Sink Into a Home Yoga Practice Space
Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, known in the West as the father of Ashtanga
yoga, famously said to his students, "Yoga is 99 percent practice, 1
percent theory." But as our daily obligations increase, enriching one's
practice by attending class at a yoga studio has gotten more and more
difficult — not to mention expensive.
Yoga practitioners all over the world have taken matters into their own hands by bringing their yoga practice home. You, too, can enrich your practice by creating your own yoga space in the house with just a few tweaks and additions that fit your budget and lifestyle. If you don't have the budget for a detached cabin or a separate yoga room, a basement corner or nook should suffice, so long as it can accommodate an unfurled yoga mat and your arm span. If you are planning to do inversions, at least one clear, unadorned wall space is needed.
Salute the sun with natural light. This airy penthouse yoga room has all the elements of the most serene yoga studio: natural air purifiers by way of a potted plant, hardwood floors for more stable Sun Salutations and asanas (poses), white and warm tones, and most important, unadorned windows that let in plenty of natural light.
"We installed sun shades that allowed our client to control the amount of light that was coming into the space and reduce glare," says interior designer Kirsten Marshall, who designed this Toronto yoga room for an instructor who continues to use one of the rooms in her home as a studio for private clients.
"For those that can have an entirely separate yoga space, I would recommend having access to plenty of natural light," agrees San Francisco Bay Area yoga instructor Charu Rachlis. "Ideally you want to face east or north when in the yoga room; both directions are considered auspicious for spiritual practice, not to mention that you might get to watch the sun rising from the space."
Connect with nature. This Mill Valley, California, yoga cabin was part of a project that involved adding two cabins on a steep wooded site, with one cabin being used as a yoga studio. As you can see, the cabin has direct access to the surrounding vegetation and receives plenty of natural light. "We placed the yoga cabin right next to a beautiful grouping of redwood trees," principal architect Jonathan Feldman says. The client "wanted healthy materials and finishes [low- or zero-VOC] and natural materials: rustic wood, stone and warm paint colors," he adds.
More clients are requesting yoga studios, these days Feldman says. "People seem to want lots of light and a remote location where they can get away from the stresses of their busy lives."
Read full article.
Yoga practitioners all over the world have taken matters into their own hands by bringing their yoga practice home. You, too, can enrich your practice by creating your own yoga space in the house with just a few tweaks and additions that fit your budget and lifestyle. If you don't have the budget for a detached cabin or a separate yoga room, a basement corner or nook should suffice, so long as it can accommodate an unfurled yoga mat and your arm span. If you are planning to do inversions, at least one clear, unadorned wall space is needed.
Salute the sun with natural light. This airy penthouse yoga room has all the elements of the most serene yoga studio: natural air purifiers by way of a potted plant, hardwood floors for more stable Sun Salutations and asanas (poses), white and warm tones, and most important, unadorned windows that let in plenty of natural light.
"We installed sun shades that allowed our client to control the amount of light that was coming into the space and reduce glare," says interior designer Kirsten Marshall, who designed this Toronto yoga room for an instructor who continues to use one of the rooms in her home as a studio for private clients.
"For those that can have an entirely separate yoga space, I would recommend having access to plenty of natural light," agrees San Francisco Bay Area yoga instructor Charu Rachlis. "Ideally you want to face east or north when in the yoga room; both directions are considered auspicious for spiritual practice, not to mention that you might get to watch the sun rising from the space."
Connect with nature. This Mill Valley, California, yoga cabin was part of a project that involved adding two cabins on a steep wooded site, with one cabin being used as a yoga studio. As you can see, the cabin has direct access to the surrounding vegetation and receives plenty of natural light. "We placed the yoga cabin right next to a beautiful grouping of redwood trees," principal architect Jonathan Feldman says. The client "wanted healthy materials and finishes [low- or zero-VOC] and natural materials: rustic wood, stone and warm paint colors," he adds.
More clients are requesting yoga studios, these days Feldman says. "People seem to want lots of light and a remote location where they can get away from the stresses of their busy lives."
Read full article.
