Remodeling’s Crystal Ball

Planning for now… and the future. If you have had a few challenges with your home life over the last 3/4 of 2020, you have either made some changes that need to be re-tweaked or have been trying to resolve something in an environment...

that was designed to accommodate your family’s busy lifestyle in and out of the home. It got us thinking about a very tried and true adage; “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
 
Having watched a couple of generational/behavioral shifts in how families live, I was thinking that any major change in home design has not been the result of one major event. “Cocooning” was the evolution of folks wanting to spend more time at home as a respite to a faster paced lifestyle in the early 90’s. Events like 9/11 didn’t create cocooning, but pushed the trend for home life with the shift to open concept living; and the family room becoming a staple- not a nice to have.
 
Since the Victorian era, it has been common for the home of a professional person to include a den or reading room. This biggest change today is that Mom is just as likely as Dad to be using it.  While we can’t know what the future of working at home will be (or what hybrid evolves), we can see that technology is improving for the offsite work and schooling. We can see the benefit to companies to spend less on real estate and the work force enjoys reduced time commuting. Gathering with friends may become more important than time alone when we have the chance since we are by ourselves more working remote.
 
As a design centric firm, we do have the benefit of seeing how different families made changes to accommodate the current situation. Our best guess on the future is:
 
1.     That the extra bedroom will still be desired as flex space even if there isn’t another family member on the way.
2.     Designs to entertain will remain strong (especially with vaccines on the way).
3.     Parents will want their children to have some extra space.
4.     The dining room may have a need more than twice a year.
 
Here is to 2021! May it be the change we are all ready for.