Before lockdown, the average office commute took an hour out of a UK worker’s typical day. Now, with millions of us working from home, that journey to the study or dining room table takes just a matter of seconds. But how has it affected home décor trends?
Here Xylo Flooring, suppliers of quality wooden, vinyl and laminate flooring to retailers and developers across the UK, identify five key shifts in interior design, which the coronavirus has at least been partly responsible for.
Demand for More Built-in Storage
If your customers are working from home, they often have a problem of finding somewhere to work. Even if they have a study, you may find children have got their first – particularly if they are home-schooling as well.
It’s not just about finding somewhere to work, it is also finding space for all the office paperwork (and technology) that they need to work. This has created an increased demand for items that maximise storage space, such as bench seating with storage underneath, ladder shelves, as well as fold-out workstations for those even more confined when it comes to work space.
Beware Your Background
Thanks to Zoom, suddenly everyone in the office knows what their colleagues home décor is like. For this reason, people may need to be careful because other individuals may make judgements about their design choices, messiness, or even, for example, book titles.
The best way to create the right image is to either give the background a fresh lick of paint, or given that whatever is chosen may not be to everyone’s taste, to make sure that there are plenty of plants visible.
House plants like monstera help to create the right decluttered image as well as improve the air quality in the temporary ‘workplace’.
Partitions Rather than Open-Plan
You can’t expect someone to work in one part of a living room while someone else is watching TV in another. The same goes for someone trying to work at the dining room table, while kids are playing in the same room.
People need to have spaces that are fit for purpose, which may mean sealing them off with partitions (either permanent or temporary) for better privacy or noise reduction. Partitioning will also enable people to have separate, dedicated spaces for things like home gyms, or even small-scale home cinemas. Like many other leisure activities, these have been ruled out on various occasions because of lockdowns, so now people have to enjoy these experiences at home.
Energy Efficiency is a Priority
With homes being occupied 24/7, either by children or adults (or both), this means – particularly in the winter months – that the heating and lighting is probably going to be on for a lot longer. This will result not just in higher utility bills, but also an increased demand for energy-saving devices. Loft insulation, eco-friendly building materials and recycled and upcycled furniture as well as other homewares have been extremely popular over the last 12 months.
High Demand for Quality Wooden, Vinyl and Laminate Flooring
There’s going to be a lot more footfall in homes in the months ahead. Even as we begin to slowly make our way out of lockdown, people may still be offered the chance to work from home permanently.
This means there will be an increased need for hard-wearing, durable floor coverings that can cope with the extra demands put upon them. Xylo supply high-quality vinyl, laminate, and engineered wood flooring to the retail sector and the building trade. All of these styiish options are lower maintenance than carpets, and should last a lot longer too.
If you would like to know more about our flooring ranges, click here to find our contact details. Alternatively, you can also find your nearest Xylo stockist by emailing us at sales@xyloflooring.com.
