Home Design After COVID-19: What is the Future of Interior Design

sustainable kitchen design by kim gordon - pacific palisades - green pantry - home design after covid-19

While the home has long been where the heart is, this saying reigns truer than ever in the world since COVID-19. With the home serving as the epicenter for not just the usual meals and leisure, but for full-time work, exercise, schooling, etc., we are all looking at our homes differently. As such, we want them to be beautiful and healthy spaces. So, whether you are just looking to make a few upgrades, undergoing a full renovation, or starting from scratch, here are some things to pay attention to in the future of interior design.


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A New Kind of Entry

le-le bench by koket in a beautiful foyer - home design after covid-19

In an effort to keep our homes healthy and germ-free a disinfection zone will replace the beautiful unfunctional entry. Now this does not mean you should not have a fabulous wall with a console table and mirror or a beautiful bench, but space to strip down and sanitize before entering the home will be much more common.

Indoors and Outdoors Unite

Uluwatu luxury home design by SAOTO
Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia by SAOTA, Photo by Adam Letch

While bringing the outdoors in and a desire for biophilic design has been on the rise for some time now, the demand for such will surely continue to flourish in the future. Something about nature just feels so right!


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Mood Enhancing by Design

Spending hours on end in the same space is a guaranteed way to determine how your environment makes you feel. Colors, shapes, textures, smells, these are all things that affect our mood. Thus designing to enhance the desired mood of each room in your home is a must.

koket vamp sofa, tears cocktail table, hypnotic chandelier

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Multi-purpose Rooms

Regardless of the size of your home people love to congregate in the kitchen, living, and dining areas. So making these rooms adaptable and functional for multiple different activities is crucial. This means having a dining room setup and kitchen supplies that don’t get in the way of socializing and other room uses. From working and studying to exercising, make these areas of your home as multi-purpose as possible.

The Home Office Becomes Fulltime

home office - home design after COVID-19
Chelsea Barracks by Qatari Diar designed by Elicyon (Photo by Alexander James for Qatari Diar)

If you have space, creating a fulltime home office when working fulltime at home is more of a necessity than a desire. Pick a room, and make it work for you. Need to do lots of video conferencing? Check for good sound and lighting. And don’t forget a classy background.


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A New Level of Physical Health at Home

Our homes are our havens. They must keep us safe and healthy. Thus home gyms, ample outdoor access, and high-functioning air and water filtering systems are all important elements of home design after COVID-19!

Living Sustainably & Quality Over Quantity

More time at home means higher utility bills! So who wouldn’t want to design to reduce energy consumption? Simple changes like what light bulbs you’re using to bigger investments like solar panels and better insulation can help keep home costs down.

In addition to eco-friendly home features, buying quality over quantity is becoming more of a must than a maybe. If you buy the sofa that lasts it stays out of landfills MUCH longer!



Smart Home Gadgets

Voice and facial recognition are around, but such technology definitely has plans to grow in home design. Think a door you open by asking it to when your hands are full, lights turn off please. Or how about sitting on the couch in the living room and telling the stove to pre-heat to 425°. Not to mention that the less you touch the fewer germs spread!

Less Need to See-in-Person

When it comes to home design the tradition has been, I need to see it in person. And while this tradition was already fading with the rise of eCommerce, shopping online for furniture left many a little warier of clicking to buy. With stores closed around the world and stay at home orders keeping us home, buying online has become the norm. And all of a sudden, “Wow, these images, videos, and descriptions do a great job of telling me everything I need to know, maybe I don’t actually need to see it in person?”

Self-Sufficiency

Pacific Palisades Home designed by Kim Gordon with many features that address home as a resilient hub!
Pacific Palisades Home designed by Kim Gordon with many features that address home as a resilient hub!

This may be hard to imagine, but your home can be very, if not totally, self-sufficient. Food, water, and shelter are all we really need. And with a beautiful and healthy home on top of the necessities, staying at home more becomes easy. Whether in raised beds in the yard or hanging from the wall or in planters, gardens are sure to become more popular. While this may not be widespread in the future of interior design, but if you have the means and desire, add a bunker and you will kick up your self-sufficiency to a whole new level!

Basically the future of interior design sounds like a whole lot better version of today. So, cheers to wellness in home design, and everywhere humans interact with each other and the natural world, after COVID-19!

Words by Anna Beck Bimba