The science is complicated.
The marketing is unregulated.

Why it’s so hard to know what makes a healthy home.

An irony: learning about health risks in the home is not particularly good for your mental health. During the course of my reporting for this article, I spoke to doctors, researchers and government scientists, and each conversation ratcheted up my stress level another notch. I found myself wide awake in bed, unable to fall asleep, worrying about chemicals I couldn’t pronounce lurking in my furniture. At one point, after reading a particularly alarmist article, I ran into my daughter’s room and ripped off the cover on her crib mattress, frantically scanning the tag for various certifications that, once, I had never known existed. A healthy home isn’t a subject for the faint of heart.

It is increasingly a subject for interior designers. As the concept of wellness has traveled from the fringes of 1970s California counterculture into mainstream ubiquity, it’s become an integral aspect of crafting a home. Most designers I spoke with for this piece told me that every single one of their projects has a wellness component, and that their clients turn to them to create not only a beautiful home, but one that improves the quality of their lives.