Post pandemic: Do homes designed during Covid still work for our lifestyles?

We added offices and separate zones to cope with lockdown life. Can we make them work today?

Built during Covid, does this home still work today? Picture: Tatjana Plitt

The pandemic changed everything but we adapted and fast, swiftly transforming our homes to accommodate our new lockdown lifestyles. We needed home offices, places for the kids to study and retreats for bewildered adults and so we extended and renovated to ensure everyone was catered for.  

But today, semi normal life is back on the agenda. Does this mean we need to rethink our floorplans all over again?

Anthony Adams, director of Complete Builders Insight, doesn’t think so – and he is speaking both personally and professionally.  

Anthony rebuilt his own home during the pandemic period and while his family’s needs may have changed, he does not regret his decision to turn his small cottage into a large home with plenty of space for he and his wife, their three sons and their two dogs.

An open kitchen was an essential part of the design. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

The other side of the kitchen-dining zone. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

The newly extended home functioned beautifully throughout the lockdowns with Anthony, wife Natasha Lane and sons Jake, 25, Oscar, 20, and Archie, 11, coping well thanks to separate living zones and plenty of light and space in which to move.

Today, with pandemic panic easing, Anthony is taking another long, hard look at his house and reports that he still loves what he sees.

“When it was in the design stage our architect Fooi (Fooi-Ling Khoo of OOF! Architecture) was saying I think this house is too big, but two kids are adults and my wife still works from home most days, so we did the right thing by getting five bedrooms,” says Anthony. “Also, both sets of in-laws live on the coast, so we wanted to be able to have them visit us and have somewhere comfortable for them t

The upper level. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

One of the bedrooms. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

The master bedroom and three secondary bedrooms are on the first level with a home office and guest room on the ground floor. The back end of the home opens up with large stacker doors to lead out to an alfresco area, where the family come together.

“As one of the clients is a builder, there was huge flexibility to reconsider and evolve many ideas and details on site during construction, which was a blessing and a curse,” says Fooi.

She explains that all the shared activities of the house are open to each other “but gently screened” so the family can have their own spaces and yet still be together, which was especially important during Covid spikes. Even the family’s two dogs were considered in the design brief. “Dogs come and go through their custom built dog tunnel to the backyard.”

The unique design. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

RAW MATERIALS

Aside from lots of open space and dedicated rooms for family members to retreat to, Anthony had another very specific ideal.

“I knew that I wanted industrial style and those big trusses in my home finished off in raw materials sum that up nicely,” he says.

That idea was lifted from a cafe in Geelong that Anthony had taken snaps off a couple of years prior. “The colour orange was chosen because it ties back to the orange oven my wife had chosen before we had even built the house,” he says.

“When people walk down that hallway and look up, they always go, ‘that is just so impressive’. It looks pretty damn good.”

The couple had also been waiting about 10 years to showcase a neon light-up ice cream sign in the right space. It has been stashed in the garage alongside a railway clock – both items now take pride of place in the kitchen/dining area. The kitchen itself was the only section of the home that didn’t go to plan, with Fooi’s design incorporating an enclosed pantry that did not flow with the open plan concept.

The study. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

The family wanted an open concept. Picture: Tatjana Plitt

“Quite a lot of work had been done in the kitchen and when my wife saw it, she hated it,” says Anthony. “It broke my heart. The pantry was enclosed and I pretty much rang Fooi and said, ‘I’m going to have to rip it out’. It was the only change she wanted to make and that was fair enough, so we had to make another arrangement on the fly.”

A year on, Anthony says he remains deeply satisfied with every aspect of the house.

“It’s suitable for our family now and for future generations,” he says.

The home, polished but not intimidating, must have cost a pretty penny. But Anthony is unaware of the exact figure, nor is he willing to take a punt.

“I have no idea how much this house cost to build, I just know what my mortgage is,” he says. “I can’t quantify the amount of time and weekends I spent here working or add up the fixtures and the fittings.” One thing he does know however. “It works for us.”

Bird sculpture.

STAY IN THEME
Keep things unpolished and interesting in your modern home with an artwork made of orange and green mesh wire. No two are alike. Bird sculpture, $124.56.

etsy.com/au

Santorini Staircase print.

Don’t have the space or the budget to create a chic brick aesthetic? Take the easy road with this print. Santorini Staircase, $169.95, 100cm x 130cm.

oliveetoriel.com

Bertazzoni Professional Series 90cm cooker.

Orange is a bright and easy colour to include in a raw and rustic-inspired home. Bertazzoni Professional Series 90cm cooker, $8999.

designerappliances.com.au

Double sided clock.

The industrial theme continues with a railway clock that is a nod to the unrefined eras of the past. It would be great to land an original. Double sided clock, $274.95.

ohclocks.com.au

Originally published as Post pandemic: Do homes designed during Covid still work for our lifestyles?