During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most in-demand amenity was a stylish home office. Headlines proclaimed that commuting was a thing of the past and working from home was the future, while homeowners were building sheds in their yards as makeshift office spaces.
That future proved to be temporary. Five years later, major employers from the U.S. government to Wall Street banks have required their staff back at their desks, with some companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. even requiring employees to return to the office five days a week.
In the wake of these return-to-office mandates, homeowners are now finding new uses for their offices, converting spare rooms and outdoor additions into Pilates studios, golf simulator rooms, cigar lounges and even hangout spaces for their children.
“We built a garden room as an office during lockdown and have repurposed it as a teenage party room,” says Mark Lawson, partner at the Buying Solution, a property buying consultancy in London and the English countryside.
Lawson is intimately familiar with design styles thanks to his career showing homes to clients, so he can sense that he’s part of a larger trend. Lately, he’s noticed a number of hastily built home offices that have been converted into what he calls hobby rooms. What were formerly spaces used primarily for online meetings are now pottery studios and yoga rooms, he says. “We viewed one house where the vendor has set up a mini cookery school in it,” he says.
Passion projects for homeowners are increasingly taking up square footage — a huge turnaround from when people would hire interior designers to craft the ideal WFH background to impress colleagues and clients over Zoom meetings.
“One recent client of ours turned their home office into a fully kitted-out wine room. Having completed a sommelier course, this oenophile wanted a separate space to explore and enjoy their passion for wine,” says Giles Barrett, head of the Notting Hill office and director at real estate company Domus Nova. “The space was refitted with a spiral wine cellar, mood lighting and decor suited to a five-star hotel bar.”
Edo Mapelli Mozzi, founder and chief executive officer of property and design company Banda, says that on a recent project renovating a Hyde Park town house for a family, what was originally planned as a study was ultimately converted into a cigar room, “reflecting a shift we’re seeing away from purely work-focused spaces towards rooms that encourage hobbies, entertaining and retreat.”
In Battersea, Becky Fatemi from Sotheby’s International Realty is currently selling a house belonging to Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, which features a colorful listening room/podcasting area in lieu of a more traditional closed-off office space. The home is listed for $5.3 million.
It’s a similar story in New York City. “In luxury real estate, the once must-have home office is losing its crown,” says Eric Brown, co-founder of Manhattan-based estate agency Elevated Advisement. Brown says that as more high-net-worth homeowners are back in Manhattan four or five times a week, their offices are being reinvented, finding more creative second lives.
“Formerly quiet, minimalist studies are now doubling as lively man caves, moody cigar lounges or private cocktail bars,” says Brown. “Others have been transformed into golf simulator suites, fully equipped gyms or kid-focused play or video game rooms.”
Homeowners in New York City, where space is at a premium, are embracing this shift, he says, and letting their spare rooms serve multiple functions. “A room might start the day as a calm workout spot, serve as a kids’ gaming zone in the afternoon and then evolve into a sophisticated entertaining space by night.”
Interior designers and architects say they’re seeing clients change their minds on what they need during the middle of a construction project, with a home office falling further down the list of must-haves.
“On two projects, we’ve seen home offices get repurposed midconstruction. One was reimagined as a guest room and the other a nursery,” says Ross Padluck, architect partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design.
“With most of us in the Northeast back in the office, we are finding some clients looking for better uses for home office space,” Padluck says.
As for the Buying Solution’s Lawson, he jokes that getting rid of his home office in favor of a teenage party room was the “best thing he’s ever done.”
“Our kids bring their friends home, and they can do what they want without us seeing them or them seeing us. Everyone is happy,” he says.
Rappaport writes for Bloomberg.