, and budget. Beyond their relaxing appeal, they offer real benefits for health and wellness. They are also a stylish way to create something fun and interesting on your property to get more out of your lake life.
A lakeside sauna at this cottage provides close lake access for cool dips before and after!
Gone are the days when saunas were limited to gyms or spas. Today’s designs range from sleek indoor models to rustic outdoor barrel saunas that are ideal for the cottage or backyard. As designers we are seeing more variety in the kind of designs our clients are asking for:
Indoor Saunas: Perfect for basements, bathrooms, or home gyms. These can be compact infrared units or traditional wood-burning saunas.
Outdoor Saunas: A wonderful addition to a cottage property or garden retreat. They blend beautifully with nature and can be wood-fired for an authentic experience.
Infrared Saunas: These use light rather than steam to heat the body directly, offering a gentler warmth that’s energy efficient and easy to install.
Golden Hour at our Sturgeon Lake sauna!
If you’re dreaming about bringing sauna life to your home or cottage, here’s how to begin:
Assess Your Space: Decide whether an indoor or outdoor sauna best fits your home or cottage lifestyle.
Set a Budget: Saunas range from affordable plug-in infrared units to custom-built wood-fired structures.
Choose the Type: Traditional steam saunas deliver intense, high-heat sessions, while infrared saunas offer a lower-temperature, deeply penetrating warmth.
Consult a Professional: If you’re building from scratch or adding one to an existing structure, talk to us about your sauna installation to ensure proper ventilation, materials, and safety.
Design the Experience: Think about lighting, finishes, and even where you’ll cool down afterward. Perhaps a shower, a plunge pool, or a snowy deck if you’re at the cottage!
Our sauna project on Sturgeon Lake: https://www.homebytc.ca/space/what-does-a-sauna-and-shou-sugi-ban-have-in-common
Get Motivated for how a Home Gym can Build more Wellness into your Lifestyle
Creating a home gym is about more than just finding a corner for your treadmill or yoga mat, it’s about designing a space that truly motivates you to move, feels good to be in, and fits seamlessly into your home. That’s where having an interior designer can make all the difference.
A designer’s job isn’t only to make things look beautiful, it’s also how to make them functional, efficient, and inspiring. Here’s how a professional designer can help you turn your fitness goals into a stylish, motivating, and practical workout space.
1. Designing for Function and Flow
Every home gym starts with understanding how you move. A designer will assess your workout style, whether it’s strength training, yoga, cardio, or a mix, and create a floor plan that supports that. They’ll plan clear zones for equipment, stretching, and storage, ensuring everything fits comfortably and safely with room to move freely. Plus, if you are crunched for space, you would be surprised at the ideas we’ve come up with for our clients!
2. Creating the Right Atmosphere
Lighting, color, and materials can all influence energy and motivation. Designers know how to use:
Lighting layers: bright overheads for workouts and softer tones for cooldowns or yoga.
Color psychology: energizing tones like orange or blue for motivation, or calming neutrals for focus.
Durable finishes: floors that can handle weights, mirrors that enhance light and space, and walls that resist moisture or scuffs.
The result? A space that feels professional, inviting, and perfectly tailored to your routine.
3. Integrating Smart Storage and Equipment Design
A designer can help conceal bulky equipment when it’s not in use by using built-ins, sliding panels, or multipurpose furniture. These are all ways for keeping your gym uncluttered and stylish. For smaller homes or condos, they can create multi-use spaces that transform from a gym into a guest room or office in minutes. This is especially handy for cottage lifestyle.
This gym design incorporated a textured accent wall treatment and a murphy bed for guest overflow
4. Enhancing Wellness Through Design
Modern interior design is deeply connected to wellness. Designers can incorporate elements like:
Natural light and ventilation
Soundproofing
Biophilic design
Beside a client’s home gym, we created this kitchen concept for access to hydration. An example of how a designer can integrate spaces for flow.
These small design details make your gym not just a workout room, but a rejuvenating environment that supports your overall health and mindset.
5. Adding Value to Your Home
A well-designed home gym isn’t just a lifestyle upgrade, it creates value. And the same can be said for saunas. With professional design, your gym and sauna become an intentional, integrated part of your home’s architecture rather than an afterthought.
See our walk-out project on Clear Lake with a stylish home gym design: https://www.homebytc.ca/space/beauty-on-clear-lake
Bringing the Rituals Home
Adding a sauna isn’t just a design decision, it’s an investment in your wellbeing. It encourages mindfulness, relaxation, and a daily escape from the pace of modern life. Whether tucked into a cozy corner of your home or nestled among the trees at the cottage, a sauna offers warmth, renewal, and a space to simply slow down.
When it comes to home gyms, designers help you go beyond the basics. A designer can help you turn a simple workout space into a beautifully balanced environment that inspires consistency, health, and calm. Whether it’s a fully equipped fitness room or a serene yoga studio, good design helps you love where you live and how you move.
At Home by Tim + Chris we are always exploring beyond the ordinary. We are excited to continue designing your Kawartha Lakes home and cottage lifestyle! Design, that is driven by us but highly influenced by you!
If you have a design question you would like to submit for the next Town Crier issue, you can send it to the Home by Tim + Chris design team at: info@homebytc.ca
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