wellness flooring & paints in interior design
Examples of healthy materials for flooring, wall paint and curtains to create a wellness interior concept
What role does flooring play in a healthy interior?
Flooring is one of the key product categories in this healthy interior trend, for obvious reasons. Western cultures, unlike say Russia or Japan, typically have less strict social rules around wearing outdoor shoes indoors, meaning dirt and bacteria from the streets have an easier time making their way into a residential carpet for example.
For more on this subject see our dedicated page here.
Air-purifying carpets?
The Desso Airmaster carpet tile by US giant Tarkett is a perfect example of what is happening in the commercial office market today in terms of air-purifying flooring. Why office interiors and not say gym flooring, hotel flooring or yacht interiors you may well ask?
Offices are primarily places of work, staff are first and foremost there to be productive and staffing costs are invariably a business's largest overhead, therefore anything that can move the needle of productivity, even if by just 3-5% for example, represents a tangible value-add for corporations, well worth a corporate HQ carpet upgrade in other words!
Sustainability first, health benefits second
Importantly, the Airmaster is first and foremost a sustainably made product with a highly respectable Cradle to Cradle certification and an EcoBase backing as standard. In terms of its functional benefits to users, it captures and retains fine dust particles, in some tests proving to be up to 20 times more effective than smooth flooring solutions. This makes it especially relevant for allergy sufferers.
Finally, it has low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emission properties with minimal PM10 particles - despite the name 'organic', VOCs are the bad guys as they are mildly toxic. Taken together, this makes the Desso Airmaster a viable contender for a yacht refit carpet option.
Toxin-free flooring
Milliken's Breathe range of flooring is GreenGuard certified for its low chemical emissions, made of natural or recycled fibres from plastic bottles and has a plant-based water repellency component that is fluorine-free.
Milliken have ensured that the carpet is completely VOC-free. We'd love to see the Breathe range deployed in a yacht interior for just these reasons.
Anti-bacterial & eco-friendly floors or walls
Active Surfaces by the Iris Ceramica Group in Italy go perhaps one step further with their ceramic porcelain wall or flooring tiles that come packed with anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-pollution and anti-odour properties.
To achieve this, natural or artificial (e.g. LED) light and humidity present in the air contribute to eliminating 99.99% of bacteria and contagious viruses that settle on the tiles.
What's more, these ceramic tiles are 100% recyclable and most are produced with more than 40% recycled content in zero emission factories. The tiles are certified by ISO 10678, ISO 27447 and ISO 27448.
Indoor paints with air-purifying qualities
Healthy wall paints are another high-growth sector we have our eye on, with brands such as Gush from Singapore bringing out a product called Cair that actively attacks airborne pollutants with catalytic reactions that break down VOCs such as formaldehyde and odours into harmless by-products such as H20 and O2.
It is anti-moulding, making it suitable for bathrooms or spa rooms, as well as anti-bacterial - in other words it eliminates 99.9% of infection-causing bacteria such as E. Coli, according to Gair.
Gush focus on a purely residential market with an at present limited product range while, closer to home here in Europe, Airlite from Italy have more products on the market already and offer indoor, outdoor and primer solutions, giving them more of an in-road into the architectural and industrial paint sectors.
Again here, the paint claims anti-bacterial, anti-mould and anti-odour properties. Airlite products are also non-toxin, VOC-free, some have air cleaning properties and are produced using 100% renewable energy.
Healthy materials for curtains
Swiss company HeiQ has produced a curtain fabric that IKEA has bought for wide-spread distribution throughout its network under the product name 'Gunrid'. The HeiQ Fresh AIR is a mineral-based technology uses transmitted ultraviolet (UVA) light from the sun to convert VOCs into harmless CO2 and O2, just like the Gush Cair mentioned above.
contact us to discuss your interior consultancy requirements