Twenty-twenty brought about a huge shift in the way we experience our homes, and it’s not tapering off any time soon. With people spending more and more time in their houses, it’s probably no surprise that many of them starting to make major changes to their living spaces. Comfort and practicality are now necessities in the home, and that may continue to be the case well after the pandemic becomes a thing of the past.
At the very least, the renovation trends of 2020 are already seeping into 2021. Here’s how the past year’s location-intensive existence will influence these trends in the coming year.
1. Indoor-Outdoor Living Spaces
Staying home so often in 2020 increased the need for relaxing settings in the home. That’s why comfortable outdoor rooms that extend seamlessly from their indoor counterparts became such popular projects. And now that homeowners know the benefits of such spaces, they’re likely to remain in demand.
These lounging areas serve as multi-seasonal spaces, allowing people to enjoy the outdoors even in the cooler months. The use of large glass doors in these areas add more natural lighting to one’s home, and porches can even be screened to keep bugs out. Indoor-outdoor living spaces eliminate all the unpleasant aspects of being outdoors, allowing people to fully enjoy the experience — all from inside their own homes.
2. Functional Kitchens and Enlarged Dining Spaces
With more meals being prepared and eaten at home, expect to see functional kitchen designs in future remodels. These might include practical, space-saving additions like pull-out cabinets for garbage and recycling cans, cleverly hidden spice racks, and additional pantry storage. A kitchen island can multitask as a work surface for cooking and as a seating area for dining, but homeowners may also choose to remodel their dining table areas in order to make them larger, more modern, and more comfortable.
3. Multigenerational Households
Granny pads and tiny homes are nothing new, but there is an increasing market for prefabricated modular units explicitly designed for multigenerational living. These units are relatively convenient and affordable alternatives to a traditional remodel. They can be chosen from a catalog and rapidly constructed onsite, avoiding the disturbances caused by large-scale construction.
These units are also popular because they can be leveraged as short-term leasing units through platforms like Airbnb or as long-term rentals.
4. The Home Office
Projections suggest that up to 22% of the U.S. workforce will work remotely by 2025, an 87% increase from before the pandemic. Accordingly, a pleasant and practical home office is now a priority for many.
Remote workers will look to optimize their concentration, efficiency, and productivity while using these spaces. They might add purpose-built office additions to their homes or revamp bedrooms and bonus spaces. These projects may also leverage soundproofing, lighting, and décor to create a calming working environment. To make these offices effective as both working and living areas, they can include space-saving details, like built-in furniture that can be folded away or hidden storage.
5. The Total Room Makeover
Entertainment and recreational room designs have begun to overtake family room makeovers as the most popular home remodel. That trend is expected to continue as spaces are refined and reinvented. Homeowners will seek to maximize the design potential in all of their rooms.
This could take the form of remodeling a basement into a home theater or gym or transforming a guest room into a library. These are more common recreational additions, but designers have seen even more out-of-the-box ideas. From indoor bowling lanes and arcade rooms to full bars and indoor golf simulators, there’s almost no limit to what a room can become! And with people looking to stay entertained, they’re bound to get more creative about what they add to their living spaces.