PANDEMIC CHANGED OUR CONCEPT OF HOME
Reid and Heather Collier love their home. Located in Richmond, Virginia’s historic Museum District, the 2,024-squarefoot Victorian was a sanctuary during the pandemic. The couple strung up a hammock under the shade of the big magnolia in the backyard, where the family enjoyed picnics and their son played in the sandbox.
As the pandemic wore on, though, the Colliers didn’t particularly like their house. They couldn’t stop seeing all the things that needed attention: paint colors they didn’t like, a lack of storage in the kitchen. And with the addition of their second child and both parents working from home, they felt squeezed, at times bumping up against the confines of the house: Their active toddler kept bonking his head on the glasstop dining table.
The Colliers had to reassess their domestic situation from top to bottom. They painted, renovated a bathroom, added shelving, built a patio, updated the landscaping. And after a particularly hard collision with that dining table, they decided it was more important for their kids to have room to play than to have formal dinner. The dining room became a second living room.
For the past two years, homes have had to work overtime, serving as schools, offices and gyms. We were confronted with the brokenness of our homes – the leaky faucet, the dated sofa, the patchy lawn – and the limits of our walls. The rush to buy real estate in the suburbs and rural areas was about gaining existential square footage as much as physical. We craved space, places for our children and our minds to wander.
Impossibly tight housing markets prompted many to stay put and make the most of their dwellings. Renovations and furniture sales soared; home design shifted to accommodate the new rhythms of people’s lives. Life turned inward, and living spaces changed, too, accelerating movements toward wellness at home, nostalgia and maximalism that were already underway.
For families like the Colliers, the adjustments they’ve made have proved beneficial for their family dynamic and allowed them to settle in comfortably for the long haul. “If you put the work into your home, you really feel like being there,” Reid says.
Boundaries have been in short supply the past two years, especially in the home. Bedrooms became offices, dining rooms became schools. Family roles morphed as parent became teacher, child became colleague. Work time, school time, mealtime often bled together into one long, chaotic slog without the physical and mental demarcations that helped make sense of the day. And 9-to-5 became a thing of the past.
After more than a year of working side by side at the same table, in a cramped guest room surrounded by baby gear and clothes, the Colliers decided to put a pint-size studio in the backyard. Designed by Reid, the studio added just 119 square feet but offered a new world: a quiet place for Heather, an ad agency executive producer and vice president, to conduct calls with clients and a workbench to tinker with jewelry for her vintagefashion side hustle. It also gave Reid, a creative director, a distraction-free place to do his graphic design work.
The studio “allows us to concentrate, which we haven’t been able to do at home,” Reid says. “The act of leaving the house and walking across the yard – there’s a change that comes over you. Now I’m in a creatively dedicated zone.”
While some boundaries within the home need to be rebuilt, at least one has been eagerly erased: the line between inside and outside. Confinement has caused many to turn our homes it up? Add your pop of yellow with a throw pillow or blanket instead of committing to an entirely new piece.
Of course, easing into yellow is always an option as well. Many patterned fabrics feature subtle hints of yellow that can be brought out into a space. It inside out, transforming outdoor areas into entertaining and dining hubs and taking interior design cues from nature.
Patio furniture sales skyrocketed in the spring of 2020 as people moved social gatherings outside; many customers still face limited selection and backordered listings for outdoor pieces.
Scenic murals have made a strong comeback to create a landscape within the home. Wallpapers with natural motifs, like Josef Frank’s whimsical patterns for Svenskt Tenn, also have been rediscovered. And, of course, there are the houseplants.
For the better part of a decade, the Danish concept of “hygge” (meaning “cozy”) has been popular in the design world, as people sought to imbue their spaces with not just a look, but a feeling of intimacy. During the pandemic, hygge has taken on a new, all-encompassing dimension.
D.C.-based designer Zoe Feldman has been transforming family rooms, studies and dens into intimate refuges.
“We are doing a lot of textured walls, almost like having people feel like their room feels like a warm sweater or a hug. People are really liking cozy right now,” she says. “The fire is going and it’s very tonal and textural. There’s tons of soft fabrics like sheepskin, chenille, mohair and velvets.”
Color schemes, many natureinspired, are moving to the warm end of the spectrum, too – russet and oxblood, hunter greens and moss tones, navy hues, earthy oranges and curry yellows, along with grays with green undertones.
Instead of starting with a design aesthetic or inspiration piece, Feldman and her clients are using feelings as a launching point. “Really anything that makes you feel really, really warm, put your feet up and read a book, have a big glass of red wine, and put on some music,” she says. “And that’s also the hard part of it. We aren’t relaxed – politically and environmentally. The home needs to feel like a safe space and reprieve.” might not be the main hue in your textile, but it can still be a powerful addition to your space when enhanced with throw pillows, vases and even artwork. These small tweaks can bring yellow into any room in your home from the powder room to the living room, to a stunning and cheerful bedroom.
The possibilities when it comes to bold and beautiful colors are truly endless and they make for some very exciting hues with which to experiment. So don’t be afraid to be bold and bring whatever bright colors speak to you into you home. It is well worth it.