A yoga studio should remain minimal because every inch of space is valuable. But you can still throw in a few accents to enhance its overall look, deliver a welcoming aura, and improve its aesthetics.
Some decoration tips for your yoga studio include choosing thematic flooring, adding the perfect lighting, using indoor plants, choosing the right music, including curtains and wall decors, choosing appropriate ceiling height, and allocating sufficient meditation space per student.
Choose a Thematic Flooring
The flooring of your yoga studio plays a vital role in creating a welcoming, relaxing, and thematic yoga studio.
First, choose a suitable flooring material. The excellent yoga flooring materials are hardwood, bamboo, cork, and reclaimed wood or you can use laminate for a more affordable option. It’s thinner and not as tough as hardwood but fairly durable and easy to install.
Other flooring materials such as eucalyptus, rubber mats, and engineered wood are rapidly emerging on the trend and these are great alternatives but not the best. In general, avoid linoleum, marble, tile, carpet, and concrete floorings because it counters the goal of achieving a rustic feel and warm environment. Concrete, tiled, and marble floorings are slippery, which jeopardizes the foothold of your students when doing yoga poses.
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Lighting
The quality of light is powerful because it affects our circadian rhythm, which directly influences our well-being. This also explains why lighting is important in setting up or altering the mood in your yoga studio. Diffused lights create a softer and smoother look, while overly bright lights are annoying to the eyes.
Ideally, sunlight is the perfect lighting for yoga, but artificial lighting can do the job if natural light is unavailable. Go for an adjustable lighting system that can mimic the soft, warm, natural white light of the sun, which is perfect when starting your yoga session. Adjust it to a dimmer light when doing Asana or Savasana yoga, or brighten it again if doing dynamic asana poses.
When decorating your studio, you have to play with lights to your advantage. Depending on the yoga class you’re offering, you can adjust it to a softer and gentler light to complement the pace. With the right lighting, it will automatically complement the flooring of your studio and emphasize the wall decorations keeping the room more welcoming. You need to look at the light it gives off and the light fixture itself, and both should contribute to the overall design.
Plants
One of the best decorations to add are plants and small indoor trees. Plants add a touch of nature inside your studio and complement your wooden floors making it look warm and inviting. It’s not just great for aesthetics but also helps in improving air quality in the room.
Although most suggest not adding vegetation to your classroom space, you can add a few potted plants at the corners. Just ensure that it does not encroach on the meditation space allotted for students and does not take up too much space, which is valuable for the actual classes. You can also add small trees to the reception area to make it thematic, alive, and welcoming.
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Music
Music invigorates the soul, pumps up your motivation, and stimulates your mind in starting your wellness journey. It helps improve the atmosphere and sets the mood.
Depending on your intent, music can help you establish your students’ mood before classes. While waiting for your students, you can play low-tempo, instrumental music. It will entertain and set their meditative mood while waiting.
You can also incorporate music into your yoga classes. Choose music that’s aligned with the type of yoga classes you’re teaching. Learning how to synchronize yoga with music and maintain a balance between the rhythm and your voice will help your students relax their minds, focus, and find their center.
For most yoga classes, you can play nature-related music, such as the chirping of birds, the sound of stream water flowing, and gentle ocean waves.
Curtains and Wall Decor
Choosing a studio with lots of windows is great because you’ll get natural lighting from the sun. However, it can compromise the privacy of your students and the view can distract them when doing their poses and when meditating. This is where stylish curtains become helpful. It not only serves its function of covering the windows but also adds aesthetics to your studio.
You can use modern blinds or classy translucent curtains. Be sure to get rid of any sharp-colored, heavily-printed coverings as they can ruin the mood and distract your student’s focus.
You can also add a few wall decors. You can invest in stimulating photographs and fabric wall decors that are related to yoga. But you may also do the decorating in the reception area but leave the classroom walls bare and empty to save valuable space since walls are used for inversion poses.
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Ceiling Height and Appropriate Meditation Space per Student
Yoga classes require sufficient space to allow the body to extend and do various poses. Appropriate space per student also ensures your student’s safety and comfort. The meditation space varies depending on the student’s reach and height. So how do you deal with this?
To ensure that every student gets a safe and comfortable space, calculate the size of your yoga studio and allocate 28-30 square feet of space per student. This gives your student a meditation space of 7 feet by 4 feet wide, just enough to let them extend their bodies when doing the poses.
Ceiling height is also important. Vaulted ceilings are perfect and yoga studios with 10 feet ceiling height are next to ideal. But apparently, not all studio owners have the luxury or resources to find a yoga studio with the said ceiling height, and renovation may not be an option.
If vaulted or 10 feet ceiling height is unachievable, you should at least have a ceiling with a minimum height of 8 feet. This can comfortably accommodate your tall students with 6’4 height and arms freely extended above their heads.
Conclusion
Always prioritize the yoga space for students and focus on the important details such as thematic flooring, ceiling height and yoga space per student, lighting, indoor plants, music, curtains, and wall decors.
My decoration tips are just guidelines on what you can add to your yoga studio to enhance its aesthetics and atmosphere. May these tips help you get an idea of how the yoga studio should be decorated; minimal but welcoming.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Mirrors create an illusion of a bigger space than the actual one. But, in yoga studios, using mirrors is discouraged because it distracts the students and limits the maximization of wall space which can be used for inversions and other poses instead.
Candles give off a dramatic and warm effect but are not safe for yoga studios. It’s too risky to use candles, not only it is a fire hazard but it can also limit the mobility of yogis in doing yoga poses.
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Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.
Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Yoga Fan
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online yoga business resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a yoga business owner in public at a studio or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Yoga Business Boss: I want to help future yoga business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.