What is Forest Inspired? How do we choose what products we carry?
I go walking in the woods every morning. It is my happy place and a necessity for starting my day. The scene, scent, sounds and animals that are not scared away by my presence transports me to another place. For me, it is as close to heaven that I can imagine with my human mind. I want the rest of the day to capture as much of this as I can so I can stay in that frame of mind a little longer.
But how do you capture the woods?
When I try to quantify all of the things I like about the woods, I have to think in terms of my five senses. What do I see? What do the woods offer to us that we can only get there? What we can take away from the woods to keep with us throughout the day? To help narrow it down, every item in Dwell and Den is run through this FOREST-inspired filter…
F: Foraging
Quite literally, we carry items that encourage a foraging lifestyle. We offer a revolving array of books that explain how to forage, journals that encourage recording our forest experiences and textbooks that show how to use your foraged items, such as cookbooks. We also carry items for what we take to the forest to forage, such as foraging baskets and hats, and what we forage from the woods, such as mushroom powders, flowers, skincare, tea and honey.
O: Observable
The dark muted colors that change with the seasons, bodies of water, tree trunks, animals, hills and valleys all encompass what we can observe when we spend time in the forest. Our vintage art focuses on these scenes, florals and even portraits that employ the colors of the woods to be able to paint our walls like forest walls. We also carry Bible study books that celebrate and encourage a relationship with the creator of all things beautiful in nature.
R: Renew and Revive
We carry items that encourage us to renew and/or revive lost parts of the past that have a place in our modern world using nature-inspired techniques and materials. An example would be handknit wool mittens, plant dyed cotton handkerchiefs, hand-blown glass, foraged pot simmers and hand-crafted paper. Encouraging revival of old traditions is just as important as creating new ones.
E: Ecosystem
We carry many items that encourage preserving the ecosystem of the forest. We carry blankets and sweaters made of recycled bottles, vases made from recycled materials plus our vintage items take the place of introducing new items. We value organic processes, ethical practices and real materials.
S: Scent & Sound
Our signature scent, Evergreen Pine, is the star of our candles, room sprays, sachets, incense and diffusers. Our sound is vintage French and Italian soft music. The same way that the birds create a sound that is pleasing and subtle, yet we don’t understand it, is the same principle at play in our music.
T: Trees
Trees define a forest. Items that use wood are top priority for what we carry plus how we display all items. We also value that the trees communicate without saying a word, they sway in tandem, they grow with and sometimes on top of each other and they often hold each other up. We think our lifestyle should mimic this concept of relationship. An example of this would be our stationary. Not only is the paper made from trees but the idea of supportive communication itself is as important for us as nature assigns to it.
