The other day a dear friend of mine who lives in Milan called me, saying exactly these words to me: "Dear Elisabetta, my dream right now would be to have a balcony where to breath some fresh air and not having the feeling of being stuck in a house!"

We all now agree that COVID-19 is causing various changes in every respect and consequently it's pushing people towards different assessments and decisions than a few months ago. Perhaps it is the first time in modern history that we really live the concept of home, its spaces and its livability, with houses that have been transformed from evening and weekend shelters into operating stations, classrooms and virtual meeting places.

For many, in fact, who before this health emergency preferred rather to go out to dinner, travel or change the car, the #STAYATHOME has been an incredible sort of rediscovery that brought attention back to this environment which, now more than before, represent the constant background of our lives.

The reorganization of domestic spaces is therefore one of the first needs that emerges and will be a compromise between the needs, the type of activities performed and the square meters available, both for those who are renovating or buying a house, and for those who simply want to apply an interior design restyling in order to create more pleasant and comfortable environments.

Let’s see some of the changes taking place in the interior design area:

The popular open space entrances that overlook the living room or kitchen will be re-evaluated, preferring instead a partially isolated entrance that acts as a filter for the home. Hybrid solutions can also be adopted that can host, for example, a closed wardrobe, a shoe rack and a small bathroom, even with no windows, where you can perform hygiene-related actions.

Source: Sumisura

The kitchen, even a small one, but well organized: it is the place of the "carefree meeting" where to cook, experiment but also try out playful activities for the little ones. Staying at home has "forced" or perhaps enticed women to put themselves back in the kitchen, a return to the origins but also a chance to spend some time together, temporarily setting aside home delivery services such as Just Eat.

Source: Pinterest

Recreate a smart working area: a minimal desk, a coffee table as a support surface on the side of the sofa or a deeper shelf inserted in an equipped wall. All preferably close to natural light, so as to feel less constrained within the home walls, or alternatively using perimeter lighting systems that give the environment a calibrated and homogeneous light, simulating the solar one.

Source: Pinterest

Green plants cannot be missing, even in small quantities, and a relaxing fragrance to perfume the air and improve our mood as well as productivity.

Source: Pinterest

A multifunctional bathroom where you can take care of yourself and where you can also design a space-saving fitness area. To learn more about this topic, read my post.

Source: Scavolini 

Keep the temperature of the rooms controlled in order to promote psychophysical well-being and evaluate the use of machines capable of transforming oxygen into ozone to fight bacteria, viruses, mites and molds.

Finally, do not forget the outdoor environments such as a balcony or a small terrace, a real "luxury" in this quarantine time.

In short, it is necessary to design quality houses, with intelligent solutions that allow you to optimize spaces and that are no longer a trivial copy and paste from design magazines but that, on the contrary, are able to reflect the personality and way of live by those who live there, in short, even the house has a story to tell.