There have been numerous studies showing that the human connection to nature is vital to our health and happiness. Obviously we aren’t all living out in a lush countryside, and even if we are, it’s important to incorporate natural elements into our homes and office spaces.
According to various studies, wood products indoors create similar health benefits to spending time in nature. Incorporating natural materials like wood indoors helps to reduce blood pressure, heart rates and stress levels while also improving overall well being, creativity, cognitive abilities and the air that we breathe in.
Using natural wood interiors is one way to guarantee that you bring nature into your living/working spaces and create a healthy environment for your mind.
Using natural wood has a plethora of benefits including (but not limited to) good price for beauty, environmentally friendly, wood is incredibly durable, wood is versatile and aesthetically pleasing as you can see from the photo above of Port Orford Cedar interior paneling.
Clay Risen of Popular Science says, compared to steel and concrete that it’s “cheaper, easier to assemble, and more fire resistant, thanks to the way wood chars. It is also more sustainable. Wood is renewable like any crop, and it’s a carbon sink, sequestering the carbon dioxide that is absorbed during growth even after it’s been turned into lumber.”
If that isn’t enough to convince you, or if you’re curious and want to know more, this blog post is perfect for you and will show you the main reasons you will want to use natural wood options for your next project.
- Using natural wood for your building and interiors is a massive money saver when you factor in all of the benefits that it carries.
- Wood is a natural insulator (also acoustically sound which can be helpful in an office) which means less heat loss from your home, aka saving energy and saving you money.
- Wood is also incredibly durable, meaning there is going to be less maintenance, upkeep and replacement cost, if any.
- Wood lasts for hundreds of years if it is taken care of and maintained, but even that doesn’t require very much effort. With wood, you get your money’s worth time and time again.
- Wood can be used in almost every area in your home and on most surfaces.
- Wooden floors, paneling, wood ceilings, doors and stairways, furniture, finishes, and decoration purposes.
- Wood is very versatile and there are new uses coming out of the woodworks left and right.
- There is almost nothing you can’t do with wood, it is one of the best ways to incorporate nature into your home, while making things look nice and cohesive.
- Wood means customization.
- There are hundreds of wood species allowing for complete and total customization from head to toe. If you go for brick, or concrete or anything of the sort, you lose a unique touch to your home/working space.
- Using wood in your build and interior means that you are crafting an aesthetic unique to you and your idea of beauty. Not just the various species of wood, but how many finishes, stains and patterns available lead to endless combinations of beauty in your home/work space.
- Wood is better for your health.
- Did you know that Americans spend 93% of their lives indoors, breathing in recycled air? What most people don’t know is that the air we are breathing indoors is on average 2x-5x more toxic than air outside. This is due to insufficient ventilation and synthetic building materials.
- Thankfully we can take steps in order to minimize exposure to indoor toxins by making the choice to use healthier, more sustainable products and building materials.
- Natural materials are better for the environment and are proven to have physiological and physiological benefits to humans when they are used in indoor spaces.
- Using wood is environmentally friendly.
- Wood absorbs and stores the carbon in the air making it carbon neutral, and helps to regulate humidity at the same time. This effect occurs due to wood absorbing and releasing moisture in order to maintain equilibrium with the surrounding air, known as the equilibrium moisture content.
- Wood, therefore, absorbs moisture from the air in humid conditions and releases moisture in dry conditions. Wood is also one of the most naturally renewable energy sources.
It really does seem like a no-brainer to have natural wood elements present in your living and working spaces. The level in which wood is present, is totally up to you, but the health and environmental benefits of natural wood inside your work and living spaces can’t be passed up.
You don’t need to have every part of your interior space be made from wood, but incorporating elements of it everywhere you can will bring about a handful of great benefits.
Reach out if you have any questions about using natural wood in your next project and/or if you are looking for natural building materials.
Timberline Blog 
Leave a Reply