Is Wellness Design Here to Stay?

The COVID-19 pandemic kicked off a “wellness design” movement in which a growing number of homeowners renovated their existing homes to create spaces and home elements focused on mental and physical health and wellbeing. Even as the worst of the pandemic comes to an end, the wellness design trend is alive and well, says Insider. Demand for flex rooms, home offices, improved outdoor living areas, laundry rooms, and home technology has risen nonstop over the last two years.

Some homeowners have even considered adding accessory dwelling units (ADUs) onto their properties for extra space to house aging loved ones or family members in quarantine. As a result, states like California and Texas are relaxing ADU regulations to make separate family units more affordable.

In late 2020, architect Nancy Keenan, homebuilder Alaina Money-Garman, marketing expert Teri Slavik-Tsuyuki, and building strategist Belinda Sward released an "America at Home Study" that surveyed more than 6,000 consumers during the first and second waves of COVID-19.

The survey found that among other things, buyers wanted larger entryways and better mudrooms that are easily closed off from the rest of the home, more bathrooms near the entry points of the home to give visitors an opportunity to wash their hands, flexible spaces that can be turned into places to do homework, take a Zoom call, or work out, and guest suites or quarantine bedrooms that have direct outside access, their own bathrooms, and can be safely isolated from the rest of the house.

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