By Melissa Rayworth

Associated Press

Can your home help you get healthier?

Interior designers say clients don’t just want help creating a more beautiful home anymore. They want to create living spaces where they will cook healthier foods, breathe healthier air and improve overall wellness.

Here, three interior design experts — Jon Call of Palm Springs, California-based Mr. Call Designs, and New Yorkers Young Huh and Carolyn DiCarlo — recommend general approaches to creating a healthy home.

CONSCIOUS CLEANING

“The first thing I do when I go into a client’s home is talk to them about how they take care of their home,” says Call. He looks at how they’re cleaning their home and what products they use.

“Cleaning is really the baseline,” he says, “not only for insuring the interior is healthful but also to actively decorate your home.”

A deep-cleaning session can inspire changes you hadn’t considered: Wash your windows, DiCarlo says, and consider reorienting your furniture to take advantage of a room’s natural light.

Call agrees: “When I clean my coffee table, in order to oil the wood I’m going to take everything off of it,” he says. When it’s time to put items back, he’ll ask: “Do I really need this remote control here? Is it time to ditch the candles?”

All three designers suggest switching to natural cleaning products. Call recommends learning to make small batches of cleaning products from a handful of items like white vinegar, baking soda and lemon oil. Your air will be healthier, you’ll save money, you’ll need less space for storing cleaning products, and you won’t be buying disposable plastic spray bottles.

2. CREATING SPACE FOR WELLNESS

Although her background is in architecture and design, DiCarlo’s work with clients begins with the question of well-being. She suggests they walk through their home and “check how they feel when they enter a room. Whether it makes them feel kind of enlightened, whether it make them depressed. Is it too big and makes them feel small, or too small and makes them feel cluttered?”

Noting those responses can help you decide what changes are necessary and which rooms need attention.

“You could have the most beautiful home,” DiCarlo says, “but you could feel empty, lost and forlorn in it, and what good does it do you?”

Many people are seeking a sanctuary area for relaxation and meditation, the three designers say. If you have a spare room available for that, Huh says, include a cabinet to store cushions, and create a space “that may sort of act like an altar piece or for burning incense.”

DiCarlo often helps clients design just part of a room — perhaps a bedroom — as a personal space for meditation and reflection.