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Design For Your Mind: How a Family Caregiver and Mental Health Therapist Renovated Her Home to Recharge Her Life - and Didn't Break the Bank
“…beautifully and profusely illustrated in full color throughout. Informed and informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, inspired and inspiring, thoroughly 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, Design For Your Mind is a unique, original, and unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists, as well as community and college/university library Interior Design collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.”
— Midwest Book Review
It's an old story. We want to make changes, but our home improvement resolutions hit a road block. Clutter, lack of time, energy, skills, or available funds, the pull of other responsibilities, and sputtering confidence can defeat our best intentions. But there are simple solutions that won't break the bank and won't call for resources we don't have. Small changes can make a big difference.
DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND: How a Family Caregiver and Mental Health Therapist Renovated Her Home to Recharge Her Life--and Didn't Break the Bank is more than a coffee table book. It's packed with over 95 color "before" and "after" photos and loaded with practical tips for refreshing your home that you can actually use. DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND shows you don't need to be a DIY queen to make design changes that have a big impact. Nor do you need money to burn.
After years of family caregiving, author and mental health therapist Annie Guest faced a dilemma. After her parents passed away, she needed to find her spark again. She decided to tap into her lifelong passion for interior design and into what she understood as a therapist to renovate the house she inherited in ways that would help her jumpstart her creativity and recharge her life. In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, Guest takes you through her journey of reinterpretation. She shows you how she transformed her home sustainably and on a budget.
In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, you will...
- discover how to go bold and take chances without making choices you'll regret;
- learn how to use contemporary furnishings and your favorite heirlooms to create a room that looks powerful and pulled-together;
- discover how to make a room feel both stimulating and comforting, so you can read and work in it without feeling agitated or bored;
- explore how a cluttered environment affects the ability to focus and heightens anxiety, along with simple solutions for reducing clutter;
- learn how to use each room in your home to serve your needs for sleep, good nutrition, regular aerobic exercise, and social support. Examine why meeting each of these needs is essential to mental and physical health.
- consider ways to extend your healthspan and how you can design your home to support your mental and physical health for life.
Ultimately, DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND is more than a coffee table book or even a book of inspired, affordable interior design. It’s a guide for anyone who wants to create a home that supports them through life’s challenges and helps them thrive. It’s a reminder that taking care of ourselves by taking care of our home matters. For even in the most difficult of times, our homes can lift us up and help us move forward.
— Midwest Book Review
It's an old story. We want to make changes, but our home improvement resolutions hit a road block. Clutter, lack of time, energy, skills, or available funds, the pull of other responsibilities, and sputtering confidence can defeat our best intentions. But there are simple solutions that won't break the bank and won't call for resources we don't have. Small changes can make a big difference.
DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND: How a Family Caregiver and Mental Health Therapist Renovated Her Home to Recharge Her Life--and Didn't Break the Bank is more than a coffee table book. It's packed with over 95 color "before" and "after" photos and loaded with practical tips for refreshing your home that you can actually use. DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND shows you don't need to be a DIY queen to make design changes that have a big impact. Nor do you need money to burn.
After years of family caregiving, author and mental health therapist Annie Guest faced a dilemma. After her parents passed away, she needed to find her spark again. She decided to tap into her lifelong passion for interior design and into what she understood as a therapist to renovate the house she inherited in ways that would help her jumpstart her creativity and recharge her life. In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, Guest takes you through her journey of reinterpretation. She shows you how she transformed her home sustainably and on a budget.
In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, you will...
- discover how to go bold and take chances without making choices you'll regret;
- learn how to use contemporary furnishings and your favorite heirlooms to create a room that looks powerful and pulled-together;
- discover how to make a room feel both stimulating and comforting, so you can read and work in it without feeling agitated or bored;
- explore how a cluttered environment affects the ability to focus and heightens anxiety, along with simple solutions for reducing clutter;
- learn how to use each room in your home to serve your needs for sleep, good nutrition, regular aerobic exercise, and social support. Examine why meeting each of these needs is essential to mental and physical health.
- consider ways to extend your healthspan and how you can design your home to support your mental and physical health for life.
Ultimately, DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND is more than a coffee table book or even a book of inspired, affordable interior design. It’s a guide for anyone who wants to create a home that supports them through life’s challenges and helps them thrive. It’s a reminder that taking care of ourselves by taking care of our home matters. For even in the most difficult of times, our homes can lift us up and help us move forward.
Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2025
14 people want to read
About the author
Annie Guest
1 book4 followersI'm Annie Guest. After a career in book publishing, advertising, and law, I took another leap to work as a mental health therapist and publish my first book. In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, I combine my passion for people and their potential with my love for interior design and my appreciation for the design choices that support mental health. Follow me on IG @annieguestdesign.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 21, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed turning the pages! Loved that she showed us how to blend the old with the new and not break the bank along the way. Sometimes, a change in your home/space is just what your mind needs to feel renewed and alive again. Enjoyed all the before and after pictures, mixed with a little family history and humor along the way.
August 26, 2025
This is a stunning book with beautiful photography of before and after pictures captured of a daughter bringing her parents home to life.
August 18, 2025
I recently read this gorgeous book by Annie Guest called "Design For Your Mind", and it really resonated with me as such a valuable guide for not only re-imagining your living space, but designing it in a mindful and therapeutic way.
I loved that this book was both a beautiful journey of an old house transformation and the author's memoir. It was great to see the "before" and "after" photos and follow along with the journey. The chapter on clutter perfectly described how the clutter makes me feel and why decluttering reduces stress and anxiety.
The photos were beautiful and the whole experience of reading this book was very calming. Such a perfect weekend read!
I loved that this book was both a beautiful journey of an old house transformation and the author's memoir. It was great to see the "before" and "after" photos and follow along with the journey. The chapter on clutter perfectly described how the clutter makes me feel and why decluttering reduces stress and anxiety.
The photos were beautiful and the whole experience of reading this book was very calming. Such a perfect weekend read!
September 9, 2025
Design For Your Mind is an inspiring tale of how someone can cope with the loss of their parents and sorting out the possessions that they have left behind. In the case of Annie Guest, the author of this book, she inherited her parents’ house and renovated it to be a suitable home for its new occupant—which was Annie herself. The book tells not only how she did this, but how she was able to rediscover herself in the process.
As a mental health therapist, Annie understands how the environment in which we live can affect our mental health. She shows how it is possible to retain the precious family memories which we acquire as we grow up in our family home, and then put our own contemporary stamp on the home to make it habitable for ourselves—and how to do all of this in a cost-effective way!
Design For Your Mind is in part a practical manual on interior design, and Annie lays out the process in a clear and easy manner. The book systematically goes through each room in her house and outlines what methods she applied to renovate these rooms. Readers will find these methods readily applicable to their own homes.
Annie has given her own name to the type of design she describes in Design For Your Mind: “Benessent Design.” Annie explains that the term “Benessent” comes from the Latin phrase for well-being, bene essere. What she means by Benessent Design is the design of rooms and furnishings that can meet “the emotional and intellectual needs of real people, so they have what they need to thrive as whole human beings.” For Annie, the “four pillars” of an enriched environment are good nutrition, high-quality sleep, regular aerobic exercise, and social support.
Annie takes us step-by-step through her quest to renovate her parents’ home and make it her own. Her methods and explanations are easy-to-follow, meaning you do not need to be a qualified interior decorator or a certified mental health therapist in order to get to grips with Design For Your Mind. Her Benessent Design theory provides the framework for why all of the steps she took were taken, and the “before” and “after” pictures give a clear visual illustration of what steps she is discussing throughout.
As well as her underlying theory and her practical steps, Annie makes the book personal with a great store of heartwarming family anecdotes. This helps to make Annie’s book very relatable, as many of us will be able to identify with the sort of tales she has to tell, or recognize ourselves within them. It ties in nicely with her theme of blending old memories and traditions with new innovations that help to make a home truly your own.
The blend of sound theory, practical steps, and personal anecdotes all help to make Design For Your Mind a terrific, practical book from which we can learn a lot about interior design, and about ourselves. Very highly recommended.
This review was originally published at Story Circle Book Reviews. The link to the original review is https://www.storycircle.org/book_revi...
As a mental health therapist, Annie understands how the environment in which we live can affect our mental health. She shows how it is possible to retain the precious family memories which we acquire as we grow up in our family home, and then put our own contemporary stamp on the home to make it habitable for ourselves—and how to do all of this in a cost-effective way!
Design For Your Mind is in part a practical manual on interior design, and Annie lays out the process in a clear and easy manner. The book systematically goes through each room in her house and outlines what methods she applied to renovate these rooms. Readers will find these methods readily applicable to their own homes.
Annie has given her own name to the type of design she describes in Design For Your Mind: “Benessent Design.” Annie explains that the term “Benessent” comes from the Latin phrase for well-being, bene essere. What she means by Benessent Design is the design of rooms and furnishings that can meet “the emotional and intellectual needs of real people, so they have what they need to thrive as whole human beings.” For Annie, the “four pillars” of an enriched environment are good nutrition, high-quality sleep, regular aerobic exercise, and social support.
Annie takes us step-by-step through her quest to renovate her parents’ home and make it her own. Her methods and explanations are easy-to-follow, meaning you do not need to be a qualified interior decorator or a certified mental health therapist in order to get to grips with Design For Your Mind. Her Benessent Design theory provides the framework for why all of the steps she took were taken, and the “before” and “after” pictures give a clear visual illustration of what steps she is discussing throughout.
As well as her underlying theory and her practical steps, Annie makes the book personal with a great store of heartwarming family anecdotes. This helps to make Annie’s book very relatable, as many of us will be able to identify with the sort of tales she has to tell, or recognize ourselves within them. It ties in nicely with her theme of blending old memories and traditions with new innovations that help to make a home truly your own.
The blend of sound theory, practical steps, and personal anecdotes all help to make Design For Your Mind a terrific, practical book from which we can learn a lot about interior design, and about ourselves. Very highly recommended.
This review was originally published at Story Circle Book Reviews. The link to the original review is https://www.storycircle.org/book_revi...
March 1, 2025
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Design For Your Mind is a soothing and well arranged design guide by Annie Guest aimed at helping readers make simple (relatively budget friendly) choices to reduce stress and make their homes more relaxing and serene. Released 4th Feb 2025, it's 186 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The author relates her personal experiences as a caregiver for her aging parents and their own healthcare struggles as an introduction to the logic and necessity of transforming home spaces into something restful and restorative. She provides examples of projects by room/area. They range from very small spare time do-able to more comprehensive makeovers.
The chapters are arranged logically and include both the philosophy of planning and arrangement to specific areas (exterior, interior, other spaces (a guesthouse or annex). Although the book is quite personal and reflects the author's own remake and house redesign, there are some good takeaways to find for most readers.
Four stars. It would be a good and engaging read for fans of design and handy house projects; there are lots of instagram worthy pictures throughout. She has a very relaxed, light formal/classic sensibility, and the interiors would suite most lovers of traditional spaces and design.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
Design For Your Mind is a soothing and well arranged design guide by Annie Guest aimed at helping readers make simple (relatively budget friendly) choices to reduce stress and make their homes more relaxing and serene. Released 4th Feb 2025, it's 186 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The author relates her personal experiences as a caregiver for her aging parents and their own healthcare struggles as an introduction to the logic and necessity of transforming home spaces into something restful and restorative. She provides examples of projects by room/area. They range from very small spare time do-able to more comprehensive makeovers.
The chapters are arranged logically and include both the philosophy of planning and arrangement to specific areas (exterior, interior, other spaces (a guesthouse or annex). Although the book is quite personal and reflects the author's own remake and house redesign, there are some good takeaways to find for most readers.
Four stars. It would be a good and engaging read for fans of design and handy house projects; there are lots of instagram worthy pictures throughout. She has a very relaxed, light formal/classic sensibility, and the interiors would suite most lovers of traditional spaces and design.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
September 2, 2025
I love a pretty “grown-up picture book,” and this one did not disappoint. After her parents’ passing, Annie renovates their home - without knocking down walls and spending designer prices. She’s a mental health therapist so she incorporates well-being into her designs, making them both beautiful and functional. Her family home had great bones to begin with, but she updated the spaces, and gives you her thought process along the way. She also includes where she purchased different items, how she arrived at paint colors (and how to test them out easily), and tips for organizing your space. It was a great book. I’d consider this a coffee table book, but I still sat down and read through the pages. It includes LOTS of pictures, which I loved. And she takes the time to point out what you’re seeing in each of the photos, what needs to be changed, and then how she went about changing it. I loved that she’s someone who is always looking to repurpose or donate items she no longer needs - because I am definitely one of those people as well. Overall, it was super interesting, and I’m so thankful to the Meryl Moss Media Group for my copy!
July 16, 2025
I was thrilled to receive 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑰𝑮𝑵 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒆 𝑮𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕, gifted from @meryl_moss and available now!
Weekends are perfect for a slower pace for me, and it is raining outside, so this is the perfect time to read and savor the messages inside this book.
The author is a mental health therapist and after her parent's left her their house, she documents a process of grief and rebuilding. Taking each room, along with the exterior, Guest brings life back into this home while reliving memories and giving the places a renewed purpose. All this done with care and precision in ways that kept the budget in check as well as the memories.
This is a lovely book that I am sure to return to in moments I want to refresh and yet not lose. My sensible side appreciates the price consciousness and practicality of uses.
If this kind of creative expression is soothing for you, I highly recommend picking this up!
Weekends are perfect for a slower pace for me, and it is raining outside, so this is the perfect time to read and savor the messages inside this book.
The author is a mental health therapist and after her parent's left her their house, she documents a process of grief and rebuilding. Taking each room, along with the exterior, Guest brings life back into this home while reliving memories and giving the places a renewed purpose. All this done with care and precision in ways that kept the budget in check as well as the memories.
This is a lovely book that I am sure to return to in moments I want to refresh and yet not lose. My sensible side appreciates the price consciousness and practicality of uses.
If this kind of creative expression is soothing for you, I highly recommend picking this up!
January 17, 2026
Design for Your Mind is an inspiring, beautifully illustrated book that proves meaningful home design doesn’t require a big budget, endless time, or professional level skills. Annie Guest masterfully blends her expertise as a mental health therapist with her passion for interior design, showing how small, thoughtful changes to our living spaces can have a powerful impact on well being. The full-color before and after photos are stunning and practical, making the ideas feel achievable rather than intimidating. What truly sets this book apart is its heart, it’s not just about decorating, but about healing, renewal, and creating a home that supports you through every stage of life. Thoughtful, empowering, and genuinely useful, Design for Your Mind is both a visual delight and a deeply encouraging guide that readers will return to again and again. Highly recommended.
February 26, 2025
Very inspiring! Charming pictures along with layers of practical information about how to tackle a home or workspace space design project along with the need for this kind of thoughtful attention. Turning the pages, home becomes an embrace full of personality and comfort. I tired it room by room. The whole-house project was manageable, fun, and uplifting!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews