At Charnwood we are always interested in the latest trend reports for the home and with 2020’s lockdown forcing Brits to spend more time indoors than ever before, an interesting new survey from Tiles Direct reveals how homeowners got creative with their interiors (and gardens) this year.
The online tile retailer quizzed over 400 Brits* if and where they’d donned their overalls and whipped out their paint rollers this year.
Of those surveyed, just 7.8% hadn’t redecorated or renovated any room of their home – suggesting that homeowners have been unable to endure lockdown in outdated or off-trend interiors.
The great outdoors
Accounting for 29.2% of the overall vote, the garden came out on top as the most popular spot for home renovations this year. Here at Charnwood we certainly found this to be true with our new outdoor Charnwood Fire Balls selling incredibly well.
With the UK’s nationwide lockdown lasting from 16th March to 1st June, this data comes as little surprise – with the sunny weather leaving cooped-up homeowners desperate for a taste of the great outdoors. Our sister company had great success with their newly launched Adapt Outdoor Kitchen units.
Garden renovations were most popular among 25-34 and 35-44 year olds – the demographics most likely to have younger children – and with some schools being shut for as long as 7 months throughout 2020, who can blame them?
No place like home
Stepping through the front door of Brits’ homes, the living room was the next most popular spot for a little interior design TLC, with 28.4% of respondents revitalising their living room in 2020. We saw a sharp increase in sales of our wood burning stoves and accessories such as toasting forks and basketware. Our fireplace products such as our Vlaze heat shields and hearth plates also faired well.
Homeowners weren’t struck with inspiration from the off, though – instead turning to the internet, with living room related searches being among the most commonly searched interior-based keywords in Google this year.
Taking the third and fourth spots were kitchens and bedrooms, accounting for 19.5% and 19.8% of the vote respectively. With a mammoth 46.6% of the UK workforce working from home in April, and current government advice continuing to encourage flexible home working wherever possible, we’ve seen these rooms serve as part-time living spaces and part-time office spaces.
With this in mind, it’s little surprise that home workers have chosen to transform these interiors into something a little more inspiring.
Towards the end of 2020 we launched our stove pods: a quick-to-fit instant fireplace incorporating a chamber and hearth. We were taken by surprise at the popularity but are subsequently discovering that many of these sales are for home offices and sheds and cabins situated in the garden.
With 16.5% of the vote, the bathroom was still a relatively popular spot for home renovations in 2020, with concerns surrounding hygiene racing up the list of Brits’ DIY priorities.This is an area that again our sister company Vlaze have seen an increase in with their shower and wetroom panelling
The dining room was the least popular room for redecoration this year, accounting for just 12.4% of the total vote. With social distancing guidelines still in place and household mixing continuing to be discouraged or banned, one of the home’s main social hubs was unsurprisingly shown little love this year.
The lockdown lowdown
Tiles Direct also analysed their top 500 site searches in 2020 to identify the most in-demand tile types of the last year and pinpoint common themes surrounding users’ choice of shape, colour and material or finish. We always like to keep on top of fire surround trends so these results throw up some interesting data which is reflected in many of the Charnwood installations we have seen shared on our social channels.
When it came to tile shapes, some of the latest interior fads came out on top:
1. Herringbone
2. Hexagon
3. Metro
4. Mosaic
5. Chevron
Colours threw up some surprises, with homeowners opting for bright and vibrant over timeless and traditional.:
1. Pink
2. Green
3. Blue
4. White
5. Gold
While our stoves colour range is relatively subtle we do offer a green and blue that are becoming increasingly popular with customers
Luxurious longevity was the name of the game when it came to materials and finishes:
1. Marble
2. Terrazzo
3. Quarry
4. Slate
5. Wood
*This data was gathered in December 2020 and includes responses from 409 people in the UK.