Photo by Spacecrafting, Courtesy Martinpatrick3, designed by Suzanne Kickhaefer
Home office
Home office space created by MartinPatrick3
I’ve seen a big influx of my existing clients wanting to finish off things in their homes and also their vacation home, second home, cabin kind of place, where people have spent a lot more time since no one has been traveling [out of state] that much.
-Greg Walsh, president and senior designer, MartinPatrick3
Even though computers might seem like a small detail in staging and showing a home, Edina Realty agent Michele Skjei looks at them differently since COVID. “I remember it used to be, ‘OK, put the computer away,’” Skjei says. “And now, it’s best to be able to show specifically how people can work from home and the multiple spaces for that.”
This approach is gaining momentum as work-from-home scenarios have become more important. Gone are the days Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty agent Julie Regan remembers when buyers put home offices low on their lists. “A lot of times, I would hear people say, ‘Oh, I don’t need a dedicated office—and if I need to do something, I just put my laptop on the kitchen island and work from there,’” she says. Now, she’s seeing at least one and often two dedicated home offices as mandatory.
But the seismic shift in how we live and work—more and more at home—has brought on other must-haves, too, including practicalities such as mudrooms and spacious, functional kitchens with walk-in pantries. “People have always wanted a great kitchen, but not being able to go out and eat and with everybody at home, the kitchen has become a much more valuable room,” Skjei says.
That’s especially true as households become increasingly multigenerational, with boomerang kids retreating home or elderly parents moving in to be close to family. “COVID was very isolating,” says agent Beth Ulrich of Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty. “So I’m seeing people saying, ‘OK, move in with us, because we couldn’t see you otherwise.’”
For many of these families, current kitchens and workspaces just aren’t cutting it. “What people thought was the perfect home is now something where you either need to remodel or upsize,” says Francesco Marraffa, founder and agent at KILT Real Estate.
Despite a tight inventory of homes and high materials costs for remodeling, homeowners are making moves—including remodeling or redesigning their current homes. And it can’t happen fast enough. “Adding a home office isn’t that unusual of a project,” says interior designer Sandy LaMendola of Twist Interior Design. “It’s just the need and the speed—that it needs to get done now because of the circumstances—that’s different.” At the moment, LaMendola is working with three clients to turn existing spaces into home offices. “One of them is taking a sunroom—this glorious space off the living room—and turning it into his office and sitting room,” she says.
But updates involve other rooms, too, oftentimes with work that’s long been deferred. “It’s more about personal enjoyment of the space and finishing up the little things, the quirks people just kind of dealt with over the years,” says Greg Walsh, president and senior designer at MartinPatrick3. “And now they’re saying, ‘We need to get this done and spend more time in this room.’”
Home gyms, sports courts, pools, and outdoor spaces—like patios with outdoor fireplaces and kitchens—have particularly grown in popularity over the past year, agents and designers say. But small changes can make a difference, too: Homeowners are updating living spaces for comfort and style, paying special attention to light and color now that they’re home in the daytime. “I upgraded and reupholstered a few things because I was spending more time at home,” says interior designer Renée LeJeune Hallberg of RLH Studio. “Even small changes can make you feel better.”
Ultimately, in the last year, people have discovered just how important a comfortable home is, and they’re making it happen.
