The New Mindful Home: And how to make it yours

by Joanna Thornhill

Make your home more mindful and discover a more considered way to decorate with this beautifully presented guide by acclaimed interior stylist, Joanna Thornhill.

We often think of mindfulness in relation to meditation, but our homes and interior design can play a big part in our emotional well-being. The New Mindful Home demystifies the links between body, mind and soul to explain how you can harness the power of mindfulness to help our homes support a more considered lifestyle.

How do we create spaces that can calm and revives us? With the same practical attention to problem-solving as in her first book, My Bedroom is an Office , author Joanna Thornhill helps you create an environment you will always want to come home to.

The New Mindful Home explores how you can use interiors to aid living with intention, slow living, creating supportive room layouts, considering mindful effects of color, and embracing plants and natural elements in our homes. Enhanced by beautiful contemporary photography, this book will provide interior design inspiration for a generation who want to consider how they can live more mindfully.

Genres: Nonfiction, Interior Design, Design

144 pages, Flexibound

Published May 18, 2021

Reviews

[Ryan Fergusson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the format of this book to be so fitting for what its intended purpose: a guide. While this book doesn't include new ideas, it contains relevant ideas more detailed than a blog and less in-depth than a massive tome.

Like nearly all modern design books, this book contains stunning images. This book goes farther by:
1. Breaking down the concepts of the designs in a straightforward manner
2. Including tangible pathways to generating your ideas
3. (Most important to me) Going beyond consumerism and discussing ideas of creating the concepts of "home" without buying new stuff or getting new things

For me, it was the perfect guide to generate my own ideas without spending months buried in a big book or burning my retinas sifting through overly curated blogs all night.

[Shelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thornhill frames the concept of a mindful home around principles like living with intention, slow living, and responsible consumerism. She discusses how to arrange supportive room layouts, use color psychologically (e.g., calming blues or energizing yellows), and bring natural elements and plants indoors to enhance connection with nature. Practical advice includes making a nontoxic cleaning kit, creating personal vision boards, and engaging in simple craft and decor projects that reflect personal meaning. (Lawrence King Publishing US)

I liked this, although there wasn’t anything earth shattering in it. It did remind me of things I used to do in the past that have gotten away from me. I’d like to pick some of those hobbies back up again in the coming year.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

The font is tiny and written for those under 40.

It seems to have been written for Millenials and Gen Z. This kind of information has been around since the 1960s, if not longer, but it's been packaged in a way to make it appealing to those who may be new to intentional living.

I find it hilarious when the under-40s evangelize over thrifting, recycling, repurposing, home gardens, crafting, etc. as if they were the first to live this way. I grew up with the original ecology flag and eating organic before organic was monetized.

It's a nice book, and there's a market for it. However, if it gets reprinted, make the text larger - it's impossible to read.

[mumtaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

checked this out from the local library and it was sorta kinda tea... in the sense that you could tell a white person wrote this, from the way she was talking about borrowing from a bunch of different spiritual practices without giving it really much thought or grounding. some of the ideas for styling and biophilic design were helpful though, and there were a few takeways i got from this book– it was giving 3.5 stars and i'd probably buy this secondhand for my own home but would use it to supplement other interior design/styling books

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Joanne Thornhill’s "hope with this book is to cut through the fads to offer real, workable solutions to a plethora of home-based problems" that she "believes mindfulness could rectify — while throwing in a few stylish solutions as well". These hopes have been realized and more with The New Mindful Home. Great looking book packed with ideas for how we can make our homes places of mindfulness.

[Zahava · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was an well thought out combination of a coffee table book and a straight informational book. The pictures of the spaces were beautiful and helped illustrate the ideas in the writing.

It seemed to cover just about everything about being more mindful in regard to your home. There were suggestions, tips, recipes, and actionable advice that didn't seem far fetched. A good read I'd say.

[Mariko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing new or original here.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Perfectly lovely ideas to make the time spent in our homes more meaningful.

[Susan Duff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick read. Some good ideas.

[Haylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and conscientious.

[Vita Mikuličiūtė · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vizualiai ir idėjiškai graži knyga. Nieko super naujo, bet užtat net moksliniais tyrimais pasiremta.