“Everything at Home” has become an emergent trend in the New Normal era accelerated by the pandemic of COVID-19, thanks to the lockdown restrictions. SCG launched a customer survey during the COVID-19 lockdown periods and found that aside from having to work from home, most consumers seek at-home activities to help beat quarantine boredom like cooking, exercising, watching movies, playing games or gardening. These stay-at-home activities have reshaped home needs towards the new normal. Plus, it has discovered that most homeowners aspire to proportionate home spaces to increase utility areas for different activities, enhance home functionality for better living convenience, and keep the house clean and safe. Hence, as a leading innovative building material and total solution provider, SCG introduces five ideas for home redesigning to make the house in line with the New Normal lifestyles.
Mr. Chua Kuptithanhi, Consult and Design Solution Business Lead from SCG, said that the pandemic has reshaped the way we live towards new normal lifestyles. The survey result unveiled the top 5 most utilized spaces at home during lockdown periods: bedroom, living room, kitchen and dining room, bathroom, and outdoor living space like garden or terrace, where home members explore and zone rooms and spaces for multi-utility activities. SCG has extracted the survey results of consumers’ insights on behaviors and utilization of living space into five home redesigning ideas where everyone at home can enjoy their favorite activities along with advice on building materials selection to better fulfill home needs with aesthetic delight.
1. Home as a New Office
Transform a home space into a new office to cater to a new norm of life — work from home in two ways: redesigning the bedroom and finding a corner to create a workspace, or creating a new workspace in an empty room or free space in the house. It is advisable to place a set of a work desk and chair at a corner space with direct natural light and add vinyl lath or SCG’s wooden lath to provide shade and reduce the house’s heat transfer. The workspace should completely be separated from personal living space. It can be achieved with the help of Cylence Zoundblock to zone areas as it is designed to specifically block transmission of sound between rooms to prevent unwanted noise to ensure efficient productivity, or Cylence Zandera, a lightweight and easy-to-install acoustic material for sound absorbing coming in many colors, to increase aesthetic appeal to the wall. On top of that, a good and comfortable set of desk and chair is recommended for long working hours.
2. Sanctuary-Like Space
Create a beautiful corner to give yourself a soothing treat from work and place for stress-free activities. This helps make staying at home more enjoyable with a good work-life balance. Examples include an indoor favorite coffee corner where you can indulge in pleasure with green space from decorative plants or little outdoor garden. Beautifying the space with paving blocks, or floor tiles, or synthetic material flooring with wood effect in the garden with outdoor table and chair makes a nice place for a staycation. For workout area, find a free space or zone the living room for an at-home workout like yoga, aerobics or workout session with video.
3. Greenery Space: An Oasis at Home
Gardening and plant care have become popular hobbies during the quarantine. Not only the activity makes good use of time, but it can add a spark of life, making your home greener and more relaxing. Green spaces can be added to both indoor and outdoor environments by introducing small potted houseplants at home corners. Ornamental indoor plants, such as Snake Plant, Rubber Plant, Chrysanthemum, or Devil’s ivy, are the best bet as they are easy to care for and can also tolerate low sunlight, reduce dust and keep indoor air clean. For outdoor gardening, homeowners can use decorative materials such as floor tiles, paving blocks, decorative wall tiles, or artificial grass to make a pleasant walkway or a seating area embellished with trees to provides shade or decorative plants. For the house with tight space, a vertical garden or Modular Green Hive is a wise option as it is easy to install and maintain. It can help create a plant wall that offers shade and keep the home cool.
4. Home Hygiene and Sanitization
Hygiene and safety are among the top priorities of homeowners in the New Normal era to ensure the good well being and healthy living. The survey found that homeowners have a growing interest in innovative building materials, devices, and home appliances that incorporate cutting-edge and convenient features with touchless function to reduce exposure risk to pathogens that are invisible to the naked eye. The functions can be activated via automated voice or sensor control. Examples include COTTO’s smart and innovative sanitaryware and faucets like Integrated Toilet that offer an automatic opening-closing lid, coming with a special anti-bacterial nozzle with UV Sterilization (Self- Cleaning) to ensure proper hygiene after each use. Smart Infrared Beam is incorporated into an automatic faucet to provide highly accurate detection and quick response to turn on-off water. No more water coming out without motion inputs. The faucet integrates an enhanced safety system where it can automatically turn off the water if it cannot detect any motion within 30 seconds. Furthermore, germ-resistant materials, like Hygienic Tiles integrating Silver Nano, are another option to safeguard family members from diseases to inhibit the growth of bacteria throughout its lifespan.
5. New Spaces for New Functions
SCG is presenting two new spaces for new functions that meet new lifestyles: garage addition and kitchen extension. As remote working is becoming a standard practice, cars then sit parked with prolonged sun and rain exposure. Building a garage addition can be a solution to the problem. There are two ways to add a garage: build a steel structure for the car park or install an awning extended from the building. The roof materials can be either opaque or translucent. It is advisable to install the storage shelf as a drop-off point for online shopping delivery items in the garage space. Another motivating area is the kitchen for cooking lovers. Homeowners can add more utilization space by extending the kitchen counter or covering a countertop with tiles to help make dining and relaxing more pleasant. This can also give an aesthetic boost.
“Before making any home redesigning decisions, the first thing you need to do is to know the lifestyles and needs of homeowners and family members to pinpoint desired space and functionality. Once identified, homeowners can seek consultation or advice from home improvement experts to help translate home redesigning ideas into a proper, quick, and precise reality fitting to everyone’s needs. In this regard, SCG has provided end-to-end services and total solutions ranging from consulting, planning, design services, cost appraisal, site survey, installation, and after-sales service. All steps will be well taken care of by the specialist team,” added Chua.
For those who are interested in creating or improving home spaces, you can check out for more coverage or contact SCG HOME Contact Center for more information at 02-586-2222 or visit the website: www.scgbuildingmaterials.com, or Facebook Page: SCG Brand. Or follow our TV program “Sook Sang Dai by SCG,” a variety show that makes home improvement not as difficult as you think on
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