If you follow me on Instagram (@lmbinteriors) it’s likely you’ve seen posts I’ve shared about a spa we designed for our client, Rebecca Mattice, owner of Bloom Healing Botanical Spa located on Lake Merritt at the Bellevue Club. As a beauty maker and transformation junkie I am obsessed with making things better, so when Rebecca asked me to help with the design and creation of her new spa I was eager to dive in.
It wasn’t just because I could see the potential of the stark, ill-designed former “Conditioning Salon,” it was also because Rebecca is a friend, and I knew her well enough at that time to trust that she had what it would take to create a business where boss ladies like me could come for a gentle place to relax into and receive some much needed nurturing.
It was self-serving. I NEEDED a place like the one she wanted to have designed for the business she was growing, so I was motivated to make it happen. And I knew exactly how to blend Rebecca’s feminine, grounded, caring presence with the deco-inspired environment of the Bellevue Club.
Now, walking into Bloom is like walking into a cloud — ethereal, elegant, and inviting — a palette of soothing creams, pinks, and golds, with jewel-toned accents of emerald and azure blue. I am instantly calmed.
In Rebecca’s words: “I knew I wanted to create an elevated experience. I wanted a place where people felt extraordinarily welcome, where they would want to linger, and then give themselves a soft re-entry back into their lives.” And being in Oakland mattered deeply to her, because her network is here in Oakland and Piedmont; so the location was perfect.
Previously, Rebecca had rented rooms within the offices of others, to practice clinical facials. From that experience, she knew what she wanted (and didn’t want) in her dream space — where she would also be making a major shift to holistic aesthetics.
She says, “When we started working on the design, I had a lot of trouble seeing how this space that you were creating was really going to be a representation of me. I had a hard time seeing myself in it. Because I wasn’t there yet. I knew where I wanted to be, but I hadn’t yet become that person.”
What she did know then, was that she wanted a place for community, a gathering place for women (and a few men who are open to it) to be indulged and pampered with holistic, organic products and forward-thinking healing modalities like Gua Sha and infrared sauna treatments; as well as access to an on-call nutritionist — truly a whole-istic healing spa.
Rebecca soon experienced that the transformation of her workspace enhanced more than just her clients’ healing.
Once Bloom opened and Rebecca spent days, and then weeks, in the light-hearted, nurturing, and beautiful space, she started noticing a shift in her overall mood. She felt lighter, happier, energized.
And so, she was inspired to uplevel other parts of her life — like moving on from relationships that weren’t serving her. She began to attract new business opportunities, including speaking engagements, and a higher-level clientele that was more open to creating positive change in their own lives, and that booked regular sessions. It was strange, but she couldn’t deny that the new Bloom was asking her to be different. Still her, and yet, an upgraded version of her.
It wasn’t surprising that soon Rebecca’s standards for her home changed, too. In an inspired moment of clarity, she realized her home was filled with furnishings and memorabilia from others — including her mother’s furniture, left behind after a move abroad. She recently spent two days asking every item in her home that famous Marie Kondo question “Do you bring me joy?” and if the answer was “No,” she let it go.
If you’d like to see more of Rebecca’s story as it unfolds, follow her on instagram @bloomspa.care where she is sharing the shifts she is experiencing by changing her environment.
A word of caution… be prepared for your life to improve when you clear clutter and design your home or business for your future self. You just might become a happier person.
A version of this article originally appeared in the Piedmont Post
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