LOOKING FOR SOME SPACE
Rooms, closets and lofts are being converted to in-home offices
Families have gotten a lot closer over the past 15 months.
As the coronavirus led to the quick shuttering of businesses and schools, families found themselves living, working and learning in their homes. Everyone needed some space. While remote working and inhome office space isn’t a new trend in home construction, COVID made the desire and the need for dedicated space more important.
Rotelle Studio(e) is a custom home builder located in South Coventry, Chester County. During the pandemic, according to the company, there has been an increase in people looking to turn spare bedrooms, closets, lofts, landings, and nooks — into dedicated home office space.
Using stock floor plans, Rotelle designers and the home buyers work together to create the space the client wants.
Renee Pratt is chief designer and Studio(e) manager at Rotelle. She said people are taking the company’s stock house designs and converting rooms like the living or dining rooms into “flex rooms” that she said can be used for entertaining or for study.
“We’re seeing more and more of it. More people are preparing themselves in case we get in this situation again. Not only do they want to have the extra work space, but they want to have the extra hangout space,” she said.
“When we’re all in the house together, we all need a place to go to be by ourselves, so the loft, the finished basements are happening more and more. The kids have a place to go, the parents have a place to go, so that when we’re in the house together, it meets everyone’s needs.”
Pratt added that people are thinking more about making sure the spaces they have in the home are going to function for them.
Heather Ryan is a home design consultant at Rotelle. She said it’s a balance of comfort and efficiency, adding that moving around the house to work — finding an open table or quiet room that isn’t already a dedicated work space — is inefficient and not comfortable.
“People were willing to do that — prior to having any knowledge of what it would be like otherwise,” she said.
A new request during the pandemic, according to Ryan, has been for two offices in a new home.
“If both parents are at home, they are making sure they have two distinct offices,” she said. “Across the board — there are two distinct spaces. Because even if both parents aren’t working 100% at home in the future, they now want their own offices.”
Mark Visco and his fiancé Nicole Holden have been working with Rotelle since the fall on the design of a 3,400 square foot house in Upper Dublin Township. Visco is the president of a software company based in center city Philadelphia. He and Holden, an attorney, currently live in an apartment in the city.
The couple is an example of Rotelle clients that are looking for two distinct office spaces in their new home.
“We started out with a floorplan we picked that had an office already in it. Midway through the process we added another office. Because working from home has become a foreseeable reality,” Visco said.
The couple added a bonus room above the garage into the design of their home, that they designated as a walk-in closet for Holden.
The second office will be tucked into Holden’s walk-in closet space, in between built-in closet cabinets.
“It’s a walk in — in the walk in,” Visco said, adding the desk will be built in with the rest of the closet cabinetry.
Visco said he’s “pretty confident” that before the pandemic, the couple would have added an office to their new home, but added it wouldn’t have been a deal breaker if they couldn’t get it.
“But the second one, doubled up — I don’t think we would have thought to do that for sure,” he added.
Turning a space into an office in a newly constructed home can add anywhere from $1,000 for a small nook space to upwards of $10,000 for a full suite to the total cost, according to Rotelle.
Looking ahead, Ryan said she doesn’t see a change in the home office space trend.
“People have become accustomed to and enjoy working from home. Wherever it is possible people will, and they need that space at home. We have grown accustomed — even in this short amount of time, to having the extra space.
“Just from an organized feeling, even it if doubles as a work office when you need it and a home office the rest of the time, that trend isn’t going to go away now that people have gotten a taste of it.”
The home office space trend is not just limited to new construction. A recent NerdWallet article outlined the top five home remodeling trends for 2021. Topping the list were: A focus on dedicated spaces and making room for home offices. According to Doug King, owner of King Contracting in St. Petersburg, Fla., and president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, homeowners are “taking out rarely used closets, like in the hallway, and moving interior walls to make space.”
For more information about Rotelle Studio(e), visit www.rotelle.com or call 610-422-1000.