Design For Your Mind

It's an old story. We want to make changes, but our home improvement resolutions hit a road block. Clutter, lack of time, energy, skills, or available funds, the pull of other responsibilities, and sputtering confidence can defeat our best intentions. But there are simple solutions that won't break the bank and won't call for resources we don't have. Small changes can make a big difference.
DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND: How a Family Caregiver and Mental Health Therapist Renovated Her Home to Recharge Her Life--and Didn't Break the Bank (B. D. Walsh Publishing) is more than a coffee table book. It's packed with over 95 color "before" and "after" photos and loaded with practical tips for refreshing your home that you can actually use. DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND shows you don't need to be a DIY queen to make design changes that have a big impact. Nor do you need money to burn. Author and mental health therapist Annie Guest faced a dilemma after years of family caregiving. After her parents passed away, she needed to find her spark again. Guest decided to tap into her lifelong passion for interior design and into what she understood about the human mind to renovate the house she inherited in ways that would help her jumpstart her creativity and refresh her life. In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, Guest takes us through her journey of reinterpretation. She shows how she transformed her home sustainably and on a budget.
In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, you will... discover how to go bold and take chances without making choices you'll regret; learn how to use contemporary furnishings and your favorite heirlooms to create a room that looks powerful and pulled-together; discover how to make a room feel both stimulating and comforting, so you can read and work in it for hours without feeling agitated or bored; explore how a cluttered environment affects the ability to focus and heightens anxiety, along with simple solutions for reducing clutter; learn how to use each room in your home to serve your needs for sleep, good nutrition, regular aerobic exercise, and social support. Examine why meeting each of these needs is essential to mental and physical health. consider ways to extend your healthspan and how you can design your home to support your mental and physical health for life.
Ultimately, DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND is more than a coffee table book or even a book of inspired, affordable interior design. It's a guide for anyone who wants to create a home that supports them through life's challenges and helps them thrive. It's a reminder that taking care of ourselves by taking care of our home is a worthy focus. For even in the most difficult of times, our homes can lift us up and help us move forward.

Annie Guest had a varied career in book publishing, advertising, and law, before she took another jump to work as a mental health therapist and publish her first book. As a therapist, Annie treats children, teens, and adults in traditional sit-down sessions. But more often, she brings horses and ponies together with clients for a therapy called equine assisted counseling. As a writer, Annie combines her passion for people and their potential with her love for interior design and her appreciation for the life choices that support mental health.