“A house is made with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quote beautifully summarises what a home means to us; it’s an extension of ourselves. It reflects our personality, our dreams, our lifestyle and so much more besides.
But what happens when our relationship with our home shapeshifts so significantly?
The pandemic has resulted in a huge change in the way people go about their everyday lives, with the majority of Brits domesticated in ways we previously wouldn’t have imagined. With so much more time spent indoors – working, relaxing, studying and shopping – it’s safe to say that our interior design has adapted to reflect the times.
Needless to say, this has brought forth a change in consumer habits when it comes to the way we dress our homes. Here we explore the impact of the pandemic on interior design.
A Slice Of Nature Indoors
As we rush through our daily routine at breakneck speed, it is important for us to spend some time in nature. This is healthy for our mind and body, but during the pandemic, doing so presented risk.
Spending the entire day at home meant that there was little scope to enjoy the greenery outside, which resulted in people wanting to bring nature to their homes instead.
Indeed, the pandemic saw many Brits develop green fingers, with spending on gardening rising significantly as the crisis wore on. Many more – particularly those without gardens – adopted a ‘bring the outside in’ approach to their interior design styles.
This has led to more people introducing biophilic design to their domestic spaces in 2022, making plants a part of their everyday life (and the furniture!).
By focusing on our relationship with nature, it’s been posited that biophilic design could even improve our wellbeing and expedite healing, enhance creativity and improve clarity of thought… And who doesn’t want that?
There are many indoor plants you can introduce to add a touch of greenery to your living room or workstation. Check out our article on some plants you can grow indoors for more.
Smarter Storage Solutions
When you have little choice but to bring your office home, you need space to store the stuff or things are going to get overwhelming, fast. ”Tidy desk, tidy mind” and all that, but getting more storage units isn’t always a viable option.
This is where smart storage solutions come in. The idea is to incorporate storage space into furniture to create multipurpose pieces that help you reduce the clutter in your home.
Beds with built-in storage are particularly useful here for office-related items you don’t need immediate access to, as are Ottoman storage chests at the end of the bed; both provide an answer to those pesky storage conundrums posed by a small home office.
As the guys at Divan Beds Centre tell us, having ‘’the option of drawers for storing anything from towels and bed linen to clothes and books…is particularly practical when space in the home is at a premium. Large, spacious drawers can really make a difference in providing additional storage”. We couldn’t agree more.
Read: Compact, flexible furniture ideas to make the most of small spaces
Built-In Home Office Space
An increase in Brits working from home means the idea of the home office is evolving. No longer are we setting up laptops on kitchen tables and balancing files on ironing boards; the average home worker now needs a dedicated space for a functioning office, allowing for separation between work and relaxation.
Home offices – and interior design which supports their functionality – looks set to evolve in order to meet demand. This functionality will most keenly be realised via furniture; office chairs that are comfortable, contemporary and aesthetically pleasing will enter the home in 2022, doubling up as a chair for recreation at weekends.
The ideal home office should have a dedicated workstation, good lighting and be set up in a way which doesn’t cause you back pain. It is designed to inspire creativity and productivity with the use of the right choice of colour and décor.
Zoned Spaces
Where open floor plans were all the rage and once reigned supreme in households across the country, many have now created dedicated spaces for different purposes by zoning different parts of a room and using sliding doors, screens and modular walls to create privacy.
Many rooms already serve multiple purposes, so creating different spaces within a room with the use of clever partitions and clever storage solutions to create special nooks and alcoves, are helped us create spaces that allow us to easily transition from one activity to another and make better use of our homes.
Boutique Hotel Vibes
During the pandemic, we all started to upgrade our interiors and many of us decided to channel the vibe of a boutique hotel.
Boutique hotels are all about bespoke interiors and adding extra personality to a space. Instead of staring at white walls and the previously popular Scandinavian minimalist decor, styling our homes to add visual intrigue and creating our own personalised spaces made us feel more in control and content with the environment we were living in.
Moreover, since we weren’t allowed to travel, creating bedrooms that looked like one you would find in a five star hotel gave us the escapism we were all in need off.
Wellbeing With Colours
What better way to liven up a space than with a pop of colour? Accentuating the look of a space with coloured curtains and upholstery is emerging as a trend in these tough times.
Colours which promote wellness are particularly popular right now; think dark faded green or inky blue for a sense of harmony, muted bubble gum pink for an instant hit of good vibes, and warm yellow to bring the sunshine inside, whatever the weather.
The Bottom Line
While the pandemic has definitely been challenging, people are trying to work their way round the ‘new normal’. Remote work is here to stay, with 65% of employees preferring to continue working from home. Accordingly, we think these interior design trends may well stick around, too.