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Right at Home
Since they have spent so much time at home in the last year, some homeowners have taken craft and design projects to a new level.
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Jen Rondeau didn’t set out to turn her laundry room into a psychedelic disco lounge, but now that it looks like one, she’s very pleased with herself.
It all started in early January as demand for the homemade masks she had been selling since last spring dwindled and Ms. Rondeau, an artist and musician, found herself without a creative outlet. So she turned her attention to the gray utilitarian room in the basement of her West Orange, N.J. home.
Over three days, she painted an abstract midcentury design along one wall, a bold mix of red, blues, pinks and oranges. Smitten with the results, she extended the design on the opposite side, set an orange chair in the corner and set up a disco light machine that plays a flashing light sequence in time with whatever music she pumps through her Bluetooth speaker.
“I had a lot of energy that I needed to put into something,” said Ms. Rondeau, 43, who lives in the four-bedroom ranch-style house with her husband, Paul Rondeau, 42, a freelance cinematographer, and their two young sons. Now that the laundry room is painted, “I want to be in there,” she said. “It makes me happy.”
As the pandemic ignites a wave of home renovations, some craftier homeowners have interpreted this moment as a creative one, tossing aside expectations of what a home should be and updating their spaces in ways that channel their artistic energy, reimagining what is acceptable home décor in the process. While many homeowners are investing huge sums gutting kitchens and bathrooms, these ones are creating something unique and deeply personal, often while spending just a few hundred dollars on materials.
Miss going to the movies? There’s no time like the present to turn the basement into a home theater with a full concession stand. No room for a soaker tub in a tiny bathroom? No matter. Install one in the bedroom instead. Do the children have cabin fever? There’s no time like the present to bring an ice-skating rink to the front yard.
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