A huge change many employers and employees didn’t expect in the Post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’ was the number of people actually wanting to work from home. Along with that came a return of family living, more meals being cooked at home and family members interacting and practicing better lifestyle habits.
It also brought the need for the “working from home” (WFH) to have a quiet and organized space for virtual meetings. In the beginning, small areas within the existing home were carved out for the WFH but as long as that space was intimately accessible by other family members including small children, pets and visitors, it wasn’t ideal.
Viking Carrier
Mariotti Building Products
PFS CorporationSome WFH added half walls and even enclosed small parts of great rooms and converted spare bedrooms and basement space. Now that many employers are more comfortable with working from home, those converted spaces are simply not working as they were always intended to be a temporary solution.
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That temporary space is now morphing into actual additions to homes, tiny houses and ADUs where quiet workspace is the key. Tiny houses without kitchens and bathrooms are being delivered to backyards in towns and cities across the country. Not having a kitchen or bathroom allows them to be classified as sheds with only electricity being supplied from the main house.
Related Article: Tiny Houses and ADU Sales Up During COVID-19
If the need for more space is required for the occasional face-to-face business meeting at the home, one answer is the Auxiliary Dwelling Unit, again without kitchen or bathroom facilities. This can give the worker a real-feel office. Those new exercise machines that challenge you to virtually run along with a trainer on pathways through exotic places are also becoming a staple in a lot of those larger ADUs.
Color has an enormous effect on mood and other basic energy levels and the WFH employees are craving more attunement to nature, color trends have become neutral. Neutrals give us calmness in a raging storm. Another showstopper is teal. Teal is everywhere in design currently.
Gary Fleisher
