SB HOME MATTERS
BY SCOTT ANDERSON
Home WORKSPACES
R
emember back when you went to the office every day? By 10:30 every morning, you were staring into the inky blackness of your second cup of coffee, daydreaming about the freedom and flexibility you believed came from working from home. Then COVID happened.
We were all sent packing, with our files and computers and staplers in tow. Suddenly we became gypsies seeking a homeland. And it wasn’t just the desk jockeys. Even our kids were scrambling to find a new way to learn. In the blink of an eye those serene dreams of working from home became a chaotic nightmare that was all too real. Suddenly, everyone had to reorient themselves. Schedules had to be juggled. The cat began plotting his revenge on the humans who had invaded his “me time.” And just as suddenly, that folding card table was no longer sufficient for a desk, and the milk crates and plywood would no longer cut it for the “office” bookshelves. In short, it was time for a serious upgrade. The home renovation platform Houzz conducted a Houzz and Home study and found home office projects increased 4 percent nationally in 2020, and spending on those renovations was up 10 percent over the previous year.
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Tony Ochoa, sales manager at Hester’s Office Solutions, said the rush to create home offices has ebbed somewhat, but they still are in demand. “At first there were a lot of people coming in,” he said. “It has tapered off. People were working from home but not being productive. There’s been kind of a push to move people back to the office. A lot of people are splitting time, but they all have places to work at home.” Chad James, general manager of Office Furniture Source, said home office furniture was evolving even before COVID sent more office workers home. Traditional office furniture wasn’t fitting into the aesthetics at home, he said. “Traditional office furniture is more plain, with clean lines,” he said. “That won’t work in the home. Now people want something more ornate, more decorative, that flows with the house.” Ochoa agreed that people are shying away from putting contemporary office furniture in their homes, opting instead to harken back to the days when studies and home offices were more common. “Some of that older-looking furniture is heavier furniture, more so than contemporary office furniture. A lot of people come in looking for smaller computer desks with hutches that can go against the wall. They want the walnut and mahogany finishes.”
