It’s been said if you’re going to make predictions about the future make them for far enough out in the distance, that way people will forget what you said by the time that future arrives.
But a new survey from the IFDA -- that’s the International Furnishings & Design Association in case you don’t know it -- looks like it’s worth remembering. The group surveyed its 2000 members in the design profession on what our homes ten years out in the year 2030 would be like and the predictions are not only fascinating, they seem pretty prescient and believable.
They asked about all kinds of things from technology to design to home sizes and the answers give us a pretty good window into what to expect…and what companies in the lighting and broader home furnishings sector should be planning for their businesses. Because even if the future they are forecasting is ten years out, it no doubt starts tomorrow.
Here are some of the key findings:
- Lighting: Multi-functionality will be the key for products that light up households, the survey found. Particularly fascinating was that products that produce lighting as an added function was seen as an important development in the future. It was considered more important than other functions, such as heating or cooling.
- Smart Technology: Respondents seem much less worried about consumers adapting to new household technologies than they were in the last survey a decade ago and still look to voice and sensor activated devices as the wave of the future. However they continued to voice concerns over privacy, security and the cost of these systems.
- Home Size: Not a shock but two-thirds of the survey respondents said they expect the typical American household to be smaller than it is today. Most individual rooms will get smaller too, with the exception of those that function as indoor/outdoor spaces.
- The Interior Design Business: It will get more virtual as designers use more computer-generated renderings and images to present room scenes. And the survey was done before the pandemic so this is a trend likely to get even more prevalent in the years ahead.
- Design Styles: Modern will remain the most popular theme for home interiors, the survey found, followed by traditional, mid-century, industrial, farmhouse/country/cottage and coastal. If the pandemic continues and the belief that people will want more comforting interiors grows, that may mean traditional designs will impact these results.
The full survey can be found at: www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-8YY32JDX7/