Home zoning: new skills to help your clients adapt their homes into multi-purpose spaces

Coronavirus has changed not just the way the nation works but the demands on our homes.

Remote working has become the new normal and working from home is set to continue into the foreseeable future.

As a decorator, you’ll be able to use your skills to help your clients adapt their property to the new normal and allow them to create spaces where they can live, relax and work in perfect harmony.

Understanding the challenges

The pandemic has seen the divide between work and home life disappear for many. Your customers can’t ‘leave their work at the office’ when their homes have increasingly become the place that they work.

At the start of lockdown, kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms suddenly transformed into make-shift office spaces. While many people were excited at the prospect of no commute and spending the day in their pyjamas, the novelty wore off and reality sank in. Without an office to leave behind, it was harder to switch off at the end of the working day.

Through intelligent use of colour, you can help your customers adapt their homes to meet their new demands and improve their work-life balance. Not only will your awareness around this reassure your clients that you're an expert, but it can help you upsell a job.

Zoning homes

You should talk to your customers about how the way they interact with their home has changed since the start of lockdown. With this, you can understand which spaces need to function as a working environment and where your clients want to switch off and unwind.

The use of different colour schemes in rooms will help divide spaces and create zones that will enable them to stay focused on work during ‘office hours’ and relax when it’s time to wind down after a busy day.

As you discuss a project with a client, explain how you can use Dulux Trade colours to create zones for work, relaxation and socialisation in their homes. For the working spaces, consider choosing pale, soothing greens and blues as these can extend a gentle calmness into space for work and study. On the other side, bold and lively colours, such as a rich russet red, signifies that a room is for play.

The Dulux Visualizer App can help your clients make the right choices for colours to help them create new zones.

Its Colour Picker technology will let them take inspiration from the colours already in a space - showing them the closest Dulux colour match to anywhere they point their device’s camera and then recommend complementary colour schemes.

Creating multi-purpose spaces

In many situations, it can feel impossible to neatly divide rooms into working and non-working spaces. Often, rooms such as kitchens and bedrooms will still need to fulfil both functions for your clients.

In these spaces, clever design can create clear divisions and help mentally separate a multi-functional room.

Talk to your clients about the different creative ways this can be achieved. Think about introducing a single block of colour around a desk or introducing a subtle stripe around working areas. Even something seemingly small like a painted rectangle over a desk can signify this is a separate space from the rest of the room and has its own different purpose.

Get creative with colour

Confident colour schemes can be used to clearly mark out different areas of a room, so think about different ways colour can be used on walls or trim. It pays to think outside the box and not conform to just a feature wall.

You could carve out a corner in a room by partially painting two walls in the same colour, creating an instant visual cue that will make one room multi-functional, giving your customer a dedicated work space or play area.

Or try adding a new dimension to bare walls by cutting across them with sharp lines, circles or arches, for a playful, modern and original space.

You can see how Dulux Colour of the Year Brave Ground™ and it’s supporting palettes can be used to create these features in our handy Dulux Colour of the Year Decorator Guide.

Enhance your skills

If you want to set yourself apart from the competition and learn more about using colour to help customers design beautiful living spaces that work for their needs in the ‘new normal’, check out the colour courses available at Dulux Academy.

Dulux Academy now offers face-to-face courses at its state-of-the-art training centre in Slough, as well as Dulux Academy Live online workshops, at times to suit your busy working day.