In the wake of increasing return-to-office mandates, homeowners are now finding new uses for their home offices, converting them into pilates studios, pottery studios or even wine rooms. — Photos: Pexels
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the most in-demand amenity was a stylish home office. Headlines were proclaiming that commuting was a thing of the past and work-from-home was the future, while homeowners were building sheds in their yards as makeshift office spaces.
That future proved to be temporary. Five years later, major employers from the US government to Wall Street banks have required their staff back at their desks, with some companies like JPMorgan Chase & Co even requiring employees to return to the office five days a week.
In the wake of these return-to-office mandates, homeowners are now finding new uses for their offices, converting spare rooms and outdoor additions into pilates studios, golf simulator rooms, cigar lounges and even hangout spaces for their children. "We built a garden room as an office during lockdown and have repurposed it as a teenage party room,” says Mark Lawson, partner at the Buying Solution, a property buying consultancy in London, Britain and the English countryside.
Lately he’s noticed a number of hastily built home offices that have been converted into what he calls hobby rooms. What were formerly spaces used primarily for online meetings are now pottery studios and yoga rooms, he says.
"We viewed one house where the vendor has set up a mini cookery school in it,” he says.
More people are turning spaces used for working from home into children's play rooms.
Passion projects for homeowners are increasingly taking up square footage – a huge turnaround from when people would hire interior designers to craft the ideal WFH background to impress colleagues and clients over Zoom meetings.
"The space was refitted with a spiral wine cellar, mood lighting and decor suited to a five-star hotel bar.”
Edo Mapelli Mozzi, founder and chief executive officer of property and design company Banda, says that on a recent project renovating a Hyde Park town house for a family, what was originally planned as a study was ultimately converted into a cigar room, "reflecting a shift we’re seeing away from purely work-focused spaces towards rooms that encourage hobbies, entertaining and retreat”.
It’s a similar story in New York City, the United States.
"In luxury real estate, the once must-have home office is losing its crown,” says Eric Brown, co-founder of Manhattan-based estate agency Elevated Advisement.
Brown says as more high-net-worth homeowners are back in Manhattan four or five times a week, their offices are being reinvented, finding more creative second lives.
"Formerly quiet, minimalist studies are now doubling as lively man caves, moody cigar lounges or private cocktail bars,” says Brown. "Others have been transformed into golf simulator suites, fully equipped gyms or kid-focused play or video game rooms.”
Former home offices are being transformed into hobby rooms like golf simulator suites or fully equipped gyms.
"A room might start the day as a calm workout spot, serve as a kids’ gaming zone in the afternoon and then evolve into a sophisticated entertaining space by night.”
Interior designers and architects say they’re seeing clients change their mind on what they need during the middle of a construction project, with a home office falling further down the list of must-haves. "On two projects, we’ve seen home offices get repurposed mid-construction. One was reimagined as a guest room and the other a nursery,” says Ross Padluck, architect partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design. "With most of us in the Northeast back in the office, we are finding some clients looking for better uses for home office space,” Padluck says.
As for the Buying Solution’s Lawson, he jokes that getting rid of his home office in favour of a teenage party room was the "best thing he’s ever done”. "Our kids bring their friends home, and they can do what they want without us seeing them or them seeing us. Everyone is happy,” he says. – Bloomberg
