With so many employees working from home during the pandemic, a renewed focus has settled on the future of corporate and home offices.

“We are going to see corporate offices will remain a need and necessary in great part because it does facilitate collaboration with colleagues and it helps perpetuate corporate culture,” Robert Langstaff, director of design, Metroflor. “The one big thing that will come out of this situation is employees that have been able to from home and use IT will find that they are more confident in how they feel about having to work remotely.” 

The situation with COVID-19 encouraged people to give more thought what goes into creating home office.

Certainly, comfort is important. You need to have task lighting and ambient lighting—and for Zoom calls, you don’t want to be backlit by windows or have poor sound quality. 

“The easiest and most affordable solution are cork board panels on the wall—of course we don’t want to go too far back into the 70s—but draperies can add some sound reduction,” Langstaff said. “The other thing is the view. If you’re lucky enough to have a window, it’s important to take advantage of that. People respond to biophilic influences. If you do not have a window, it’s important to have some nice pictures so that you can take a mental break.”

For offices, LVT is becoming one of the largest-growing categories, residentially and commercially.

“A big part for the cost factor what you get back from the aesthetics and function is great bargain. In the home office, it allows you to clean it easily, it offers some sound abatement for those below and above you in a multifamily structure, and we have a product Ultrafresh that helps inhibit the growth of bacteria, and you can also use disinfectants.”