INDESIGN
GOOD RIDDANCE 2020 WHAT COVID TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIVING WELL. BY DANN FOLEY
So, 2020 was a s*#@ show. Is this news to anyone out there? I didn’t think so. As a country we have been anticipating the end of this year for months now and we are finally here! It’s a new year with newfound hope, new found optimism and hopefully, new found civility. We have collectively spent way too much time talking about what Covid has cost us. How about we begin the New Year by pointing out the things that may have actually made us and our lives a little better. This exercise is not meant to belittle anyone’s on-going experience due to sickness, death or the loss of their livelihood. But, at the worst of times, finding those moments of gratitude for what has come can be the most cathartic. Being a designer, my focus is always on my client’s projects. My job is to make their lives more beautiful and comfortable. When you suddenly find yourself working from home, with your spouse, kids, pets, maybe even some quarantining relatives, the idea of beauty and comfort takes on a completely new meaning. The calls we are getting from both existing and new clients are all about comfort and function. We are converting rooms into home offices with professional sound and lighting for all those remote meetings. We are soundproofing rooms for home schooling and building at-home classrooms where each child can have a workstation. We are expanding kitchens, redoing bathrooms, converting guest rooms into home gyms, building home theaters, not to mention, updating design work we have done previously to fit this new mode of casual living (on steroids!). What all of this design work has taught me is that the idea of HOME is even more important today than it was at the beginning of 2020. All of those things we thought we could live with or shrug off in our homes are now aching needs for revision. Before this year many of our clients just threw money at their homes or they came to me with the idea of style being a theme to be executed. Today, clients have become much more in tune to what makes them happy and what soothes their souls. Before this past year a home theater was about catching a movie when you had free time. Many
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of our client’s home theaters have now become the center of family socializing (after the kitchen). Movie night is every night; the theater has become a cozy cocoon of tranquility for Covid weary families. That giant screen does double duty during the day for streaming workouts, yoga and meditation. Even I never thought that this room meant as a space of pure luxury could become a home’s nucleus of family bonding time. This newfound need in our homes extends throughout the house. This shift is nowhere more evident than in the kitchen. Long the center of family life in general, the kitchen has now become a true delight for newly proclaimed bakers and chefs. I am truly amazed at the joy in the voices and the stories that I am hearing about experimenting in the kitchen alone and with family. The sharing of food and the experience of serving and eating together is one of the most basic elements of family life and living well. Now we just need to find storage space for all the new pots and pans and gadgets required for culinary experimentation. As I mentioned earlier, this need for our home’s to be everything to us extends throughout the house. At Foley & Stinnette we are receiving daily calls for everything from full renovations to new bed linens. The need is great! I already see people scrambling to get the last of this or that. This is where I beg you to stop and take a breath. Let me help you address those needs and desires. Making your house into a home and now an office, schoolroom, gym, yoga studio and gourmet test kitchen can be daunting in ordinary times. Let’s start with a list of rooms and ideas where you can make some big changes now that will carry you into this New Year and beyond. Each of these rooms is broken down into three categories of Easy, Some Effort and Professional Help. THE KITCHEN Easy: Why not try a new faucet? It will change the look of your kitchen and you will be surprised how it will upgrade how you use your kitchen.