We’ve made a lot of weird home design choices during the pandemic. Some of us bought bean bags we never would’ve thought we wanted in our homes. Many of us invested in 70-inch television screens when we are not even fond of watching TV. Then, some went full-on DIY mode as they renovated their basements, redesigned rooms, repainted their home exterior, and even installed above-the-ground swimming pools.
Staying at home and working from the kitchen table forced many families to sell their two-bedroom apartments and look for something more livable for the entire family. The pandemic didn’t only force families out of their city homes, but it also pushed them to invest in something they didn’t think they wanted—a family home in the suburbs. But even this family home didn’t suit what they needed during the pandemic, which is a quiet place to work, study, and rest.
That’s why movable and sliding walls were discovered. In fact, this is not a home design fluke. Offices and schools have already used sliding walls for their classrooms, conferences rooms, meeting rooms, and individual cubicles. Homeowners hired contractors and interior designers with proper certifications and licenses and those who passed CSCS exams just to install these sliding walls in their homes. For offices, of course, the idea of sliding walls is no question.
Why Sliding Walls?
Remote working used to be a dream for employees. Who doesn’t want to work from home and get more sleep in the morning? Who doesn’t want to eliminate the need to commute to work every day? However, a few months after the pandemic was officially announced, work-from-home employees were already exhausted from having to juggle their careers and home life.
Imagine working while your toddler is screaming in the same room. Imagine joining conference calls while sitting on the kitchen stool. These are not great spaces to work in. Workers cannot concentrate on their jobs. Instead, they are easily distracted by what surrounds them—noises, dirty laundry, dishes in the sink, unprepared meals, spilled milk, and various other clutter.
For many, they needed to transform parts of their home into office spaces. They need peace, quiet, and order. But how are they going to get that with the limited space they have at home? Thankfully, interior designers and contractors thought about sliding walls to give homeowners privacy when they need it, and at the same time, have the option for bigger spaces when they have to entertain guests.
Sliding Walls Offer Flexibility and Maximum Usage
If you think sliding walls were just a trend during the pandemic, think again. Sliding walls will be here to stay not only because they were much-needed design elements during the pandemic but also because they make homes and offices flexible. Sliding walls maximize every inch of the available space in a room, so they’re great for all types of buildings and establishments.
In offices, sliding walls can create small meeting areas, cubicles for individual work, and larger conference rooms for seminars and workshops. In schools, sliding and movable walls allow for two or more classes to be joined together. They also give more opportunities for collaboration. At home, you can entertain guests by moving the sliding walls to the side and opening up your living areas, or you can create smaller rooms for work, crafts, and learning.
Access to Outdoor Areas
Whether in the office or at home, you need to access outdoor spaces for a couple of minutes each day. Spending time outside will boost your productivity rate. Not to mention, it will give your mental health such a huge boost. Building designers started to incorporate sliding glass doors and walls into offices and homes that they redesigned during the pandemic.
This isn’t only for boosting the productivity rate. As health experts said, proper ventilation will make office spaces safer against the spread of the COVID-19 virus. With the availability of outdoor spaces, workers will have the option of moving outdoors when they feel that their offices indoors are too enclosed. The access to outdoor spaces will make homes, schools, restaurants, offices, shops, and other establishments safer from an outbreak.
Sliding walls are not new to the game of office and home design. In fact, you might not have even noticed that your own office has it. People tend to shrug off these things when they are of no use to them. The pandemic changed everyone’s perspective. Now, everyone is into the idea of sliding walls and doors. They understand that this is more than a design element that’s trendy because of the coronavirus. This is the real deal; homes and offices need them because they make spaces safer for people.
