From House To Home

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As the physical structure of the new American home continues to rapidly change, how it’s furnished is changing, too. It’s not just about fickle consumer taste, but rather it is about how furniture has to work differently today than it ever has before.

Beyond the changing of today’s home construction, the factors of flexibility, non-gender-specific designs that represent both sexes, and furniture placement have taken us designers and manufacturers back to the drawing board.

Open spaces

It used to be that we did one thing in each room. We ate in the dining room, we greeted guests in the living room, we cooked in the kitchen, we watched TV in the den, and we bellied up to the bar in the study. Today, we are doing all those things in one wide-open space. For this reason, creating four to five functionalities in one undefined environment can get complicated using the traditional furniture of yesterday.

Without walls to help define these spaces, area rugs are doing all that work. Now due to new manufacturing technology, area rugs have become conversation pieces of art and the anchors around which we now cluster our furniture.

Because of these new room configurations, more manufacturers are realizing that wall space is at a premium.

When you think of at least four to five living areas in each room, all accommodating multiple furniture groupings, smaller-scale pieces in larger rooms are now essential. In the formal area of an open space, two love seats have replaced the full-sized sofa. In the entertainment area, multiple club chairs now do what the big pit sofa once did--but better. If pit sofas are being used, several completely finished sections are taking the lead over larger fixed pieces. This allows the individual sections of the traditional pit configuration to be broken up into reconfigurable seating--again, for maximum flexibility. But club chairs are an even a better solution. They provide each person with their own arms and personal space and can be moved or angled toward any sight line in a room, allowing for unobstructed views at all times.

For this very reason, we’re also seeing the swivel club chair make a comeback. When entertaining, the ability to reposition furniture according to the specific event is critical in providing the ultimate in flexibility that these new open, multi-functional spaces now require. It’s why a trend toward lower-profiled furniture is becoming popular. Furniture with low backs, settees with half backs, and multiple small ottomans also keep views unobstructed. The fact that they can also move easily about a space is becoming key to tomorrow’s design of these wide-open rooms.

The food presentation area of these spaces now favors counter-height tables and bar stools. This area now acts as both a bar and a grazing station as opposed to a formal, ornate dining-room table that stays in the formal dining room, which is no longer appropriate for these flexible lifestyles.

Slipper chairs and double-wide, armless, upholstered benches are back in vogue--and the more lightweight, the better. They offer a simple, unadorned solution to multiple seating and also provide a more built-in look anywhere they are placed--even back-to-back in the center of open spaces.

Because of these new room configurations, more manufacturers are realizing that wall space is at a premium. Bookcases, open curio cabinets, and towers are being finished on all sides so that they can be placed perpendicular to walls or float in the center of rooms acting as dividers and visual transition devices from one activity area to the next.

Master suites

The master bedroom is changing into a multiple-living environment more than ever before. Spurred on by hip and luxurious five-star hotel suites, these are now private living spaces for parents rather than simply the sleeping spaces they once were.

Headboards are high and padded for ultimate comfort--gone are the days of the brass bed. The average scale of most beds is queen or king, and the bed is the focal point of the room, versus being minimized as in the past. Beds for the most part are shown turned down with couture, tailored bed linens and high-thread-count sheets exposed.

Then there are the other areas such as a separate TV-viewing space, a lounging area, and in fact, all the amenities that those pricey hotels offer, right down to the coffee stations.

The point is this: today’s hyper-taskers are investing in owning the deluxe experience at home all the time rather than simply renting the experience and living better away from home than they do in their homes.