How COVID is changing our home designs

COVID. It really has changed life as we know it. And we’re probably all sick of hearing about it. Maybe we should give it a nice name like Beth? Then all we’d picture is lovely home-made meals and warm hugs. And who doesn’t like that?

So although we’ve had enough of hearing about Beth, it’s important to look at how it’s affecting our homes – especially if we’re thinking of building or renovating as there’s some very interesting trends that are resulting from working from home and being home more, in general.

Not only are our homes functioning differently, but how we are perceiving our homes is changing too. No longer are just looking at them as assets, but we’re now getting really deep, and thinking about what a home really means. We’re talking less about overcapitalisation and more about the things we love that make our homes special.

Some of the key and obvious changes that have resulted from COVID are the addition of home offices and lifestyle features in homes like pools and other entertainment facilities. Here’s a breakdown of some of the key trends which we expect to see even more of in the future.

Double the office space   In the past a study nook or study in the home was thought of a nice-to-have. Now, we can expect to see at least two home offices in many homes – otherwise we’ll be forced to sign NDAs for our partner’s business! While some offices are keen to get their employees back in, there’s still a large percentage of workplaces that are favouring working from home – some figures say as high as 80% of people aren’t going back to the office permanently. So we expect considerable changes to the configuration of a house.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean our homes will become larger, our designs just need to be smarter. We can expect smaller spaces with operable doors and home features and cabinetry that make great backdrops for our many video calls.

Multi-purpose furniture meets multi-purpose spaces   The Murphy bed. You’re probably not aware of what these are called, but you’ve definitely seen them on TV shows especially in shows set in places like New York. Yep, they’re the beds that fold right up into the wall to create more space. If you’re one of the many people working from home and aren’t blessed with an office space, this can automatically turn your bedroom into a spacious office in seconds. They’re also great for guest rooms – instead of having an unused bed taking up space in the room, you can use the room as kids toy room or as a media room.

Home Automation   It’s been trending for some time now, but we can expect this trend to grow as people want to use tech to control everything from air-conditioning, home entertainment systems, lighting and appliances. Home owners are seeking the ability to control as much as possible in the house directly from their mobile phone – giving us the opportunity to manage our home needs when we’re on the go.

One house. Many generations   Now some people (geniuses) have been doing this for a very long time. Aussie-Italian, Greek and Chinese families were well ahead of the game on this one. They realised a long time ago, there are serious family and financial benefits of having everyone under the same roof.

During the pandemic,multiple generations living under one roof has become a much-documented thing – home schooling will do that to you. Help! Grandparents! We all needed help. And who better to get help from than someone you love. 

Social forecasters predict that it is here tos tay. Kids, it’s cool to keep living with your parents. Especially when you have young kids! This means the designs of homes are changing to accommodate the extended family. We’ll likely see more dual living designs over the next decade.