COVID leads to inspiration and new trends for home design

COVID leads to inspiration and new trends for home design

Open spaces. Gardens on patios and decks. Dedicated office spaces. Indoor gyms and workout centers.

These are just a few of the ways that the coronavirus pandemic has impacted home design.

Turns out that being quarantined and forced to work and live from home caused us to inspect our homes and make some changes. In fact, according to recent studies, 70% of Americans have completed home improvement projects during the pandemic from small scale improvements to full renovations.

An open work space designed by Kerry Howard.

Kerry Howard, ASID and owner of Howard House Interiors, says “I have even seen longtime clients totally transition from one style of what they have always liked in design to an entirely different mindset. They now want their homes and the things around them to have more meaning.” He further notes that the business of being a designer has changed during COVID as well. “One of the biggest differences in my life as a designer,” says Howard, “was the number of zoom consultations I did due to less interfacing with clients. This involved things like selecting, ordering and sending fabric samples to the client and then meeting about them over zoom.”

Other changes involved the way project installs were managed and the disinfection process used.

In fact focusing on cleanliness and health caused many people to make their foyers into sanitization centers. In addition, people wanted to aid their mental health by having more open spaces, pleasing scenery and access to outside light.

Kerry Howard, ASID and owner of Howard House Interiors.

For experiences that plain walls did not provide, people chose bold colors for accent walls and scenic wallpapers. Bright colors were used for inspiration and creativity. Dixie Dulin, owner of Saleeby Jean Interiors, says “our wallpaper sales increased significantly during COVID. We saw clients take more risks with their home design in using bolder and brighter colors mainly as a way to cheer up during a dark time and basically to bring joy inside.”