Creating A Space You Love When You Can't Move

In this conversation, Mariette Frey interviews Gala Magriñá, a holistic home designer, about the concept of holistic home design and its impact on our well-being. They discuss the importance of creating mindful environments that support our physical, mental, and emotional health. Gala explains her ‘Beyond Spaces’ methodology, which incorporates elements such as Feng Shui, bringing nature into the home, and using healthy materials. They also explore the idea of making small changes to transform our living spaces and the rewarding process of home improvement.

In this conversation, Mariette and Gala discuss the importance of creating a cohesive space that reflects your personal style and brings joy. They explore the concept of creating a home away from home and the role of design in creating a sanctuary. They also discuss the importance of designing for community and sociability, as well as grounding and stability. They touch on the six-month funk that can occur after a move and the importance of regularly decluttering and reassessing your space. Finally, they discuss Gala’s upcoming projects and new course coming out in September of 2024 about holistic interior design.

You can find Gala Magriñá, Well AP, CFSP, HDI and Principal at Gala Magriñá Design on her WEBSITE and on her Instagram.

Takeaways:

Create a cohesive space by considering how different elements work together and whether they are ‘going to the same party.’
Design your home to be a sanctuary that supports your well-being and provides a space for relaxation and connection.
Consider the needs of your family and create spaces that foster intimacy and community.
Design for grounding and stability by incorporating earthy colors, heavy furniture, and down lighting.
Regularly reassess your space and declutter to create a supportive environment that reflects your current needs and goals.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:16 What is Holistic Home Design?

04:19 The Importance of Mindful Environments

07:37 Beyond Spaces Methodology

11:48 The Language of Space: Feng Shui

15:12 Bringing Nature into the Home

17:56 The Impact of Light and Air

19:22 The Importance of Healthy Materials

22:11 Creating a Supportive Home Environment

27:44 Making Small Changes for a Big Impact

31:09 The Rewarding Process of Home Improvement

32:27 Creating a Cohesive Space

35:31 Creating a Home Away from Home

38:40 Creating a Sanctuary

41:33 Designing for Community and Sociability

45:40 Designing for Grounding and Stability

49:19 The Six-Month Funk

53:05 Creating Supportive Environments

57:58 Upcoming Projects and Courses

Have a topic you’d like me to discuss? Send me a text here!

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Listen to the Podcast here

Creating A Space You Love When You Can’t Move

Laying The Foundation: Unlocking Holistic Home Design

I am so excited for this interview. I woke up not feeling well, and I was like, there’s no way I’m missing this conversation because my guest that I’m about to introduce, her and I had an hour and a half, almost two-hour-long conversation when we first chatted. It was supposed to be a 30-minute discovery call about how we can collaborate together and what she’s doing. I met her through a guy named Vinnie that I met at Podcast Movement in 2023 when I went to that conference, and he introduced us into a circle.

Part of what I coach around is when you can’t move, how to make your space a little bit nicer so you can feel content until you can move. When I had this conversation with Gala, who is going to be my guest, we talked through all of that because she is a holistic home designer, and we’re going to get into what that means. I’m so excited to have her. Gala, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

Gala was raised in New York and Barcelona. Her name is Gala Magriñá, and she founded her multidisciplinary firm, Gala Magriñá Design, in 2017. While her interest in home design could be traced all the way back to her Hawaiian-themed childhood bedroom, which we’re going to have to talk about because I love Hawaii, or I should say, Hawai’i, her career was ultimately shaped by her education as a film student at New York University. Her eventual role as the Founder of M Crown Productions, which is an award-winning production design agency that focuses on events, pop-ups, exhibitions, and retail displays.

What Is Holistic Home Design? Beyond Aesthetics And Function

Her interest in holistic design and mindful practices influenced her career shift from the events and temporary spaces to interiors. It continues to inform her mission, which we’re going to talk a lot about because that’s what she does. Gala’s belief is that we create mindful environments that have the power to heal and push us to be better versions of ourselves, which is obviously what we talk about on this show. Getting you to your dreams, in doing so, we’re elevating individual consciousness and, in turn, the collective consciousness, was I could not be more excited about. Gala, what is holistic home design?

Thank you for that amazing intro. Real simply, let’s begin by defining traditional interior design. I always like to define that as the focus on marrying beauty and function. Very focused on aesthetics, functionality, all of that. Holistic interior design does that, but it takes things a step further because now we have all these studies that have come out that have shown us that our homes, our environments, our communities and what we’re surrounded by impacts our daily motivations, behaviors, and lifestyle. Those, in turn, determine 80% to 90% of our health outcomes.

Taking all of that into consideration, it’s not enough to design for beauty and function anymore. We have to go deep. We need to design for the whole being, and that’s with a capital B, mind, body, and soul. We also need to start taking Mother Nature into consideration and making some choices that are also in alignment with her.

It is because back in the day, we used to live in tandem, depending on her, nourishing her, not taking more than we needed. All of that’s gone out the window, and we got to go back to that to help our planet. I think of it as a super hyped-up, healthier, more powerful version of interior design that everybody should know about and all interior designers should be practicing.

I love that so much because when I was creating this room, and you and I have talked a little bit about this, I know we look at the things that we do to our home as an investment, but it’s almost like the investment for the next person. I was like, I want to live, like live, live, in my own house. I want to feel comfortable in my own house. You and I were talking about my laundry room and how it was my junk drawer, and you’re like, “Throw some cabinets up, make it nice.”

It’ll be nicer to do laundry. It is one of the ultimate acts of self-care that, for some reason, gets left on the table. We focus so much on diet, sleep, exercise, and then our homes look like crap, and they become energetic drains on a daily basis. The problem is, humans, we’re so adaptable. We put our blinders on, and so we avoid that junk room, or we avoid that it’s still there draining you every day and taxing on you. I think it’s important to begin thinking about our spaces, especially now that we know how they’re affecting us, as that fourth pillar of wellness and also ultimate self-care because we spend so much time in our homes. How could you not want to make it beautiful, supportive, healthy, and all the things?

Especially if you are not in a place where you can move. I think that part of where, after you and I had that conversation, it was so eye-opening because I’m going through my own FRED framework. For those reading who aren’t familiar, if this is your first show reading, the framework that I coach around is called FRED. It’s finances, robustness, I think mental and physical strength, your ecosystem, and dreams, if the next move is getting you closer to your dreams.

We start with that dream in mind. A lot of times, when somebody talks about what that dream is, it’s a lot about how they want to feel. There’s no reason you can’t feel those things in your current environment with some minor tweaks. The laundry room was my junk drawer. I had wire shelving everywhere. You’re like, “Put up some cabinets.” Literally so simple. I had California Closets out here, which I love. I did a collaboration with them. I still am deeply in love with my closet.

They’re amazing.

You’re amazing. Shout out to Reneé from Charlotte, California Closets. It’s one of those situations where I couldn’t afford to do what I wanted to do in that. What I did was very simple, but it cost me half the money, and I’m in love with it. I don’t mind doing laundry now. I have shelves, and I can close the door, and I’ve got things in there that I can store. Being that I can’t move because, physically and mentally, I’m not in that space. I’m still grieving. I’m still dealing with my back issues. I also don’t know where I want to go.

For me to finish that simple room with a very small investment, I think total all together with my peel-and-stick wallpaper and everything, I think I paid $1,300. I feel my house is now complete, and I don’t mind staying. That probably bought me another couple of years in this house, which is insane. You have an entire methodology called Beyond Spaces that I want to talk about because when I heard it, my mind blew. If you’re watching this on YouTube, you saw it. If you’re listening on Apple or Spotify, you didn’t, but you probably heard it. Tell me about that, because I find it fascinating.

Beyond Spaces Methodology: Feng Shui And The Language Of Space

Over time, I’ve developed these key touch points that when we meet with a client, we can apply to a project. Sometimes it’s all of them. Sometimes it’s 1 or 2. We like to meet the client where they’re at. The space is also going to say, focus more in here, focus on there. There are some basics in this that I think are important all around. The first thing is feng shui and the language of space. There are different forms of feng shui, some very ancient, very powerful. I studied a more modern form. From that, I took elements that were very easy to apply in interior design. One of the main things that gave me, and I could talk about feng shui for six hours.

I feel like we did talk about it for at least a half hour.

For readers, the most important thing is that it gives a language to decode and work with your physical space. One simple concept, when you think about your space is this idea of yin and yang energies. We know that black can exist without white, good, without evil. It’s these energies that are constantly in circulation in the world. Everything is a duality. We can take that and apply that to interior design when we’re looking at a space or thinking about a space.

Yin is traditionally associated with the moon and feminine energy. If you think about that, if you translate that into interior design terms, that’s a lot of rounded shapes, soft colors, textures, that would be great to think of those design elements in a bedroom or a meditation room, somewhere where you want to relax. The opposite of that is in your home office, you want to get more yang with that design that is associated with the masculine, with the sun, with very vibrant colors, sharp points and angles. You could feel the difference in that. Exactly me. This is like popping off the rest of my house is totally zen because that’s what I need when I retreat.

It's not enough to design for beauty and function anymore. We have to go deep. We need to design for the whole Being—mind, body, and soul. Share on X

Me too. I was like, “Have you been here?” My bedroom is all earth colors. I’ve got a picture of the ocean behind me because I want to feel relaxed when I lay down. My office is all super bold colors. You can’t see it, but I do have a painting. That’s a picture of Maui, so back to your Hawaiian roots, but it’s super bright. It’s greens, yellows, blues, reds, and stuff.

I can see it. You have a lot of geometrics. Geometrics is the fire element, which is great. Animals are the fire element energy that you want in your space. What informs us on a basic level is that we shouldn’t follow the trends. Follow what sparks joy, but think about your design choices under those two terms and how they might be affecting you. We start to get a little bit more intentional about our choices, knowing those things. This is one thing out of Feng Shui. We’ll table that there. The other thing that’s interesting is two concepts, that saying, “As within, so without,” so Coco Chanel said that interiors are a projection of the soul. Our space is going to reflect back to us who we are inside.

Inversely, we know that our spaces affect us. We can also be very intentional about what we put in them. One of the examples I like to give is choosing powerful artwork that might remind you of something or a goal or something in your foyer because you come in and out every day or on your bedroom wall. The first thing when you get up, you see that. Intentionality about where you’re placing things and what you’re placing is already going to supercharge your environment in a way that may not be the case if you focus on beauty.

Every time I have a big change coming, I see dragonflies everywhere. Even if they’re not in season, somebody will hand me something and be like, “This felt like you,” and it’s so crazy. I found this piece of art on Amazon, but it’s two dragonflies with flowers all around it. It’s a metal piece, but I stare at it every single day to remind me that change can be good. It’s not always bad.

If you Google it, were they a symbol of change or no?

Yes. It was crazy. I’ll give you an example. When I first started seeing them back in the day, I was always like, “That’s so interesting.” I’ve had them land on me, and literally, I’ll put my finger out, and it’ll land, and I’ll be like, “That’s so beautiful.”

Which they never do because they’re moving so fast.

Always all around. I had one when I was going through a hard time in San Diego. My business was all up in San Francisco. I was flying up there weekly. I said a little prayer and I was like, “What should I do?” I was at a stoplight and one landed on my windshield. I was like, “I guess change,” and then it flew away. I was like, “That must be my sign.” Ever since then, my brother and I have been in Chicago, and he was considering moving back to Chicago. I was considering moving back to Chicago. We were meeting a friend at Adler Planetarium.

It is because I had never been, I wanted to see the stars and all that. It’s beautiful. It’s right on the ocean. We were talking about, should we move back home? It is because that’s where we’re from. Gala, I’m not even kidding you, we had an entire swarm come out of nowhere. My brother looks at me and he goes, “You’re seeing that, I’m not imagining this.” I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” It followed us. We were both like, “I guess we’re moving back to Chicago at some point.” It was crazy.

What’s so interesting, too, with that language of space that I’ve developed, I can read people’s spaces. I can see what they’ve chosen and then talk about, like, “Do you have this going on?” You’re talking about the dragonflies. Is it a bee behind you?

Yeah, because I’ve always been told I was a busy bee, but I love honey bees. They pollinate our world. They keep our food on our tables.

There you go. Those are all insects that move and fly. What do you do?

You move a lot. I didn’t even make that connection.

Reflection of your soul right there in the frame. It’s interesting. I do these one-on-one consults. They’re called the Beyond Spaces consults. How somebody can read somebody’s palm, I basically read the person’s space. It’s reflecting back to me, and we can uncover a lot, sometimes subconscious things, and bring that to the surface. It’s so much deeper than the beautiful covers on Architectural Digest. It really is.

It is because people can’t always afford that. There’s an Amazon commercial where the girl moves into a space that is dark and dingy. She’s watching something and somebody has a bunch of plants. All of a sudden, she orders all these plants, and you could see her light up. That’s what I feel like. Even making small changes can make big impact.

Biophilia And Light: Bringing Nature And Well-Being In

Huge. It’s funny, the next tenet is biophilia, which means bringing nature in. There are fourteen different ways to do it. We now know that nature reduces our blood pressure, our cortisol levels, boosts our mood. By 2050, I think more than half of the world’s population is going to be living in a city. That disconnection from nature is going to be very prevalent. One of the ways we can mitigate that, knowing the positive effects, is bring that nature in.

We’ve been seeing it as a home trend. I feel like even an office trend for three years already, everybody’s bringing the plants, and we know that they make us feel good. You can bring even paintings with nature in them, the sounds of nature. There are so many different ways to bring that into the space. That is helpful and easy to do.

It’s a total stress reducer. They even make some phenomenal fake plants.

I use those all the time in corporate offices.

It is because some people travel a lot. They can’t water them or they forget. When I moved into this house, one thing that I wanted was a coastal vibe, and I wanted plants. I bought a couple of big plants from Easy Plant. It got a watering container in it. I’m not affiliated with them, so I’m not advertising. Once a month, I fill up that container, and these are the only plants I’ve ever kept alive for longer than two years.

It's important to start thinking of our spaces as a pillar of wellness and ultimate self-care, especially now that we know how they affect us. Share on X

Shout out to Easy Plant.

I even killed succulents once. It’s that bad. Shout out for sure.

They do say that even a faux plant does the same thing to your brain in terms of the positive effects.

I love that. What else is in your methodology?

Moving on, we have lightened air. Obviously, air became very important during COVID. I think the simplest thing for people to do at home is remember to ventilate. Open a window. Wake up, open your window. Take a deep breath. Stop and take a deep breath. Leave it open while you’re maybe making your bed, getting ready, especially in the bedroom, because if it’s closed, you’re getting a lot of CO2 at night.

Fresh air, we know good air is great for, obviously, clear thinking and all of that. With all of these synthetic materials we’re using in our environment, so MDF, paint, adhesives, carpet, I’m looking around, a lot of those off-gas. Our indoor pollution is worse than our outdoor pollution, if you can imagine that. We’re in these closed boxes, so ventilate.

We don’t do that, though, especially in the hotter climates. I’m in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the summers are stifling. I will open my blinds, and everywhere will be hot and humid, but you need that. You need to have that flow-through.

If not, a good HVAC system that you know is taking that air, you’re getting it cleaned, all of that. It’s boring. It’s not sexy, but it’s important for health.

I got my air ducts cleaned. I built my house two years ago. It’s relatively new. I had heard at one point that you’re supposed to, after you build a new house because they do that first, a lot of the dust and everything get up there. I have a very bad allergy to mold. When the guy came here, he was like, “Do you want me to do any type of mold treatment if I find it?” I said, “If you find it, let me know.” The house is two years old. He’s like, “The chances of you having a lot of mold is probably very insignificant.” I said, “Okay.” He goes up to my attic. He pulls down my vent thing, it’s all mold. He comes down and he goes, “I need to show you this. I need to treat this.”

I’ve had nothing but sinus infections since I moved in here. I’ve taken cereal out of my diet, all that stuff. He said that because I’m in a warmer climate, and all these people are moving from Chicago and New York and all these cold-weather, winter-weather places to the warmer weather, he’s like, “Because you’re constantly running your air conditioning in the summer, all of that moisture has to go somewhere.” It happens to be going there. I was like, “I had no idea.” We treated it.

It is because it’s out of sight, out of mind. It’s very easy to forget. At the end of the day, oxygen and breath is life.

Totally. As a homeowner, I would feel like I was going to break it if I pulled off the big thing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t want to ruin it. HVACs are expensive. I change the filter, but I don’t do anything else. How would I have known?

When you move into a new home, I think it’s important to have that done because you don’t know if the previous people that you know, so yes, 100%.

I did it in my house when I lived in Orland Park in Illinois. The homeowners had been there for 40 years. Absolutely lovely people. They moved to Florida. They left me a bunch of stuff that I even still have, but the vents hadn’t been cleaned in a while. When I got them done, the guy was like, “This is probably the worst I’ve ever seen.” I was lucky because I had done it right when I moved in. We had renovated, and all the dust in the air, I was like, “Let’s get rid of it.”

It is because after construction too, in part of, I have a WELL certification, and one of the mitigations is to cover all vents while construction’s going on to avoid that. Not everybody does that.

What is a WELL certification?

It is basically a human health first in buildings. Ever since we sealed off buildings, people have been adversely affected. It’s a human-first when you’re building. Just like I have my categories of holistic interior design, they have seven different features, light, ergonomics, comfort, sound, and then all of these things that you need to do to get that building certified, or that office certified, with that.

That’s so cool. It’s good to know that that stuff’s being taken into consideration.

Especially in commercial buildings. They came out with one for residential, but in commercial buildings, we were going to offices eight hours a day, and people were working in sick buildings and not even thinking about it or aware of it. I think in ten years, it’s going to be very common as this becomes more mainstream knowledge. I think about back in the ’60s, smoking was cool. Moms were smoking while pregnant. Thirty years later, we were like, “This is not good.” I feel like this is what’s going to happen when we start realizing all of, kind of, I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but a lot of the toxins that we’re living with. Basically, we need to start building differently.

Again, going back to the materials. The desks, the carpeting, and all that stuff have to be sprayed with something. There’s a lot. That’s so crazy.

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Healthy materials is one of my tenets. Choose raw materials as much as possible. Those have a higher price point. Focus on them in the bedroom or in the kid’s room, where you’re sleeping and spending a lot of time. If you can’t afford the low VOC, non-toxic paints in every room, do them where you’re sleeping. There are ways to approach these things. Sometimes, they might cost a little bit more, but again, when you think about how it affects your health, that’s a solid investment to make.

When you buy something from Amazon and you take it out of the package, and it reeks of plastic for three days, you’re like, “I don’t know that I want to put this out.”

Those kinds of things, it’s true. Over time, the off-gassing reduces, but that could be a period of two years where it’s off-gassing, and then those changes in temperature are affecting that, basically. Healthy materials are important. In light, we light in a lot of homes as an afterthought. Essentially, as the sun moves through the sky throughout the day, it’s changing color temperature. That change in color temperature is talking to our circadian rhythms and telling us to be more alert or more sleepy, prepping us for sleep. If you were in an office cut off from that communication with the sun, you’re disconnected, and then you’re getting blasted with lights.

Every light has a certain color temperature. You’re getting blasted with that one, where naturally, it changes throughout the day. Being thoughtful about more bluish-white light is good for productivity and being focused. That softer orange-pink light is more for bedrooms and bringing that energy down, so you can be intentional with light bulbs in your home to better support you. Dimmers are great too. I have my bathroom, bedroom, living room, and son’s room on dimmers. Around 6:37, that light starts to come down.

It’s like a restaurant, when they go from lunch to dinner seating, the music gets vibey.

That helps instantly by saying, “We’re going into nighttime mode.”

I’ve often felt too, like I heard somewhere when you wake up, it’s important to start turning lights on. I literally have a beautiful chandelier above me. It’s gorgeous. It’s rose gold. I got it on Amazon. It’s one of those things, it produces zero light. I’m not even kidding. I’ve had to bring lamps in.

Sexy but not functional.

It is literally sexy but not functional. I bought a ceiling fan that is sitting in the trunk of my car because, after our conversation, because we talked about opening windows, I’m like, I get zero flow in my office and I get zero light. I need light. I want to, in the summer, before it gets stifling hot, to have the windows open and the fan going. I feel like that would be a no-brainer, but I didn’t even consider it before we talked.

Practical Changes: Transforming Your Home Without Moving

I’ve already implemented a lot of the stuff that we talked about. I feel like you should be charging me for this. Again, going back to what I talked about at the beginning, there are a lot of people trapped. I don’t mean to mean that in a negative way, but I’ve got a 2.8% financing on my mortgage. If I were to buy my home today, I would pay almost double what my current mortgage payment is. That’s hard for a lot of people. What are some things, like my junk drawer of a laundry room, that people can do if they feel like they need to buy themselves more time, or they like their neighborhood, they like their community, but they don’t love their house. What can you do?

The first thing is a mind shift of, “We find these transitional homes a lot,” or, “I don’t want to do anything to my home. It is because I might move in two years.” Think about it. That’s two years of living in the non-supportive, potentially draining place. Yet you might be going to the gym to work out, or you might be getting Saqqara and healthy foods. It’s like, wait a second. First, it’s a mindset shift. I’m here for at least a year. That’s 365 days of my life. I want to be happy. This is worth the investment, even if it means going to Ikea. Ikea is, by the way, also doing great things, following a lot of sustainability practices. I think they’re trying to be carbon-free, or they have some climate goal that they’re set to reach. They’ve made great strides.

Even if it’s getting, maybe not your dream furniture, but something. If you can’t do a whole house, focus on the rooms that you’re going to spend the most time in. This spark joy, think about, let’s say a living room. Your living room is bumming you out. You have a dirty couch that you inherited from somebody, or a ratty rug, or bad blinds. Let’s get those things. Let’s fix them, get them, easy, attainable. Let’s tackle those things.

One of the biggest things that you can do for, I would say, a minimal investment, the bit that creates the biggest change, is painting a wall. Bringing some color in brings so much life. People are terrified because it’s like, “I don’t know what color to choose. I’m going to make a mistake.” Guess what? You can paint over it. I make mistakes all the time.

I can honestly tell you that I was unpacking my Christmas stuff. My Aunt Jan had given me something probably 3 or 4 years ago. It was a tiny little Christmas tree that was like this beautiful sagey green color. It was a candle. You pulled off the lid of the Christmas tree, and it was a candle, and it had gold lining on it. I was like, “I would love to have a kitchen with this color, like my cabinets and the backsplash. This would be beautiful.” I was like, “I hate my kitchen, but I have great cabinets. I love them. My house again is new. I’m not going to replace them. That’s a stupid investment.”

I was like, “I wonder what it would look like if I put gold hardware on my cabinets.” Again, another mind-blowing transformation. It looks so different. I replaced the area rugs in front of them. I put an area rug under my dining room table, my cousin didn’t want it. It’s mind-blowing how transformational a rug and $20 gold hardware from Amazon could be. It’s insane.

It does. It doesn’t have to be expensive. For me, at least, what I’ve found is the act of simply taking time to work on your home because you get to see the result within a day or two, and it’s very rewarding. It’s like something shifts. I read somewhere like, “If you feel stuck, start moving the furniture around,” or, “Start on a home project.” I think it’s the act of working with your hands. You know what they say, “Busy hands, calm mind.” When you finish, you step back and you’re like, “I did that, and now I get to enjoy that.”

The simple act of it is also, I think, extremely positive. If it scares you to, that, I say, go for it. Everything is correctable. Everything is returnable. Everything is painter-overable. The biggest tip, too, in terms of, “God, I have all of these things, but they don’t go together,” what I find is, people are like, “I love this sofa. I love this rug. I love this table. They spark joy.” When I put them together, they don’t work together. They don’t go to the same party. What I always say is, I’m a professional. I don’t submit anything to my clients without putting it all together on some mood board to see how it works together and how it’s talking to each other.

I think if the average person knew that before buying anything, they put it all in a Pinterest board and see it, and looking at it, it’s a feeling, “Does this feel right? Is it going to the same party?” You can refine. Eventually, you have that sofa, rug, and table that spark joy but are also going to the same party. It’s going to give you that cohesive look, which your brain is going to like because it’s going to look beautiful. Don’t be afraid.

I have, I feel like I’m talking about me a lot, again, another consultation. My coastal theme, I was like, I’ve had this theme for a long time and I was getting sick of it a little bit. I had a banquette, which I’ll post pictures when we release this, that I found with a beautiful pattern through Ballard Designs. This house was the first house that I could put my whole entire banquette together because I bought it for another house. The ribbing on the banquette was too much. I couldn’t fit it in the space that I was in, but I was like, I’m not getting rid of it. I love it. I’m going to store it. That’s what I did.

I started pulling different colors out of there. There are dark blues and dark, going back to that coastal theme, all those things that you think about. I was like, “I never noticed there’s mustards in there.” There are slight mauves that like, if you can see it. I jumped onto Etsy. I found a tapestry maker and I said, “Here’s a picture of the pattern that I have. When you look at this pattern, what colors do you see?” She pulled all the colors, including the mauves, including the mustards. I said, “Can you create something for me that pulls all of this together? I don’t have to move. I can change everything about my furniture and everything.” She did, and it is stunning.

With more than half the world's population living in cities, disconnection from nature will be prevalent. Knowing nature's positive effects, one way to mitigate this is by bringing it indoors. Share on X

It’s that one little thing. All of a sudden, when I saw that, I was like, I didn’t realize there are coppers in this, and there are this. My other cousin sent me one of those wind catchers, it’s like metals and little stones. I put that on top of the tapestry to get it out of the way while I was moving something else. I was like, this looks amazing together. It literally has now tied the room together, and I’m creating these spaces with all those colors, but now it looks like they work together.

What’s so fascinating to me is that you’ve moved so much, but you’re also so great at creating a home and putting it all together. It is because I think of somebody that’s moved a lot as somebody more nomadic in the sense, I’m not going to set up camp. That’s impressive.

Thank you. I think that’s the thing I need, and going back to the part of the conversation where we talked about, you need to feel that good energy in your own space. I need to create a home because most of the places that I’ve lived in have not had a lot of people that I knew there. I need to bring those people into my space. You had mentioned when you walk in, having something that makes you happy in the walkway. I’ve got a gigantic multi-wood panel in the United States.

My friend Tricia, when I was moving from Bloomington, Illinois to Charlotte, she’s like, “I feel like you should own this. It’s the United States. You’ve lived all over it. I feel like you should own it.” What I did is I went to Mixtiles, which is a brand that, if you’re not familiar with it, you can upload twenty pictures and they will send you these tiles that it’s like a peel and stick on the back.You put it on your wall.

You can pull it off at any time and reposition it. I have them all over my house, but I took the United States and I put it on my wall, right in the center. I have like 30 pictures all around it of all my friends in the areas that they live. All my friends from New York are in the Northeast, all my friends from California and San Francisco.

Is that at the entrance?

It’s right in my hallway, and it stops people in their tracks because they see all of it. I come from a freakishly large family. Let’s be honest, half of it is my family from different areas of the country, but it’s nice because I don’t feel alone and I don’t feel like my friends aren’t here with me. When they come to visit and they see themselves on the wall, it’s like the wall of fame.

Again, going back to our interior as a projection of the soul is one of the most powerful focal points in somebody’s home. It is because you come in and out daily, look at it, it totally sums you up and it’s right there at the entrance. It’s like, “Hello, look at what you’re coming into. This is me.”

It’s the cause of a holistic home designer, and I didn’t even know it.

You’re very in tune with what sparks joy, and not even knowing it, you’re putting it in power spots, basically.

I love that. What are some other power spots in your house?

Power Spots And Sanctuaries: Creating Personal Retreats

That first wall that you see when you get up. I think another important part, and one of my tenets, is a place of sanctuary. In our overstressed world, where we’re going in a constant state of stress, and we’re not supposed to be in a constant state of stress, the stress is supposed to be like if the tiger’s coming to get us, not 24/7. Being intentional about creating a pocket of sanctuary. You don’t have to have a big, fancy meditation room. I literally have a chaise off to the side with a little reading lamp, an end table, a candle, a throw. That is my spot to go to, no phone, no technology.

A cool thing for families is to create a digital detox box. You can decorate it, go to Michael’s or Etsy, and stencil “Digital Detox.” You go to sit in that chair, you put your phone in there, or before family dinners, everybody puts their phone in there. It becomes a ritual. Again, intentionality through design. This idea of a pocket of sanctuary somewhere so that you’ve created a visual destination to go to, to remind you to turn off, and you have a space to go to. For me, that’s a power spot. Ultimate well-being.

A lot of my friends have younger children. Half of my friends have older kids that are in college, and the other half have young children, like 3 or 4. What are some ways that, obviously, they need a sanctuary, like the parents for sure, I know we talked about at one point, like intimacy spots and things that create that separation. The couple can still have that connection, but also still have the family time. Talk about that.

Designing For Relationships: Community And Sociability

In the bedroom, we don’t want pictures necessarily of our kids or other family members. We don’t want that Peloton bike. We don’t want that desk. The bedroom is a place of rest, relaxation, connection with your partner, if you have one. The other thing important in bedrooms, if you’re married, is to have the same end tables on both sides, the same lamps, artwork in pairs. If I walk into somebody’s home, I’m doing a Beyond Spaces consult, and I see the bed and maybe, sometimes, because of the shape of the room, you have one partner that’s up against the wall and maybe they have a small end table, and the other partner has all this breathing space and a bigger end table.

I’m going to start saying, “Is there an issue in the marriage?” “Is there an imbalance?” We’ll talk about it, but then we’ll also rectify it with balanced end tables, balanced lamps, artwork in two. Again, the space is reflecting back what’s going on. Those are some things to think about in the bedroom. We talked about soft lighting and lighting on dimmers. Again, those softer colors and rounder shapes bring in those mohair rugs and softer textures. You get the vibe.

It has a totally different vibe than what you’re seeing behind me. Again, being very intentional about our choices. Conversely, one of the tenets too that we talk about, because loneliness has become such a pandemic now, is designing for community and sociability. If I walk into somebody’s home and the living room doesn’t have seating to seat the whole family, I’m like, “Who’s getting left out?” The dining room table, one person’s cramped at the end. I want to know who sits there. How do they feel in the family?

Really being intentional. If you’re in a family setting, making sure there’s space for everybody so that everybody feels welcome. The other thing you can do if you’re building a home from scratch is make the bedroom smaller and make the communal areas bigger so that it forces people to come out and commune.

My mind is blown. It is because even thinking about that, Gala, I can see it. I lived that, like my spaces. I inherited a lot of furniture from my stepmom’s old neighbor. It’s a long story, but I inherited a lot of stuff. It was one stand-up dresser and one side table for the bed. For most of my adult life, I had one random one and one nice one. I live alone. I was single. I didn’t have to worry about that. Also, when I bought my new bedroom set, I specifically bought two side tables because I was like, “One day I might be married, and one day I might have a partner, and I want them to feel included.” I never knew what that feeling was. I remember thinking like, I feel like an adult now, I have matching furniture. It was that little thing.

Subconsciously, you were already doing it. One of the ways that I work with clients that are looking to attract love is looking at their space. It’s like, “If you have one end table, are you creating space for somebody else to join you?” I invite them to empty out a drawer, empty out a foot of hang space. That’s hard in New York City, especially if you’re earning. You create space for that other person. It’s working with your physical space in a very intentional but also energetic way.

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Going back to what you said about being lonely, we’re so focused digitally that sometimes having physical people in your space seems scary. If you create an environment that feels safe for you when you finally meet somebody and you welcome them in, then that will be a safe space for both of you.

To that point too, in some of these bigger homes, you have a lot of unused rooms off of the main spaces, which for me are energy drains. That’s one of my tenets, less is more. You want to get a house or a home where every single room is going to be used. To your point, and going back to community and sociability, what if you created a little bar space? It’s all painted in one color, and you have a record player and a bar.

When you’re inviting people in, it’s this special moment to commune in, and it totally changes the interaction and the vibe. Maybe, who knows, because of that, you’re going to want to invite more people because you have the space to do that. It’s interesting how dialed down and intentional we can be. People are touching the surface with what can be done to create change in their lives.

Even that bar, if somebody does want to create that sociability, that’s a welcoming, like, “I’ve been expecting you. I’ve prepared for you. I’m so excited to have you,” without having to say that.

It’s like, “Let’s make a cocktail together,” or, “Let’s create together.”

I love that. I’m a gigantic HGTV and Magnolia Network fan. You and I have talked about collaborating on something, but I think it’s interesting because the shift with the pandemic, we went from people throwing down massive amounts of money for renovations to losing jobs and losing family members and downsizing and moving and regretting those moves.

There are a lot of people again trapped in this. I’m still recovering. I know the world has opened up, so to speak. COVID is obviously still around and probably is never going to leave us for a long time, but at the same time, this is serving a different market that could embrace where they’re at, buy them more time.

By doing my laundry room, it was amazing at how I felt like, my junk is put away. I also, at the same time, within the month before that, I took my garage and instead of putting my car in it, I hope my insurance agent is not reading this, but I had all this matting that I had got during the pandemic when I built a little gym down in my basement and I wasn’t working out a lot. I’m further out. I’m in an up-and-coming area. I’m 10 or 15 minutes from the nearest gym, and I like to work out at home. I have the Beachbody On Demand stuff.

I created a little gym in my garage that I love. I have a treadmill in there and a rowing machine. I do my little Beachbody programs. It is because I didn’t have space before, but I inherited these things, and now I have created space, and now I go out there. I’m watching the show Smash. I was going through my stuff, because I always do this thing in January as I start decluttering each room to, potentially, if I have a garage sale or something in the summer, I found two boxes of DVDs that I didn’t even know I had anymore.

I had it, I dug out a DVD player that was in my garage, and I set up a TV and a Roku, and now I go out there and I watch, I’m watching episode by episode is what I walk on the treadmill. It’s fun because then I sing with them. I’m such a Broadway nerd. I look forward to it because I don’t remember what happened at each show. It is because I binge-watched it when I first saw it. I’m like, now I want to go out into that space and work out. In my laundry room, I don’t mind folding my laundry on top of my washer-dryer anymore because it’s pretty. I’m looking at beautiful peel-and-stick wallpaper that cost me literally $9.99.

One thing I want to run by you is there’s some excitement I feel with the energy of moving and going to a new place. I know a lot of people, and you probably talk about this a lot. People move because they’re not happy, but there’s that saying that you follow yourself anywhere you go.

Wherever you go, there you are.

Going back to Yang energy, there’s this masculine, like uhm uhm about moving. Whereas there’s this er er energy. It’s like, you’re not happy in your space, but if you double down on that and deal with decluttering and working on some of these spaces, you can feel that vibrant energy again in your home. It’s going to cost you less, it’s going to be less disruptive. If you apply your methodology and the timing isn’t right, then that’s exactly what you need to be doing. You’re right where you need to be.

The Six-Month Funk: Addressing Nostalgia And Discontent

Sometimes you go through it and realize, like, I did have everything I needed in that last space, but now I can’t go home. It is because I’ve either sold it or given up my lease. I talk a lot about the six-month funk. What I found was something that I felt over and over again when I wasn’t in the right space or the right place, about six months in, all that newness wears off. You’re no longer exploring because you know the area, you know your grocery stores, you know your gas stations, you know all this stuff.

You get to a point where you’re like, at least this was for me, it always starts in the grocery store. I’m like, “The Whole Foods back at home didn’t put the fruit here. This doesn’t even make sense. I don’t know why they would have done that. Why would you put that in the front end?” I start comparing my last place, even though I left my last place for a reason. It’s that nostalgia.

There were studies, and I’ll have to look at what the dates were, it was either the 1800s. If you Google nostalgia, there are some crazy methodologies, like those used in the military, when someone would get nostalgia. Think about it, you couldn’t FaceTime somebody. You didn’t have telephone. It was like writing letters to somebody and then waiting three months for them to reply. They had these extreme measures for people with nostalgia. It was this funk, that you miss your people. You miss your places. You miss that comfort of home.

What I found is that when I would go through my framework, if I hit all those boxes but I knew what could potentially come up, I didn’t hit that six-month funk. There’s one move that I can think of, and I won’t name where it was, but I basically moved for the money. I was going to be making a good salary. It was not an expensive place to live. In my head, I’m like, this is going to get me to my dream faster, but did it? No. It held me back for a couple of years. It worked out, I made some interesting connections, but I legitimately, in hindsight, shouldn’t have disrupted and moved. It is because all the things that I needed were where I had come from.

I went through that six-month funk pretty hard, and it lasted for about a year, and then I moved. It’s like that revibrating energy. You need to bring your vibration up. Sometimes, if you are in a space that serves a purpose and serves where you are or what you’re trying to get to, what we’re talking about is raising that energy, raising that vibration, and making it something that you can identify with and draws you in. When you have to wait a year or two, you’re not going to hit the six-month funk.

At least if you know that, you can be aware of it. Everybody has the funks, usually they’ll last a couple of weeks. I have a checklist that I make of like, “If I’m starting to feel the funk and/or a little bit of depression or anxiety or something,” like, “Am I doing my top ten?Am I working out? Am I eating good whole foods? Am I giving myself walks outside? Am I connecting with the people I love the most, that get me, and I have a strong connection with? Am I doing things I love, like karaoke or acting or podcasting.”

Home Check-Ins And Ongoing Support: Maintaining Your Space

Mariette, we’re going to add to the list, “Am I happy in my space?” Put that on the checklist.

The chase and the idea of something new is better than doing the work to settle. Share on X

I think it’s so important. If you can create that with a few minor tweaks, it could be life-changing.

It gives back way more than the investment. The other thing I wanted to mention, which might be good for your readers, I even know people like this, that are almost moving junkies, that the chase and the idea of something new is better than doing the work to settle. It is because sometimes, it takes work. Good decorating choices for people that I would say might need some grounding are more earthy, darker colors, rugs on the floor. Square, rectangular, heavy furniture. Downlighting. We’re getting grounded. We’re getting down.

I wonder if that’s why I wanted the good dark sagey color. It is because it’s two layers darker than the sage color behind you. It was a tiny bit darker, but I wonder if that, for me, because I am starting to do that, I got a new desk, so I wonder if that’s a subconscious thing. That we don’t even realize we need that grounding.

It’s good to know, if you already have that desire to keep moving, it’s possible that you’re designing your space with bright colors and lights going upwards. Maybe that’s not what you need. Maybe it’s what you’re addicted to, what you like. Maybe you need to start bringing some of this other stuff in. The other thing too, that I love that you said, in January, how you go around and declutter everything, that’s also one of the tenets. That’s the hugest issue I see with people.

Going back to nature and our connection with nature in the seasons, how we feel in different seasons, and what it indicates, you can use winter and spring, which are very powerful seasons. I think that when you go into winter, it’s this period of self-reflection and going in and stillness. Spring is wood and bursting forth. Those changes, we feel differently inside. There are great times to do exactly what you’re doing. Walk around your home, declutter. “Does this still spark joy?” “Does this still support me?” “Has this been draining me for three months?” Let me do something about it.

Two times a year, do home check-ins. Again, we’re adaptable humans. We put these blinders on. We focus on our kids, on our work, but we don’t take time to step back and look around and say, “Is my environment supportive? Is it supportive of who I want to be today and what my dreams are tomorrow?” Again, think about all of this stuff we’ve talked about and doing that in your space, how much more of a supercharged space that is versus following the trends or doing nothing at all. Think about how supportive that is. It’s a big difference, night and day.

There are so many places to get those things, and you don’t always have to throw things away or donate them. I take things and I recycle things within my own environment a lot. If I don’t have a use for something, or I feel like it’s creating chaos, I’ll put it in the garage. I might pull it back in, but if I put it out in the garage and six months later I’m like, “I forgot about this,” I probably didn’t need it or want it to begin with. I can totally see how that would change your vibe because uprooting is disruptive. Sometimes it’s a matter of like, “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what I want. Here’s this, but I want to feel this way.” Create that feeling. We have so many things at our fingertips that we can do that.

We can do it. Stay in place, too.

Gala, I feel like we could talk for another hour.

Good. We could, for sure.

Where can my readers find you?

I am launching a podcast. The trailer’s up. It’s called Going Beyond Spaces with Gala. I’m going to drop an entire season at a time. If you go and hit follow, you’ll be alerted when that season drops. My Instagram is @GalaMagriñáDesign. The website’s also Gala Magriñá Design. We’re making it easy. Also in September, it’s going to go live on my page, I’m starting a course for the general public on holistic interior design. Six weeks, 90 minutes a week. We’ll dive into some of these things, and I’ll give you some tips on how to do this at home. There are a bunch of ways to work with me and connect with me. Thank you.

You’re welcome. Once that’s up, I will 100% put that on my website because I feel like this is such an important conversation. As a moving and relocation coach, people are always shocked when I’m like, “Stay. Everything you need is right there.” They’re like, “I want to spend thousands of dollars hiring movers. I want to spend thousands of dollars getting into a new space.” I’m like, “No.” This is so important because this is your life, and you only get one. It’s short, and there’s no reason you should feel crappy in your environment.

A hundred percent.

I love our conversation. I love collaborating with you. I am so excited to get this up, and I feel like big things are going to happen. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

You’re welcome.

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About Gala Magriñá

Gala’s creative journey began in 2008 with the launch of M Crown Productions, an award-winning design and production agency. Her early work included designing windows for prestigious brands such as Lacoste, Diesel, and Calvin Klein and orchestrating high-profile events for clients like Jimmy Choo, Harper’s Bazaar and Maison Martin Margiela. The demanding nature of event production honed her skills and paved the way for a flourishing career in interior design.

Gala is an award winning interior designer who’s work has been featured in dozens of publications including: AD Spain, Rue Magazine, and Apartment Therapy. She is passionate about crafting one of a kind spaces that truly reflect and support her clients. And with the help of her incredible team- creating an enjoyable journey along the way.

In 2016, Gala embraced meditation, which sparked her interest in holistic design and mindfulness practices. This shift led her to transition from events and temporary spaces to permanent interiors, a direction that continues to shape her business mission. Gala’s goal is to change the world one space and conversation at a time. And her belief is that if we create mindful environments that have the power to heal and push us to be better versions of ourselves, in doing so we are elevating individual consciousness and in turn, the collective conscious.