What Will Our Homes Look Like in 2020?

www.ifda.com

According to a survey released by the International Furnishings and Design Association (IFDA), the American home of 2020 will have bigger kitchens and family rooms, with dining rooms morphing into multi-purpose spaces.

The information in the report "20/20: IFDA's Vision for the Future" comes from a survey of IFDA's almost 2,000 members worldwide. The report offers both similarities and discrepancies to an earlier survey taken at the beginning of the millennium.

www.canadianinteriors.com

Canadian Interiors magazine recently summed up the IFDA report and the full article can be found here.

Here are some excerpts from Canadian Interiors' article "How we'll live in 2020":

• Americans will be living in smaller spaces and with fewer rooms by the year 2020, say more than 76 percent of IFDA members. Ten years ago, only 49 percent foresaw less living space in our future.

• Formal living rooms are going extinct, according to an increasing majority of the design professionals (64+ percent, up from 51 percent in 2000).

• Kiss your dining room goodbye, too: nearly three-quarters of the respondents (71 percent) doubt that there will even be a separate dining room in most homes by 2020. The space will be put to multiple other uses instead because....

• Separate rooms are disappearing; they are blending into spaces that serve many different purposes, believe 91.5 percent of the design experts - which is exactly what they foresaw back in 2000.

• Eat-in kitchens are voted most likely to succeed in 2020. More than half IFDA's members said it is "likely or very likely" that eat-in kitchens would replace dining rooms, and nearly 65 percent believe future kitchens will grow larger, thanks to Americans' escalating interest in home cooking.

• Master bedroom suites won't be bigger, just busier. Although 52.2 percent of the surveyed members think the master suite will stay about the same size as now, they see it sharing space with the home office, media center, and exercise room.

• Everyone's working at home. A home office is a given, say more than three-quarters of the respondents, but here's the news: nearly 40 percent (37.3) of the forecasters see more than one home office under every roof.