For Armina Kasprowicz, principal of Armina Interiors, wellness isn’t a trend to apply or a checklist to complete.
“I don’t think of it as a formal philosophy,” she says. “For me, it’s instinctive.”
And it starts the moment you walk through the door, when your house feels like it’s receiving you back from the day and giving you permission to exhale.
That instinct shaped an extensive remodel of a Clarkston home that spanned three floors for a well-traveled couple whose children have long since moved out, but return often, especially for holidays. Their vision wasn’t just updated. They wanted a home that supports real life now: privacy and restoration for daily routines and warm, beautiful spaces for gatherings when the whole family is together.
Kasprowicz doesn’t lead with a predetermined mood board.
“I actually don’t start a project by deciding how I want the space to feel,” she says. “I start with understanding my clients — how they want to live and how they want to feel in their home: their rhythm, their lifestyle, what brings them comfort.”
In other words, the design is less about imposing a look and more about translating a life.
In this home, wellness needed to hold two truths at once: calm and connection.
“It’s about creating those spaces that support how somebody lives every day, physically and emotionally,” Kasprowicz says. “For one person, it could mean calm and quiet, and for another person, it could be energy gathering and family and friends — wellness looks different for everyone.”
Inspired by the couple’s extensive collection of Asian art, gathered over years of travel, a former lower-level game room became a refined entertainment destination: a customized bar area and banquette seating, a wine room, billiards/games, a lounge with a fireplace for catching up and a home theater designed for serious movie nights. The goal wasn’t a showroom; it was a space that could handle the joyful wear and tear of family life, especially in summer, when guests flow in and out from the pool.
“It looks elevated, it looks beautiful — but I was selecting fabrics so it is highly functional and livable,” she says, noting indoor-outdoor textiles and easy-care choices that invite people to relax, not “tiptoe around” the furniture.
Upstairs, the primary suite became the home’s most intimate retreat. The bedroom was gutted and reworked around a new three-sided fireplace, with “places to sit,” Kasprowicz says. This included nooks for reading, unwinding or simply staying put for a while.
“The whole primary suite feels like a very cozy, beautiful retreat. You can just stay for hours.”
Her favorite space, and the project’s purest wellness moment, is the primary bathroom. Designed as a spa-like oasis, it layers heated floors, a steam shower, a deep soaking tub and lighting engineered for mood.
“When you turn on the ambient lighting,” she says, “all the textures, the dimension of the dark wood and the organic feel of the stones — it gets into life with a certain lighting.”
The result, she added: “You walk in, and it’s absolute zen.”
There’s personality throughout, too, because this home is as much about memory as it is about materials. The homeowners lived in Asia for years and brought back antiques, treasures and art that anchor the space in lived experience.
“When I see this house, it’s about the history — who are these people, what matters to them?” Kasprowicz says. “To me, the house is vibrant. It does have the history, memories, what’s important to them.”
And ultimately, that’s the feeling she chases in every project:
“How your home or space will hug you, how it supports your lifestyle,” she says. “It hugs you, the second you walk into the home. It’s the sense of being cared for by your own environment — so you can come home, soften your shoulders and feel like yourself again.”