How Home Design Can Help You to be more Productive at Home

With more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, families and individuals continue to spend time at home working or distance learning. As a result, the lines between working or studying and living have become blurred. Our spaces for rest, relaxation and play overlap as we use these for meetings, presentations, and classes. In fact, a 2017 UN study fond that WFH can contribute to greater levels of stress.

That said, home design that is both functional and visually pleasing can play a vital role in boosting creativity. How to be productive at home? We show you how with our easy tips!

Carve out a dedicated space.

No matter how large—or small—your home is, you can find a nook to use for work or study. Look to your living or dining room, a spare room, as well as common areas to identify a space where you can place a work desk. Feel free to get creative! Here are other spots to consider:

• An unused space under the staircase

• Empty storage room

• Unused maid’s quarters if you do not have household help

• Behind a divider, especially if you live in an open-plan studio. You can also use multi-purpose furniture.

Choose furniture that marry form and function.

Choose furniture and decorative pieces that work organically with the style and color palette of your home. For example, if your home has more of a shabby chic aesthetic, a distressed wood desk would fit right in. A modern tropical home calls for a work or study space characterized by organic elements and textures such as rattan and wood done in a warm color palette. If mid-century modern more accurately describes your home, look for furniture pieces that feature the same clean-lined, minimalist, and geometric aesthetic. Lastly, make sure to get a chair that is comfortable. Even if you opt for one of those ergonomic chairs, it is now possible to find one that does not skimp on style like these.

Keep work items organized.

Nothing makes for a home office eyesore than a chaotic work desk in the middle of your pristine living room interiors! By keeping your desk not just organized but aesthetically pleasing, you will be more motivated and productive while working at home. As for those books and files, get creative with storage solutions by investing in sturdy pieces. As with the tip#1, choose items that complement your home interiors. Here are a few ideas:

• An industrial style shelf. Works best in modern and minimalist interiors.

• A colorful filing cabinet. You can easily find these in a range of bright colors like yellow, pink, green, and blue.

• Ladder bookshelves. These trendy wooden shelves have been a fixture of most furniture stores, making them an easy choice to source.

Need more inspiration? Check out these images from Pinterest.

Above all, strive for balance.

Setting the stage for a space where you can be productive while working from home is the first step.  Ultimately, creating better habits and more importantly, finding time to rest and relax is key to boosting creativity performing better at work and school. In fact, the pandemic has challenged us to rethink what we understand about work-life balance. 

By combining inspired home design with healthy work and study habits, you can be not only productive while working at home but happier too!

Need professional help with sprucing up your work space? Inquire with us at inquiries@jasanchetainteriors.com

How to Choose an Interior Designer who is Right for You

There are many interior designers where I live locally, here in Manila. We have different areas of expertise, number of years of experience and ways in how we work with our clients. So the question in your mind is: how do I know if the interior designer I choose will be the one for me?

Interior design and construction is a complex process. Why? As interior designers, we don’t simply choose fabric, furniture and lighting accessories. Interior design is both an art and science. We study space planning, color theory, technical drawings, construction, furniture, ergonomics, and many more. Building your own space, whether it’s a condo unit (where space maximization is a must), a residential home, an office, restaurant, retail space, and many more, takes skill and time. I, for one, go deep into a client’s lifestyle, hobbies, interests and the like when building a residential home. For commercial spaces, I study the client’s target market, profile, location, branding, and other important details needed for the project.

As such, it is important that communication between client and designer is open and collaborative. We spend weeks, months and sometimes, even a year (depending on space) planning and building together. Thus, when choosing your designer, make sure that he/she is easy to talk with, listens well and hears your concerns. That is why for me, it is important to meet my client and find out our rapport as this is essential in fulfilling our clients wishes and dreams, and also being open when there are any situation during construction that need to be solved together with the client/client’s approval. If you’ve ever tried building a space, construction is a headache for some, and a nightmare to others. Why? That’s another long story (for another post).

Another crucial aspect in choosing your designer is building trust between you and your designer. I love how I learn about my client’s daily rituals, favorite things to do, even pets. Why? Because I do incorporate these aspects into my design. We need trust to build a home that you know was meant for you. Same goes for commercial spaces too, something that resonates with the brand and truly integrates what the business is about.

To sum up, here are the important considerations you should be looking for:

1. Know your designer.

2. Have open communication between you and your designer.

3. Build trust together.

Other considerations you may want to look at are: budget, experience, past works. Experience teaches us plenty of things. I know I am better now than when I first started. So I hope this short post helps you in choosing your designer!

Adapting to the New Normal

This covid-19 crisis has changed the way we live and work. Suddenly, all but essential businesses are shut down and everyone else is encouraged to stay at home. In this light, how do we adapt our homes and our businesses to reduce the incidence of covid-19?

Ideally, for both homes and business, we should reduce instances where our hands touch surfaces. What does that entail? Barring economical issues, having a smart space will help in this endeavour.

For Homes:

1. Automatic door openers/ door locks - perhaps can be voice activated for Alexa

2. Install automatic faucets with sensors

3. Put sensor lights or voice activated lights

4. Placing automatic sanitisers at the entry.

5. Invest in an air purifier, whether it is an electric purifier or better yet, take care of indoor plants. More family members will stay at home. For most, maintaining good health is critical. Poor indoor air quality coupled with poor ventilation are health hazards. For businesses, investing in both an air purifier and perhaps some plants will help in sustaining good indoor air quality.

Unfortunately, with technology comes price. So what do we do? You can start retrofitting your space slowly.

Determine the space that you spend the most time in. Start with this area. Of course, if you just don’t have the budget for it, sanitise daily with a bleach-water solution (depending on the surface treated) or a disinfectant spray like Lysol.

For Restaurants:

1. Cashless transactions using bank transfer, Paypal, Gcash, Paymaya or any other online payment facility to help your customers

2. Take Out/ Pick-Up Counter - Have a separate counter where the customer does not need to go in your store (preferably, if possible) to lessen contact.

3. Sanitizing area - Dedicate an area at the entry for sanitising. Have a sanitising mat and hand sanitizers or alcohol at the entry.

4. Organise your delivery system. It is vital now, more than ever, to have a good delivery system for taking orders and delivering them to your customers. Establish safety guidelines for your staff (from the kitchen all the way to delivery) to ensure food sanitation is adhered to.

5. Kitchens - Make sure your chefs follow strict sanitation procedures. Chefs are trained for food safety. If your crew is not aware of this, check out this link from FDA .

6. Dining areas - Until the crisis is over or until further notice, dining in person is not allowed. This pandemic may last for quite some time, so be prepared to amp up your delivery and take out options to ensure business growth.

Plants That Are Safe For Your Pets

I’ve written about toxic plants for your pets, but what plants can now be safely used in your home? Here are a few common plants to both beautify your home and improve indoor air quality.

Plants Toxic To Your Pets

I’ve had several clients who are pet owners. One of the things that concern me is to make sure that indoor plants (or outdoor) used in their homes are safe. After all, pets are our family too. This is a short infographic naming some common plants that are harmful to them. This is by no means a comprehensive list however it includes plenty of plants you might not think are poisonous.

Secrets of Indoor Gardening in an Air-conditioned Room

This is one of my most viewed posts so I’ve decided to update as of May 2020, especially now that we are mostly confined at home with that #stayhome. What better way to improve your air quality than by adding plants!

I have recently bought a few plants to liven up my bedroom. Although I have a garden, I think indoor plants make the room brighter, more enchanting and improves indoor air quality.

My bedroom is usually airconditioned especially at night. During the day, I open my windows to let the sunlight in and to have a fresh breeze. What I have found out though is that not all indoor plants can survive airconditioning! Why? The humidity is different. The air is drier. And yes, the fluctuating temperatures can be a major problem (when the air conditioner is off).

The following are some plants that can survive indoors in air-conditioned rooms:

Tillandsia

1.     Tillandsia

These air plants are the craze nowadays. Water these at least twice a week, perhaps more if your air is really dry, and submerge them weekly for an hour. Bright filtered light is best so putting them beside the window is perfect.

Sanseveria Masoniana

2.    Snake plant (Sanseveria masoniana)

There are a variety of snake plants and this is my new found secret plant that actually survived several months without watering, in low light… It was unfortunately confined to a corner with some furniture from my clients that are being stored at my home (yeah, my home is now a warehouse as we wait for construction to finish for them and some suppliers don’t have storage space or charge for monthly storage space). That’s why we failed to notice this poor plant at the corner, what with it being covered with furniture. After 6 months of absolutely no watering, two out of the four leaves it had still survived! Talk about a miracle plant! Yes, I found it after doing some needed spring cleaning! It’s now being watered twice weekly (due to the very hot weather). Usually, a weekly watering is good. I really don’t recommend letting six months go without watering! That was an unfortunate accident).

Snake Plants, Photo by Costa Farm

3.     Mother-in-Law’s Tongue, Snake Plant (Sansiveria Trifasciata)

This is one of the most popular varieties of snake plants. They survive in medium to high light and can also do low light as long as you don’t overwater. It can survive the most unsuitable conditions and is therefore perfect for those without a green thumb. Water only two times a week  and don’t water the leaf rosette (only the soil).

4.     Pothos

Peace Lily

Pothos are simply hardy. They can grow in low light and is easy to care for. They thrive easily even for those who consider themselves, plant killers! They are also easy to propagate through simple cuttings. I love their trailing leaves too so you can mount this on a hanging pot or simply place on a bottle with water and watch them grow!

5.     Peace Lily

What I love about this is that it has flowers!!! It is difficult to care for flowering plants indoors but the peace lily is the happy exception. It can survive lower light but there will be less flowers and who wants that?! Water these when the soil is dry and mist the leaves several times each week.

Zanzibar Plant. Photo from Ambius

6.     ZZ plant or Zanzibar

ZZ plants are easy-to-care for and will be good for a beginner. They need less water which means you need to wait for the soil to dry before watering again. They can also survive low levels of light. Outdoors, these thrive so well. My ZZ plant has broken several of my clay pots though as it’s actually growing too well! So for outdoors, this will be best planted straight to the ground. For indoor purposes, it still thrives without destroying any pots.

7.     Parlor Palm

They prefer low light (but not no-light) and grows slowly to a maximum of three feet. Water sparingly allowing the soil to begin drying in between waterings. Evenly moist soil is ideal.

Parlor Palm, Photo by ume-y

Victoria lady fern

8.     Victoria Lady Fern

Ferns are very hardy. I water them every day but make sure not to overwater to avoid root rot. They need an evenly moist soil. Place them in shade or partly shaded areas.

9.     Cactus

Cacti are drought tolerant plants. I have my own Peruvian cactus in a corner of my bedroom. I simply open my curtains in the morning so it can receive sunlight, and water when the soil is really dry. A plus factor is that it also produces beautiful blooms!

Hope these tips help and happy plant shopping!!!

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