In recent times our homes have been serving as makeshift workspaces, gyms, schools and restaurants. We are finding our lifestyles and routines altered and our homes are not exactly aligning with those changes. Have you fallen out of love with your home and taken a second look at your refuge?
“As we begin 2021, our clients are approaching us with new challenges in their home.” Centaur Interiors Design Director, Jen Aubry, and our top tier design team, incorporate their experience, expertise and impeccable eye for design to help our clients, who have felt the shift, rejuvenate their space. Our design team identifies that the interiors of a home is not just limited by the architectural elements, it expands to space planning, finishes & furnishings. These elements can transform a space and make you fall in love all over again.
Here are a few key areas of the home that our team is busy reconceptualizing for clients.
Home Office Spaces
The home office will remain a conversation through 2021. The once temporary workspace at the dining room table must now become a permanent area. Clients are asking for a better desk set-up, a more comfortable task chair and storage for files and paperwork. We are challenged with designing offices that do not taunt you from afar when you are off the clock – think concealed storage and equipment and rooms that convert. Infrequently used guest bedrooms are being promoted to the corner office and more than one family member is needing a space to set up a laptop. We are designing modern murphy beds, custom millwork, custom furniture, and finding convertible sofas with quality mattresses or modular furniture to meet these needs.
Kitchen & Entertianment Spaces
The way we gather & entertain has changed and we will continue to be mindful of this through the next year. Beyond finding the ideal backdrop for a Zoom happy hour, we are helping our clients rethink how we gather in the Kitchen, how we serve family and guests and how we spread the gathering beyond the kitchen and dining room. Our perception of the “open space plan” has changed, and we are once again finding the need to compartmentalize the home so more than one function can be happening at the same time.
Rethinking furniture plans and creating multiple seating groups can help in lieu of walls and screens. We’ve created casual dining spaces that extend off the kitchen island for an additional dining space. Custom millwork is also a terrific way to divide an open space and the bonus is more storage.
Outdoor Spaces
The outdoor oasis has become an important feature of the home and more and more clients are coming to us for our expertise in designing and building outdoor space. Not only have we learned that transmission decreases when we “take the party outside,” but this is an additional room and extension of the home. It’s a break from the home office or a place to do morning yoga. It’s movie night with a fire pit and outdoor TV. It’s even a second kitchen.
Even in Chicago we have been able to design these spaces to extend the enjoyment of the outdoors more days of the year with heating elements, water misters and motorized canopies.
Our lives have changed, but our homes will always remain our safe place, our refuge, and our retreat. We are just using space differently and our team is here to help our clients navigate these changes and transformations. Are you ready to Fall in Love with your home again in 2021 and for years to come?
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215 W Huron Suite 1
Chicago, IL 60654
312.279.2776
[email protected]
www.centaurinteriors.com
Photography by: Tony Soluri
