Home is no longer just a place to rest your head. Since the coronavirus outbreak began, our homes have transitioned into makeshift offices, gyms, classrooms, restaurants, cocktail bars, movie theaters, and more. With so many activities happening under one roof every day, small studio apartments and large family homes alike have had to adapt to incorporate new functionality, and the way we look at these spaces is changing, too. We will all need to “design well to live well” - forever.

There is so much we cannot control at this time but our homes provide a space where we do have control; what we put in it, how we arrange it, and how it makes us feel, is more important than ever. "It's unclear whether people will be spending more time at home on the other side of the pandemic, but it is clear that the collective stress has made an impact," says designer and real estate developer Amalia Graziani of Noor Property Group.

Here are some ways the Pandemic may change interior home design forever.

1. The Mudroom or entryway.

The ubiquitous mudroom will now be more important than ever. As our trips outside of the home become associated with germs we became more aware of potentially bringing those germs home with us. The entryway will now become the spot to remove face masks and setting down items that came into contact with contaminated surfaces before washing hands. These new habits will lead to a resurgence of mudrooms, or as I like to call “tidy-rooms” or “washrooms”, but with the added small sink or sanitizing area. Ideally providing a small sink, with warm water and soap, is the best way to ensure viruses and germs stay out of the home. Small sinks are easy to find online and come in various shapes and sizes and colors. If plumbing seems out of the question and too expensive, then a “sanitizing station” near the door is easy to incorporate for most homeowners.

2. The Home Office

For many people, new work-from-home policies require our living rooms, guest bedrooms, and basements to suddenly function as makeshift home offices. If privacy is not an issue, working on a laptop while sitting on a comfortable couch is sufficient. If homeowners have large families, or are easily distracted, then a larger, more defined home offices as opposed to temporary desk setups, will be popular especially as some employers enable remote work permanently. One online interior design service, for example, saw a 40% increase in home office design requests in April 2020 compared to the same month the prior year. For those living in smaller spaces, multifunctional pieces such as drop-down desks or stylish office furniture that doubles as decor can help blend a work station into another room more seamlessly.

3. Private spaces

Open floor plans could be a thing of the past. For families isolating together, more time spent under one roof has highlighted the need for private spaces where each person can enjoy some quiet time alone. Families of three or more are striving to carve out semi-private spaces around the house to maintain productivity and sanity. In addition to more formal home offices, this renewed focus on privacy could result in separate children’s bedrooms, basement playrooms, designated reading nooks, and home layouts with distinct spaces rather than open floor plans. Acoustics plays a role in healthy, comfortable interior design, so plan on using natural fibers and fabrics within these intimate spaces to help with sound. House plants also play an important role in every space to help with air quality and sound absorption.

4. Outdoor living spaces.

Fresh air during a pandemic is paramount to living healthy. For those who are fortunate to have an outdoor space to entertain has been a life saver, literally. When the coronavirus struck North America it was winter and many people were inside with terrible, inadequate ventilation. So when the warmer weather hit people spent much of their time outside entertaining close friends and family. The future of exterior design will be centered around entertaining and relaxing and maybe even a private work-space. Backyard barbecues and patio get-togethers will provide a relatively safe way to enjoy the company of others in a private and safe setting. Terraces, fire pits, small water fountains and special outdoor lighting are good investments to make a backyard more enjoyable, inviting and healthy.

5. Anti-viral surfaces

Kitchen design has introduced multiple types of materials but one of the most important for cleanliness is the quartz countertop. Quartz is anti-bacterial and does not transmit bacteria like granite and marble which are porous and can harbor all sorts of nasty bacteria like salmonella. Sealing granite regularly just adds more toxic chemicals to your kitchen and can put toxins into food. Quartz is stain resistant, durable, maintenance free and food safe. Cambria is a favorite and is manufactured right here in the US.

Andrew Franz, principal and the design director of Andrew Franz Architect, highlights that copper and alloys like brass and bronze are excellent materials to introduce into the home for fixtures that are frequently touched, such as doorknobs. This is because they are naturally antibacterial and antiviral. “COVID is not transmitted on brass,” Franz says. But it is more easily transmitted on other materials, like chrome and stainless steel. “There’s this kind of irony that hospitals are all about stainless finishes, and actually they’re not antibacterial, whereas copper alloys are,” he says.

Other unhealthy surfaces are marble and wood. Items like wooden cutting boards, marble cheese boards are all harbors of viruses and bacteria. Kitchens of the future will likely not have these materials for highly used services. Bathrooms, too, will consist of porcelain tile, quartz, brass and bronze. Lighting can also potentially be used to kill viruses on contact.

6. Good Air Flow

Ensuring good airflow and circulation in indoor spaces is important for dispersing potentially virus-dense air. Rather than focusing on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to do this, using natural airflows and breezes is easy and free. It's not healthy to be in a hermetically sealed space. Having fresh air is very, very important. The future of interior design is to always have large operable windows that are strategically placed to create a natural cross-breeze. Creating a sense of nature is important to implementing clean, healthy air in the home. Plants and trees are scientifically proven to make humans feel less stressed. More people are filling their homes with indoor plants. There is a growing trend toward introducing a natural flow between the indoors and outdoors. Designing huge floor-to-ceiling doors leading to the outside will be a design element seen a lot in the future. Some architects and designers are incorporating garage-type windows and doors that disappear up into the ceilings and offer complete integration of bringing the outdoors in. Humans cannot get enough fresh, clean air during or after a pandemic, so plan on seeing more of this trend in the future.