Home oasis
My home and my castle – a classic line with an even deeper meaning. Your home can mean everything to you. Filled with memories and pieces of your life it holds inextricable value for you. Here, you often start to create new chapters in your life. And they equally often carry a reminder of comfort. This accumulation of style brings joy and well-feeling to you.
Diving deeper into comfort, more than ever, consumers are looking to their homes as a place to retreat. As a result, people explore rituals that transform the house into a sacred space with an increased focus on mental well-being. Coincidentally, the pandemic shifted consumer fragrance needs from seduction toward feel-good, soothing scents like lavender, eucalyptus, lemon, and vanilla,
Learning from the past
Repeatedly major world events, specifically the spread of fatal illnesses, have impacted our vision and interpretation of home. Take the Flu Pandemic of 1918: middle-class homeowners started adding half-bathrooms on the ground floor. We also know them as the powder room, to provide guests with a place to clean up before fully entering a home. And the onset of COVID-19 is sparking trends of its own. Most of those in the workforce got pushed to work from their homes. CouponFlow found that “75 percent of remote employees report that they have invested their own money on a dedicated workspace, spending an average of $572.”
Today’s attention
For many, the bathroom forms the only area in the home to get complete privacy. In addition, the bathroom represents a hub for wellness, the $450 billion market, also known as self-care. According to the 2020 Houzz Bathroom Trends study conducted during the pandemic, homeowners surveyed said they use their bathroom to rest and relax (41 percent).
Another area – or should we say accessory – of the home has grown (quite literally). Very often, they now feature plants. Studies show that plants can increase feelings of relaxation boosting our mental health. Plants also make any space more lively. According to NASA studies, plants improve air quality too! So for those dry winter months, plants can add a much-needed dose of humidity. And remember – plants also improve our memory! Spending time outside with plants can increase memory retention by 20 percent.
The hit Netflix makeover show Queer Eye’s resident decor expert, Bobby Berk, expressed it best: “[We] will begin to embrace a new way of living that means spending more time at home and thus creating a calming refuge from the outside world.” Today, our homes take on more value than ever. They have gone above and beyond in protecting us from the outside world and helping us create a relaxing one inside.
Throughout our experiences with the pandemic, many of us have taken on new skills. Whether we are gardening, cooking, knitting, and much more, these activities have taken place in the comfort of our home – a place of true discovery and sanctuary.
How do you prefer to make your home your haven? Let us know in the comments!
