Every year brings new interior design trends, sometimes completely fresh ones or perhaps a resurgence of past ones, but with a contemporary spin.
This past year, no thanks to creative influences, brought a seismic shift in how we view our homes. And due to huge numbers of people forced to work from home, the term home office took on a new and weightier meaning.
Forced to carve out a workspace, and for many others also a home-schooling space, in our homes has often meant making significant changes to interiors.
“Twenty-twenty will be known for home offices,” observes Nicole Parsons, co-manager of home finishes store Windsor Plywood Coquitlam.
First and foremost, says Parsons, people are taking previously open spaces and transforming them into private offices. One way to achieve this is by installing new interior doors where once there was a seamless opening into a hallway, or another common living space.
“We have definitely seen an incredible increase for interior doors,” says Parsons. It’s a simple and effective solution to create privacy and noise reduction, especially helpful when conducting online meetings.
“This is being done with open-den type of rooms,” Parsons explains. She finds that the most common change is with the den/office rooms at the front of a house. People want both privacy and the ability to tuck work away from the rest of their home — both psychologically and mess-wise.
Most often, homeowners opt for opaque glass doors, which let in light both ways while still allowing for complete privacy. “By creating an office with a nice glass door, they’ll be able to have light come into the office without giving up their privacy,” Parsons says.
These doors work well in other rooms in the house too, such as bathrooms and master bedrooms. Though the light flows between the rooms, there is absolute privacy, even when the light is on, Parsons says.
Privacy will always be ensured because the glass is laminated not frosted. Therefore, any scratches on the glass won’t affect its integrity. “There are two pieces of glass and there’s a white film in between the two pieces of glass. Any scratches or chemicals can’t affect it,” Parsons explains.
The more popular door profile is “definitely minimalist,” Parsons observes. “It has clean lines, no details, with just a groove in a flat-panel door to give it some architectural design or a mimic of a shaker.” The shaker series comes in a range of panel choices to complement the existing interior style of the house. It is either one panel of total glass with a square edge or up to five panels, Parsons says, adding that the glass is built right into the door.
Installation is also straightforward. Parsons’ team is able to customize the doors for the room’s opening and then install it.
“Here we have a 2,500-square-foot door shop. In that shop, we can take your door and cut custom height and width,” she says. “You don’t have to reframe. You don’t have to re-drywall, the things that become too big of a project.”
When it comes to organizing office space, Windsor Plywood Coquitlam offers an extensive range of specialty woods to create built-in shelving units and carries a live-edge series, perfect for rustic floating shelves which add warmth and interest in a modern-styled room.
“The underside is a burl, but the top is all squared off. It just needs to be anchored to the wall,” Parsons says. She adds that it’s simple to transform a desk with a new wood surface, like fir or maple.
The store, she says, is truly a one-stop-shop for finishes for your new home office, or any room in your home. There’s cabinet hardware if you want to freshen up the look of a desk or storage unit and woodcare products to enhance the look of your furniture.
Whatever you’re seeking, the team at Windsor Plywood Coquitlam will guide you through the process, be it deciding on a variety of wood or selecting a new front door.
“We’re not order takers,” Parsons says. “We want to make sure that our customer finds what they need and that it’s not hard for them. It should be a simple process. You tell me what you need and I’m going to fill that need.”
