As the highly contagious novel coronavirus has kept millions isolating in their homes, Americans’ spending on home improvement products has surged, according to the Home Improvement Research Institute, which in September reported an increase of 8.7% in overall sales and estimated that consumer purchases would increase 11% in 2020, while professional contractor purchases were projected to increase 3.8%.

In March, not knowing what to expect during Honolulu’s shutdown, Laura Ayers, ­co-principal/vice president of WhiteSpace Architects, said her company was “pleasantly surprised to be getting quite a few calls about residential projects with people looking into doing renovations while they were at home.”

Some were looking to the future and aging in place, but she was also hearing from suddenly housebound parents like herself and her husband, asking about adapting their living spaces to working and learning remotely.

“At first I thought being home would be relaxing,” Ayers said, “but it got pretty exhausting — and distracting — when our living room morphed overnight into a classroom and two home offices.”

She and husband Mark Ayers, an architect at Ferraro Choi in Honolulu, decided to lightly reconfigure — rather than renovate — the interior of their “pretty modest house in Kailua,” modifying its open-plan design in which kitchen, living, dining and family spaces flowed together.

“A big open space can get kind of loud, obviously, with people doing phone and Zoom calls,” she said, “and we realized we needed some quiet zones, or pods, where we could all four get concentrated work done.”

First, they designated individual work spaces for themselves, their daughter and son: “In the morning for a few hours we each went to our own workspace and kept all our stuff there.”

Because her husband “is much better at having more noise around,” he worked on the kitchen island or at a table in their backyard, while the children and Ayers worked at desks in their bedrooms.

But there were tasks, such as when the children needed help and supervision with remote schooling, that required more space, and Ayers also felt the need for a home office in order to separate her work from her living space.

“It would be nice to have at least one area that’s devoted all to work,” said Catherine Aubuchon, a Honolulu attorney who was also working in her bedroom when she reached out to Ayers for ideas.

She and her husband, Jason Aubuchon, a program manager for a development company, have three children and a three-bedroom, two-bath house “with a lot of living area but no private space for an office.”

The couple originally thought of adding a bedroom and bath, “a master suite with an office,” but that would involve building out and proved to be “extremely expensive,” not to mention the permitting process, Aubuchon said.

“So we thought we’d work with the space we have, keeping within our current footprint and our budget, and convert a sort of TV/ family room — a summer room that’s very exposed to the elements, sometimes the rain comes in — into an office/rec room/guest room.”

In her own house, Ayers decided to close off a small section of their living area into an office, but to keep it flexible and multipurpose with movable furniture, such as rolling and fold-up desks and tables.

She heeded the advice of her partner, Pip White, president and founder of WhiteSpace Architects, not to close off too much, as “open spaces promote open communication.”

He suggested changing the furniture first.

“I like to think of flexible space design as including flexible furniture,” White said. “It’s really the key: We’re doing it in a lot of schools, such as Searider Productions at Waianae High School, which is an open plan where they can move furniture around to satisfy the needs of social distancing.”

Space becomes more flexible with the simple addition of storage for school supplies and maybe a printer, as well as a “generous helping of electrical outlets.”

While built-in partitions, desks and storage spaces are nice if you can afford them, “you also need things that stack and wheel,” and portable, folding screens can divide a room or turn a corner into an office nook, said White, whose own home office space takes up only a corner of a grown son’s bedroom, which can still serve as a guest room.

And for children, especially, choose an area with a window for natural light and ventilation, “which help you learn,” he added.

Aubuchon said she highly recommended that people talk with an architect, who, in addition to coming up with design schemes based on a family’s lifestyle and work styles, can price out different options “from pie in the sky to a more modest renovation, so you can make an informed decision.”

During that process, Ayers advised, “don’t rush, don’t pressure yourself.”

And whatever you’re working on, “It’s important to remember if you need a break, take a break,” she said.

For more information, visit whitespacearchitects.com.