For today’s post I am thrilled to introduce a guest blog from Kari Foster, owner and principal designer of Associates III. As a long-time leader in the design world, Kari tirelessly creates healthy and beautiful designs for clients across the globe. We are pleased to present this glimpse into how she views design. Enjoy!

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What so energizes me these days is the opportunity to provide clients, friends, family and those I’ve yet to meet with interiors for homes that are not only nurturing but screamingly healthy.

Thank goodness, in America, it’s become mainstream to accept the fact that it’s everything we surround ourselves with that keeps us healthy; the food we eat, the folks we keep company with, the products that we apply to our bodies, and the finishes and the furnishings that we select to place in our dwellings.

It simply feels good to recommend for the building structure itself… wall finishes of natural clays with natural pigments, paints and product finishes that are free of VOCs, carpets of wool, silk, jute and coir, and then to add furnishings that promote health as well… beds of cotton and natural latex, linens that are organic and chemical fee, casepieces that have natural finishes, upholstery that is toxin free.

And then, on the other hand, what so energizes me these days is the added opportunity to provide clients, friends and family with interiors for homes that are not only healthy but nurturing!

One of my favorite tasks is the initial getting to know the client, to hear what they are really yearning for, beyond the structure itself… a place to gather family together to renew, to revitalize, to replenish, to rest, to read, to contemplate what is important, to work out, to find a place of retreat and refuge, to nourish the body and the soul, to create order, to simply be.

Some come with pages torn from magazines, some with textures from nature, some with jagged lines of words on a gridded notepad, all is useful… it is the listening beyond the words to the feelings they are attempting to impart. To each family, and to each member of the family, the yearning varies and what a delight to discover, what an honor it is to assist in providing sanctuaries called home. When joy is present, the spirit is invited to soar.

To create, not simply “house”, not “interiors”, but home. When we live in these spaces that are created just right for us around health and wholeness, which we foster, we are able to live better, eat better, feel better, be more productive, more joyful, energized and at peace. The old adage is so true – there truly is no place like home.

And then yet another favorite of mine is to be present when everything is in place, the client arrives, the door opens… and everything is them.

—Kari Foster