The evolution of home and home office spaces for increased comfort
My Design, an architecture and interior design studio, uses ESCREO whiteboard paint to design comfortable, organized and creative home offices. Read our interview with Arch. Iva Tsalovska where we discuss applicable home office solutions and the changes in the home interior over the last two years.
Tell us more about you, your expertise and that of the team. What would you like people to know about My Design?
Ever since we established our interior design studio, our main goal has been to serve the client. We specialize in building good relationships and on this basis we create personalized interiors. This is more than design work and we are proud that our customers define us as “fresh” and “cool” in the first place.
The passion of our team is to put function above form without compromising on the wishes of the user. This is how we make interiors subject to the daily activities, hobbies and needs of our clients. We comply with their views, giving our competence in specific cases that have not even been thought of yet.
The other task that we have taken to heart is to build competence in the technologies of the future and to be always informed about the latest trends in the topic of “smart home”. We have already completed several projects in which technology has been implemented to make the home “rational”. This includes not only lighting and control from a smartphone, but also completely self-made decisions taken by the appliances based on household scenarios, external influences and internal temperature, and air quality.
How has the home changed over the past 2 years?
We are witnessing the evolution of home and “home office” space, new solutions for more comfort when working from home and new distribution planning trends that can be taken into account in an upcoming residential interior fit out or refurbishment of an apartment. More and more often we end up needing to provide a place for work in the living room as it is a rarity that we have one free room in the apartment. Actually, it is rather the opposite – we are always missing one.
How then to create an “office” at home? There are several solutions:
- The children’s desk while they are not at home
- The kitchen table
- The sofa and lie on it with the laptop
- Some extendable table to work on
The truth is that no solution is perfect, even to work in the living room, where the heart of the home is usually. But there must be a compromise. It is much easier to create your home office space at the design stage of a new apartment as the wiring is of great importance there and it can be a problem when you cannot control it.
We recommend that the Internet is not just wifi, or you can consider measuring the signal strength for better coverage in the rooms. In any case, we think beyond just the shape of the office chair to order if you are going to work 8-9 hours from your new “home office” space.
We recommend using space specifically provided for the workplace, if possible to avoid pull-out or opening solutions, because from a functional point of view it is non-ergonomic and it almost never sits so clean to click into a cupboard. Of course, in the absence of space it is better to rely on such smart solutions instead of the kitchen chair.
What are the needs of spending more time at home and what innovations have become more than a trend?
The longer time spent at home has led to the need for increased comfort and the introduction of a “smart home” system. Amenities such as automatic switching on and off of the lighting in the various rooms we pass through, albeit for a short time. An example is also managing the heating and cooling according to a schedule in accordance with our daily routine, as well as turning it off when we leave home. Such is the autonomous retraction of awnings in the event of strong wind or rain.
They have become a natural continuation of our habit of not thinking about these everyday issues, which in the office are usually implemented by someone instead of us. Most likely, none of the above is of key importance to us and its absence will not harm our quality of life. At the same time, the same argument can be used when commenting on the benefits of air conditioning in the car – and yet, no one would deprive themselves of this option nowadays.
And last but not least, how does ESCREO whiteboard paint fit into the modern home and why do you choose to work with us?
Just as we have not deprived ourselves of the comforts of the modern world, so we want to expand the field of useful materials, surfaces and useful ideas. From a user’s point of view, I turned to ESCREO so that I could make optimal use of the surfaces surrounding my home workplace, because in a pandemic, it turned out to be extremely important to fix a schedule at home. Also, to have it written on the wall turned out to be the easiest and most visible way for all of us.
As a designer, I was thinking of several options. A traditional whiteboard raised some issues, i.e. where to place it, having to drill the wall to put it and a bunch of other organizational elements that would go along with it. Fortunately, I have a clear wall above the desk and this was just the perfect place for adding an additional whiteboard paint coat, and not only that but a coat with added value: write on and wipe off as much as we would like.
For children it is more than clear – this is a lot of fun and it is expanding the range of writable surfaces for creative expression. For me, as an interior designer, it now comes naturally to place a writable area on the wall in the design of premises of different kinds. It turns out to be fun also for us, the grown-up ones, at the same time convenient and super useful.
Home office interior design with ESCREO whiteboard paints
ESCREO whiteboard paint brings creativity, motivation and productivity to your home office. Today, ESCREO is part of the evolutionary process of communication. Find more about our writable whiteboard paint or discover additional ESCREO products like our clear dry erase paint which allows you to write on walls and surfaces while preserving the look and style of your space, or our magnetic whiteboard paint with strong magnetic properties which not only lets you write on and wipe off, but also attach notes.