You might’ve noticed a growing trend of going back to simple, intuitive, and practical designs for corner sofas – this comes after years of the industry pushing for designs that were impractical, had a lot of bells and whistles, and made their presence known in the room. What could be driving this shift towards basic designs? What would it mean to you as a homeowner? Would the basic designs be able to offer you more compared to the previous designs? If you’re planning on redesigning your house, these are all questions that should interest and intrigue you, and you’ll get answers to all of them in this article.
What Caused the General Shift to Simpler Designs?
Design trends are quite fickle. They are influenced by many different variables, and this time isn’t different. However, in order to understand the recent predominance of simpler designs, you have to zoom out and look at the broader socioeconomic trends that have been disrupting many markets:
The size of the houses
It’s no secret that the sizes of houses have been declining for decades now, and while the bursting of the housing bubble did a lot to make housing prices competitive again, most economists agree that without zoning reforms (which are a political pipedream) housing prices will increase for the next decade. This decrease in sizes means homeowners have to be much more economical about how they use the limited space. That’s why most of them opt for practical and simple furniture that serves its function without taking up a lot of space.
The social value of owning a stylish corner sofa
Why would a person want to spend a couple of hundred extra bucks on a stylish corner sofa? The most likely answer is because of the social capital it gives you. It used to impress your friends, coworkers, and bosses if you had stylish furniture, and the lack thereof would’ve constituted an embarrassment. But that’s no longer the case, and people care much less about what furniture others put in their houses.
Changing demographics and needs
The effects of the changing demographics have been well-documented in the media – the millennials have vastly different priorities compared to boomers, and they voice those priorities by the way they spend money.
They seem to emphasize spending time at home much less than going out and traveling – even when they care about a sofa, they mainly care about how comfortable it is, and not how it looks. Since there are more and more millennials entering the workforce and gaining purchasing power, they’ve been a substantial portion of the reasons why manufacturers have turned to simpler designs.
Should You be Excited about These New Corner Sofas?
What does this mean to you? Should you be excited about the new trends and will the new modern corner sofa be appealing to you? Well, it depends on what you value in a home:
Advantages
The advantages of this new type of corner sofa directly tie into the reasons it became popular in the first place:
- Inexpensive: if you want a robust and modern-looking sofa without all the bells and whistles, this is for you. The exclusion of the unnecessary features means you’ll have to spend less money on what is, in essence, a quality product.
- Practical and Comfortable: the new sofa’s usability is much more of a priority compared to other features. That means if you want a sofa that will only allow you to sit down and relax, these are excellent options. They are also practical in that almost all of them offer a storage area and try to take up as little space as possible.
Disadvantages
While the transition has been mainly positive and a lot of people are happy with the trend, it has its drawbacks.
Homogeneous and unobtrusive: these types of corner sofas don’t assert themselves, they don’t look special, and they won’t impress your visitors. If you’re artistic or care a lot about how your home looks – you’ll probably feel constrained and limited by the new designs, and that’s fine. You should buy a corner sofa that best reflects you, and one that you feel comfortable using.
To read more on topics like this, check out the house category.
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