Reasons Why Working from Home Could Be Good for Your Wellbeing
For the first time in over 30 years, London’s population is declining in 2021...
For the first time in over 30 years, London’s population is declining in 2021 due to workers leaving the city for cheaper and larger spaces in the surrounding suburbs. According to statistics from the London government, one in seven Londoners (14 per cent) want to leave the city as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Properties with garages, lofts and even cellars that can be converted into working or recreational places are hugely in demand. According to French 2 architects, Jenny and Anda French, ‘we need furniture and environments that are better suited’ to the post-Covid world.
With people’s priorities shifting, definitive boundaries between work and home life have never been more important and demand for bespoke fitted furniture solutions to maximise functionality in the home, is continuously on the rise.
Dedicated Home Working Space
Having a dedicated home working space has become an essential requirement for the majority of us. One space associated with work can help keep your home feeling like a home and not an office.
While it isn’t necessary to dedicate a full spare room to achieve a practical workspace, keeping work and home boundaries separate in smaller properties can be difficult.
Understandably, there has been a decline in people looking for smaller properties in city centres. Meanwhile, there has been a ‘126% increase in people considering properties in village locations, compared with a 68% rise in people searching for towns’.
Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Deborah Berke said: “The post-Covid home needs to be bigger and work harder, spaces need to be more multi-functional. We should ask more often what three things can happen in this room?”
Our sleek hidden home office (below) design is the perfect example of pushing the boundaries of your home and maximising functionality. Ideal for more compact spaces or a cosy workstation tucked away in larger rooms. A dedicated home working space can simply be one part of the room, and the beauty of this design is that it can be closed away and out of sight when the working day is over.
As architect Emily Farnham said, ‘a few well-placed doors might save you from Zooming in your laundry room.’ By having an area you can open up and hide away, the rest of the house can be a place of relaxation, socialising and tranquillity.
If multiple members of the household are working from home, dual office spaces can often be an excellent solution, as shown with our modern home office design (below). If you have the luxury of a spare room, this can be a fantastic addition to a home, alternatively, dual workspaces can be built into living rooms, library corners and even bedrooms.
Quiet Places to Relax
However, there’s more to your life and your home than just finding the right workspace.
According to a survey by the London Assembly Housing Committee, a huge 33% of Londoners want to move to a new home, as the pandemic has made people re-evaluate what they want from their living space.
We all need a place to escape; a quiet home library or media room to retreat to with your family members and unwind. Having a place you associate with being calming is every home owner’s dream.
With a little innovation and imagination, you’d be surprised what even just one room could transform into. Fitted furniture solutions allow for the corner of your bedroom to house a cosy library nook for reading. The spare box room repurposed into a home cinema, or a multi-purpose media centre added to your living room.
Even the smallest amount of additional space can offer an abundance of home relaxation benefits. As architect Toshiko Mori says, an area to relax ‘doesn’t need to be large, but should be separate enough that one can feel away from work while still being at home’.
Tidy and Organised Bedroom For a Good Night’s Sleep
One of the biggest plights of city living is cramped storage – bedrooms often become the dumping ground for clothing, shoes and other items we can’t neatly store anywhere else.
Unfortunately, flats within city blocks rarely have ample storage solutions, leading to clutter – and clutter quickly leads to a poor night’s sleep.
With most adults needing 7-9 hours of sleep a night, a well organised bedroom is the perfect solution to a restful night.
When you have a place for everything from neck-ties to ball gowns; shoes to shirts, you have space to breathe. A sleek, tidy environment, free from clutter can bring a sense of calm and tranquillity to fitted bedrooms.
Book your free visit with one of our expert designers today, or request a Neville Johnson brochure.
