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What we want from home in the pandemic era and beyond.
Courtesy Tera Janelle Design
The COVID-19 crisis and its impact on daily life changed everything, including what we want from our abodes. “The pandemic reminded us of the importance of home, and emphasized the need for function in addition to beautiful design,” says Tera Janelle, whose Lynchburg firm, Tera Janelle Design, often works with Roanoke clients.
As we move towards what experts hope are the waning days of the pandemic, we talked with interior designers about what clients are requesting in home renovations and design redos, and we explore what trends are taking hold. If you are contemplating changes to your home, read on for how to make your spaces have lasting appeal.
The Decline of the Open Floor Plan
In the McMansions that flooded the suburbs in the 1980s and beyond, the open floor plan reigned, with soaring entryways and rooms that flowed into one another, blurring the lines of living and dining spaces. But as many families discovered while cooking, working and attending virtual school together, it’s difficult to find privacy and personal space without walls.
“The wide-open main level floor plan was already on its way out, but the pandemic cemented its demise,” notes Janelle. If you have an open floor plan and a living or dining room that goes unused, now could be the time to add walls, or install french doors in a cased opening to create privacy. A home office or library could be a study space for teens, a work-from-home office, or a private reading nook.
Interior designer Edith-Anne Duncan says she has turned living rooms and dining rooms into home offices, because these spaces aren’t always needed as they were originally intended by the builder. She has also created multi-purpose spaces, and has a dining room/studio in her own home. A working studio during the day, built-ins house her fabric and wallpaper swatches, sketches and design tools, and when she packs them away, the room takes on a new life as a dining room.
Another in-demand living space for the first floor is a dedicated mudroom—which can also be carved out of existing unused space on the first floor with a re-work and the addition of walls. “For our clients with children, mudrooms are one of the very first requests, even before the kitchen,” notes Janelle, who says if she was designing the perfect home for her family, it would have a large multi-functional mudroom.
An Uptick in Outdoor Living
Alicia Smith is an interior designer with F&S Building Innovations, a Roanoke-based contracting firm that, like most builders, has been inundated with client requests for new builds and home renovations since the pandemic began. Smith says that outdoor living spaces are at the top of the wish list for many clients.
“I think that as people spent more time with family throughout the quarantine period, they realized that they wanted to take advantage of outdoor space, so they added screened rooms to enjoy family dinners outside, firepits to entertain around, that sort of thing,” Smith says.
Janelle echoes Smith’s assessment, saying in addition to screened porches and firepits, other exterior spaces that have taken priority for homeowners are outdoor kitchens, pergolas and poolscapes. “Clients are looking for outdoor spaces and outdoor furnishings of the same quality and with the same attention to detail as their indoor spaces,” Janelle notes.
A Sanctuary from the Chaos
While the pandemic has been enough to deal with on its own, the stress of political unrest, social movements and climate change disasters have taken a toll on the American psyche. Is it any wonder that we are increasingly looking to our homes as a safe sanctuary, and a respite from modern life?
As an anecdote, home palettes are shifting to warmer tones, as icy grays, stark walls and cold finishes cycle out. Kitchens and living areas are being designed to communicate a more relaxed and lived-in vibe, with saturated colors, natural finishes like rattan, real houseplants, and hand-finished pieces, like imperfect handmade tiles, finding their groove in a 2021 home.
A glut of new kitchens and baths are being built and are in the queue at F&S Building Innovations, says Smith, who notes that before the pandemic, families were often rushed at dinnertime and grabbing takeout, or having easy meals. “Suddenly, everyone was in the kitchen during the pandemic, cooking and eating together and having family time and people discovered what wasn’t working in the kitchen for them,” she says.
Smith is now often taking space from a small dining nook or breakfast area to add in more kitchen functionality, with more storage or a larger island. “The island has really taken the place of the separate breakfast nook,” Smith says.
Janelle also thinks that the sudden shift to cooking and entertaining at home has changed what people want from their kitchens. “The polished show-piece kitchen was impossible to maintain, and clients are now craving natural finishes and hand-crafted pieces in the kitchen, and imperfect, aged finishes that signal ‘it’s okay to relax and be at home here.’”
Revive your outdoor space on a budget
A backyard worthy of Houzz or Pinterest can be a major investment, but you can revive an existing porch or deck without emptying your bank account.
Get an outdoor rug. You can find these at big box stores and online, and they lend a softness to the hard surfaces of a deck or porch, and can be hosed off when dirty.
Replace worn cushions. Cushions exposed to the elements take a beating, so consider replacements to punch up existing furniture.
Set up a firepit area. Choose an area of your yard without overhanging trees, and add some Adirondack chairs and a portable fire pit. Define the area with mulch or pea gravel for a more permanent set-up.
String cafe lights. Cafe lights bring the ambiance with a warm, after-dark glow. String them along a fence post, over a patio or wrap them around your deck railing.
The story above is from our September/October 2021. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!