Nature can provide endless inspiration for interior design. Here we look at a few ways to take inspiration from nature and let that influence your decor. Whether you ive in a brand new home or are lucky enough to own a characterful period home (like I was after moving to the UK for a few years in my 30s) brining elements of nature into your home is beneficial in many ways.

Connecting with nature is never a bad thing, after all, it is what keeps us all alive and surviving on this beautiful planet. To connect with nature when it comes to interior design, you don't have to go all eco-warrior, you can simply go a bit deeper when it comes to taking inspiration from nature's colours and textures. Thing of it as colour therapy really, as everything colourful contributes to our happiness. We are happy surrounded by the greens and blues of wide open natural spaces like the seashore, mountains or fields, and our body craves the rainbow colours of fruits and vegetables which give us vitality and breathe life into us. Bringing those colours and textures into the home can only heal us and help us feel connected to life itself.

Here are some ideas to help you get started connecting your home decor to nature:

Be Creative

Grab a bag or a basket, pop your camera round your neck and go for a wander somewhere natural, like a forest, a beach or a nature reserve. Try and be mindful and focus on everything you can see and touch. Get close-up pictures of leaves and flowers, take a picture of a bush you love because of its shade of green, collect feathers, shells and pebbles.

When you get home, create a mood board from all your findings and think about how you could incorporate those colours, textures and shapes into your home.

Be You

You don't have to force nature into your decor in a traditional sense: wrapped twigs, pebbles and bark might not be your thing, but that is OK. There's always a way to connect nature with the things you love. For example; you might love geometric shapes, so find some that occur naturally in nature and echo them with art, photography, or even furnishings. Perhaps you love a sea view but you don't like the sand and debris that come with going on the beach, why not create a giant seaview wallscape, or hang some of your favourite sea view pictures on the wall. Perhaps you like nature to be contained and ordered, just like your home is. So introduce little contained sections of nature, like succulent gardens, smooth clean large pebbles in the garden, carved wood furniture or ornaments, or terrariums full of plants.

Be Bold

If you really are invested in connecting with nature, you can afford to go bold and beautiful with your decor. Choose high quality natural woods or upcycled metal pieces for furniture. Opt for naturally woven rugs for your floor . Craftsmanship is a big trend for decor this year, so why not invest in some well-crafted natural pieces of art, like driftwood animals, or hand painted canvases.

Be Textured

Textures can add so much depth to your interior design, particularly if you want the feeling of nature in your home to go so much deeper than aesthetics. Pay particular attention to how things feel. A rough cotton throw for the sofa, could complement silk cushions the colour of your favourite flower. A chunky oil painting of the local woods, could compliment the matching pressed bluebells on linen you have framed. Rope tablemats could compliment the smooth chunky wooden table that sits in the middle of the room, atop of a vintage ragrug in varying shades of green.

Remember, nature is meant to be an inspiration, not a direction. You don't have to be literal with it, or you can be literal with it if you want to be. Nature is as deep or as shallow a decor inspiration as you want it to be, so enjoy the research process and see what comes out of it, you're sure to be pleasantly surprised.