On the House: The design trends of 2008

The subject today: design trends for 2008, with the American Institute of Architects providing the results of its member survey on what consumers who can still spend that kind of money want in their houses.

Fewer consumers, for example, want home offices this year than they did last year.

I'll let you come up with the punch line here, since I'm trying to make this column more interactive. But I'm guessing that most homeowners have learned that with a wireless router and a laptop, you can check e-mail - or whatever - even in the bathroom.

A lot of people got the wireless message last year, the survey results suggest: Sixty-five percent asked for it in 2007, while just 49 percent were interested this year.

More wireless, more portability, less need for expensive fixed space. Though you may need more than one bathroom.

Thirty-two percent of consumers wanted mudrooms this year, the survey says; there were no comparable numbers for 2007.

At our house, we send the beagle out the kitchen door to do her business. She creates a mudroom on her return.

Fewer people are asking for au-pair or in-law suites. If you look at the economy, that isn't hard to understand.

Most au pairs I've met come from European Union countries. Despite some strengthening of the dollar, the euro's buying power here is huge. They don't want to live and work in Manhattan; they want to buy it and fly it home.

In-law suites? It's cheaper to buy Mom and Dad a condo in foreclosure in Boca Raton or Scottsdale than it is to build onto your house. The bonus: a ready-made vacation hotel, if you don't mind the couch.

According to the survey, there has been an increase in the number of home workshops (from -4 percent in 2007, compared with 2006, to 12 percent in 2008).

Makes sense. To save money, we're tackling more of the little jobs we once put off until they got bad and expensive enough to interest a contractor in returning our calls.

Now, we're running off to the home center to get materials for these jobs, and we need a place to store the stuff and shelter it and ourselves from the elements while we try to work on it.

Remember, don't pay for a $10,000 workshop to do $20 in repairs. If that's all you need to do, pray for a quick end to the economic slowdown.

Game rooms? Down by two-thirds. If you have wireless, you can play video games on the laptop in the bathroom. Like poker? Buy a card table and store it in the workshop.

The survey shows more interest in energy efficiency and being "green" from 2007. The former because of high energy bills, I'm sure; the latter, as a product of all the hype.

Tastes change, and hot products and technologies have short shelf lives, so be careful how you spend your money.

We're in enough financial hot water as it is.

at 215-854-2472 or aheavens@phillynews.com.