Designing a workplace wellness room: a step-by-step guide
Creating a workplace wellness room is a great way to showcase your dedication to employee wellbeing.
With wellness companies promoting accessible and balanced environments, other organisations are following suit and realising that a dedicated space for relaxation, mindfulness, and de-stressing can be a game changer.
A well-designed wellbeing room can help your workforce to be healthier and more engaged, creating a sense of community and care in your organisation. Whether your focus is on meditation, quiet breaks, or rejuvenating activities, designing this space can elevate your teams’ overall culture and wellbeing.
In this guide, we will take you through the essential steps of creating a wellness room, from decor and furnishings to features that will appeal to different wellness needs.
Wellness room: definition and concept
A workplace wellness room is a designated space to support your employees’ mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
Unlike a traditional break room, a wellness room is not centred around meals or socialising. Instead, it is a place for restorative activities and quiet breaks that everybody can use to recharge and release stress.
These rooms can be used for various purposes, from mindfulness practices to brief naps, stretching exercises, and relaxation techniques. As more and more companies are starting to take wellbeing in the workplace seriously, wellness rooms are now a crucial part of office culture.
Wellness rooms offer many advantages, including the following:
- Mental rejuvenation: These rooms offer your employees a quiet space to unwind, meditate, or practice mindfulness, which helps reduce stress and mental fatigue.
- Physical relief: They provide a designated area for gentle stretching, yoga, or relaxation exercises to reduce physical tension from desk work.
- Increased productivity: Short breaks in a wellness room can lead to higher energy levels, improved focus, and increased daily productivity.
- Support for company wellness initiatives: A dedicated space reinforces participation in company wellness programs, like Global Wellness Day 2025 or weekly Wellness Wednesday activities, promoting a culture of wellbeing.
- Hybrid-friendly options: Through virtual wellness ideas or live-streamed activities from wellness rooms, you can support remote teams of hybrid workers, ensuring inclusivity for all employees.
- Improved job satisfaction: Such a designated wellbeing room demonstrates a company’s commitment to employee health, fostering loyalty, engagement, and a positive work environment.
Pro tips for designing your own wellness room
Designing a wellness room is an opportunity to provide a peaceful and inviting space where your teammates can decompress and recharge themselves.
Concentrating on aspects that promote relaxation and mindfulness can help you create an environment that best supports your mental and physical wellbeing.
Here are some pro tips for creating a wellness room that employees will love:
Maximise natural light
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), natural sunlight makes you feel better and reduces stress.
If your wellness room has windows, position seating to face them or add light, breathable curtains. If the room doesn’t have windows, consider adding warm-toned artificial lighting that resembles natural sunlight.
Make it a phone-free zone
If you want your employees to fully relax in the wellness room, it should be a no-phone zone. Phones can disrupt the peaceful environment and pull employees back into work mode. Place signage and offer storage, such as small lockers or baskets, where employees can safely put their phones away.
Comfortable seating options
Ensure employees have different seating options, such as cosy armchairs, floor cushions, or beanbags. According to the Mayo Clinic, ergonomic seating can help employees relax and reduce physical strain.
Incorporate mindfulness resources
Mindfulness practices are best conducted in a wellness room. Consider yoga mats, meditation pillows, or a little bookshelf with mindfulness and wellness books about it. With all these amenities, your wellness room becomes a multi-functional space where employees can take some time off to relax or reflect.
Minimise noise and distractions
Your wellness room must be calm and quiet. If the room isn’t naturally soundproof, you may want to add sound-absorbing elements like rugs, curtains or a white noise machine. It will allow employees to unwind without distractions completely.
When you incorporate these thoughtful elements, you can create a wellness room that actually lets your employees escape workplace stress, resulting in a healthier, happier workforce.
13 ideas for a calming wellness room
Designing an inviting and relaxing wellness room requires thoughtful planning and understanding of what elements help your employees unwind.
Here are 13 wellbeing room ideas to help you create a space that meets the needs of your teams and offers them a true retreat from the daily grind:
1. Quiet meditation space
Create a little corner of the room dedicated to meditation: comfortable floor cushions, small rug, dimmable lighting, etc.
Set up a low-stimulus, peaceful area for employees to practice mindfulness or take a moment to be quiet. To enhance the meditative atmosphere, consider adding a small tabletop water fountain or ambient sound options.
2. Soft lighting options
Avoid using harsh overhead lighting.
Instead, use soft, fixed lighting from floor or table lamps. Indirect warm lighting will give the space a more inviting ambience and also help reduce eye strain. You can also try using alternate lighting solutions like LED candles and Himalayan salt lamps to make the space feel more comfortable.
3. Nature-inspired wall art
Hang calming, nature-inspired artwork featuring forests, mountains or serene beaches on walls.
Nature’s visual cues can help to reduce stress while leading you to relax. Large, framed nature photos or wall murals create a subtle, grounding effect and can make the space feel open and inviting.
4. Incorporate aromatherapy
Including a small essential oil diffuser in the wellness room is one of the best wellbeing room ideas. Lavender, eucalyptus or chamomile oil can create a sense of calm, which will help your team members relax. According to a review published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine called “Essential oils used in aromatherapy: A systemic review”, aromatherapy has been found to lower anxiety and stress.
For safety, choose a diffuser with an automatic shut-off feature and have some essential oils available for employees to choose from.
5. Add soundproofing elements
Consider adding soundproofing elements in the wellness spaces to make them as quiet and peaceful as possible, including acoustic panels, rugs, and thick curtains. It reduces noise from other parts of the office, so employees can fully relax without interruption.
6. Add indoor plants
Incorporating greenery is a simple but powerful way to make the wellness room feel inviting.
You can add low-maintenance indoor air-purifying plants like snake plants, peace lilies, and succulents. According to a study titled “Interaction with indoor plants may reduce psychological and physiological stress by suppressing autonomic nervous system activity in young adults” plants have been associated with reducing stress and making spaces feel calmer.
7. Provide calming tools and activities
Fill the wellness room with stuff that might help your team unwind and concentrate. You can add the following things to keep people occupied while they are in the wellness room:
- Stress balls
- Small puzzles
- Journals
- Fidget toys
- Colouring books
- Etc.
8. Incorporate a mini-library
Stock a small shelf with books on mindfulness, wellbeing and personal growth.
Try offering magazines or short stories for your employees to read that won’t take much focus off what they are doing. Providing reading materials is a great way for employees to spend time without technology and help them to think positively.
9. Hydration stands and herbal tea station
Simple yet very effective, have a small table with a selection of herbal teas, a hot water kettle and perhaps an infuser with cucumber or lemon water.
A cup of tea can be a relaxing ritual and a great place for your employees to socialise. Caffeine-free options such as chamomile or peppermint are great for employees who want to unwind without the jitters of coffee.
10. Art and creativity corner
Art supplies like a sketchbook, coloured pencils, and even modelling clay offer your employees a calming activity.
Art helps them focus on the present and get out of the work zone. You can also consider having a community project in this activity corner where teams contribute to collaborative artwork over time, building a connection and sharing a relaxation ritual.
11. Breathing and guided meditation apps
Load an app that includes guided meditation and breathing, like Calm or Headspace, onto a tablet or device for employees to use in the wellness room. These apps can help your team members relax even if they’re new to mindfulness practices.
It’s perfect for solo, focused relaxation and would be particularly helpful for employees who need quick mental breaks throughout the day.
12. Gratitude and reflection wall
You can also create a gratitude wall or reflection space in the wellness room where employees can post notes or write about things they’re thankful for. Put a small board, sticky notes and pens in one area where employees can jot down positive thoughts or moments.
This practice can be a morale booster and encourage a feel-good, grateful tone. Eventually, the wall will be a community feature with uplifting messages that will make everyone feel good.
13. Zen garden (or interactive sand garden)
It is also great to have a small Zen garden in the wellbeing room.
Staff can use miniature rakes to create patterns in the sand. This activity could be meditative and calming, helping employees refocus, use their senses, and express their creativity. Sand gardens allow a tactile way to relieve stress and make visual art without any pressure or permanence.
All of the options we discussed above are easy to implement and ass value to your wellness room. A planned wellness space can be a very important part of your company culture, helping balance, reducing stress, and encouraging mindfulness and productivity.
How to engage employees in wellness initiatives year-round?
Keeping employees engaged in wellness initiatives throughout the year can be difficult.
Here are three effective strategies to create lasting interest in wellness:
Engaging wellness apps like Teamupp
Teamupp is a wellness app that makes it easy to keep your employees thinking about wellness all year long. Teamupp offers a variety of customisable challenges—from fitness to mental health, CSR to mindfulness—so there is an option for every interest.
Activities are fun, engaging, and structured, so employees feel motivated rather than obligated. This can be a game changer for remote teams who can now participate in team-based or individual challenges, track their progress and share their success with colleagues.
Host themed discussions on Wellness Wednesdays
Creating a weekly touchpoint around health and wellbeing through Wellness Wednesdays is a great way to boost participation. These sessions can be informal, where employees meet for short discussions, like “Healthy Lunch Ideas,” “Stress Relief Tips” or “5-Minute Stretch Breaks.”
Come up with “gratitude month” challenges
A Gratitude Month is a low-cost, high-impact wellness initiative. Have employees write something they are thankful for each day.
These types of challenges help support emotional wellbeing and build team bonds. They are also inexpensive in terms of the time and resources required to effect lasting change.
Wellness room ideas: 3 successful examples!
To inspire your own wellness room design, here are three standout examples from major brands that have successfully integrated wellness spaces into their workplaces:
Google is known for its commitment to employee wellbeing, and its offices all over the world feature relaxation spaces. You can find wellness spaces with nap pods, massage chairs and meditation areas around the office. They are designed to provide employees with quick, relaxing breaks to refresh and rejuvenate them.
Nike
Nike has taken its wellness rooms to a whole new level and created a relaxing, nature-inspired environment in their New York headquarters. Their wellbeing rooms are decorated soothingly and have natural lighting and plant life to help people relax. Moreover, they provide yoga and mindfulness classes for physical and mental wellbeing. It aligns with their health and fitness brand ethos, making employees feel valued.
Salesforce
Salesforce offers “Mindfulness Zones” in its offices, designed for meditation and reflection. These zones have guided meditation resources and comfortable seating to help employees recharge and focus. In addition to mindfulness training sessions and meditation tools, Salesforce offers mental wellbeing as part of its corporate culture.
Incorporating wellness rooms isn’t just a trend; it’s a powerful way to show employees you prioritise their health and productivity.
To explore how Teamupp can help create a wellness-oriented culture in your company, book a demo with us today and see the benefits firsthand!
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