Young Adults Who Moved Home During COVID-19 Are Making Over Their Childhood Rooms—and Their Mindsets

The coronavirus crisis has caused a sea change in how we use space—and a surge in reconfigured households, especially young adults moving back in with their parents. According to the Pew Research Center, 52 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds in the United States were in this category as of July 2020. Even accounting for students who would normally be on campus, that is the highest rate since the Great Depression.

All over the world, for the Gen Z and Millennial sets lucky enough to have the option, moving back into their childhood bedrooms has meant navigating new family dynamics, reckoning with mental health, grappling with identity—and renovating outdated spaces to meet the needs of their adult selves. We spoke to five young people about how they redid their rooms and, in the process, overhauled their outlook on the new normal. 

Daunted by an unstable job market and the prospect of committing to another 12-month lease on her apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona, 26-year-old interior designer Julieanne Whitt found herself pulling into her parents’ driveway in Phoenix last April.

Having graduated from Arizona State five years ago, she knew it would be a rough transition. "For me, the biggest part of moving out was being able to create my own environment of peace: living the way I wanted to, speaking the way I wanted to, and thinking the way I wanted to," she says. "Coming back here, the conversations and attitudes are much different."