Vanessa Hale
Director, Research
Interiors are the area of our homes that we can really stamp our personality on. It’s no wonder they’re so important to us. We look into what you voted in the Housing Futures survey 2017 as the current must-have interiors features from kitchen islands to wet rooms.
Kitchen island paradise
As the kitchen becomes the hub of many homes, how we use them has changed. Entertainment and catering for large groups – whether that’s dinner parties or Christmas with the family – has led to our most desirable interior features also being some of the most practical.
In the past, large homes - especially those in the country - would have had a kitchen and dining room. The biggest homes would have gone a step further and hidden the kitchen in the basement for staff to use. But these days, the kitchen is no longer just a place to prep food - it is becoming the focus of the entertainment space.
So it should come as no surprise that a statement kitchen island is the most desired kitchen feature this year with 18.5% choosing it. It knocked last year’s winner – an AGA – down to second place with 15.8% of the votes.
Vanessa Hale, Partner in Research at Strutt & Parker, said: “Kitchen islands have evolved in recent years to meet the changing desires of homeowners. Many of the newer ones incorporate sinks and hobs so that people aren’t stood with their back to the room when cooking and entertaining. This shows how kitchens are becoming more communal spaces and often the focus for entertaining at home.”
And it’s not just the kitchen island that shows how we’re more at home entertaining – the desire for items like dishwashers (12.7%), larger freezers (12.6%) and pantries (12.5%) suggests people are regularly catering for larger groups of people than the standard 2.4 children.
Aside from entertaining, another of the most desirable features suggests the idea of the cosy country kitchen is being replaced by something cleaner and sleeker. This year, 7.4% chose the instant boiling water tap as their most desired kitchen feature.
Vanessa said: “People have got used to having cold taps in their big American style fridge freezers. The hot taps are the next logical step – and now the technology is available.
“These types of features show a move towards more streamlined, clutter-free living areas. They’re a lot cleaner than kettles and hassle-free – you only use the amount of water you need, instead of having to guess with a kettle.”
Warm under foot
Our bathrooms are our personal sanctuary in the home – somewhere to get away from it all, relax and unwind. And our most desired bathroom items suggest warmth and comfort, with a sleek touch of luxury topping the list.
The move to a more streamlined and clutter-free style of living is best reflected in the choices for most desired bathroom items. Underfloor heating was the most popular item for bathrooms for the more than 1 in 5 people choosing it.
Vanessa said: “Underfloor heating is all about luxury. If you’ve spent money on an amazing stone floor, you don’t want to have to put your slippers on to walk on it. Again, it’s very clean and minimalist, removing the need for radiators up against walls.”
The same applies to the second most popular choice - wet rooms. With a wet room there’s no shower curtain or even glass doors to constantly clean smears from, and no ‘dry areas’ that are covered with damp towels or mats. Instead, it’s just a simple room for one purpose only – getting clean. The dressing and getting made up after the shower would take place in a dressing room.
Other popular items on the list included a Jacuzzi, rain shower and free standing bath.
“While these are aspirational items, they are more affordable now than they’ve ever been,” said Vanessa. “It won’t be long, I imagine, until many of these so called luxuries will become the norm as technology catches up. For example, underfloor heating is very common on the continent.”
Food, fire and films
For the rest of the home, the most desired items range from traditional favourites to modern technology. But the main theme is creating a comfortable and welcoming home that’s set up for entertaining large groups.
While we might desire the sleek lines of a wet room or tech features like quick boiling taps, underneath this there’s still that yearning for a cosy home. Even the AGA harks back to a simpler time. So it should come as no surprise that wood burning stoves and fireplaces (11.4%) are the most desired item for the rest of the house.
Wood burning stoves, though, do suggest people are looking to balance a more traditional home with some modern technology and design. The European-inspired stoves are smaller and more efficient than the large fireplaces that many British country homes are famous for.
Elsewhere, the desire to fill your home with guests was apparent in the other top choices – large dining rooms suitable for 10 or more people (10.4%), window seats to accommodate extra guests (10.4%), fully stocked wine cellars for surprise visits (6%) and even home cinemas for a quiet night in (10.3%) were all popular.
Vanessa said: “We see here a move to providing areas in which you want to have lots of people around, but also rooms that are comfortable and welcoming. These are items for big spaces that cry out to be filled with friends and families.”
There is another aspect to the list that Vanessa points out – the push to maximise our ever reducing leisure time: “People want to embrace and maximize their leisure time. They don’t want to travel to the gym for a work out, or try to get parking at the local cinema. They want it all in house.”