Lifestyle is the future. FF&E can get you there.

FF&E refreshes are the best marketability tool in a competitive but difficult financial market.?? These renovations claim a lifestyle that draws demand.

Were you planning a new development in 2024/2025 to increase your market share in multifamily?? Or a new senior living community to be competitive in a changing market?? Maybe a student housing development to capture students who don’t want to live in 1950s dorms?

What we know for 2024 and into 2025 – money is expensive, capital markets are conservative, lenders are calling in notes for underperforming facilities – new development will happen but will have difficulties penciling.

Don’t worry!? The market still needs construction.?

The modern end user has design expectations generations prior did not have.? Why?? Access to design is easy and curating a lifestyle is the goal.? Renters, tenants, residents, guests – all end users – are looking for lifestyles where they live, work, and travel.? Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment (FF&E) design are here to help.

“With changing expectations of the demographics spending money, our clients need ways to capture business with their existing properties in all the sectors (Hospitality, Multifamily, Senior Living, and Student Housing) we serve.? FF&E is a perfect way to signal to a prospective resident that the lifestyle provided at their facility is the one to choose.” - Gale Nall, Creative Director

Regardless of budget, there are small and big strategies B2 uses to help refresh or reposition a project for marketability.?

Here is our top 8.?

1. Create an experience with senses - In hospitality, scents, music, lighting scenes and temperature are used to create the brand experience, stamp the sense of place, and mark where you are.? Other project types can use this simple, frequently cost effective approach to create a welcoming space that begins to unfold the lifestyle of a property.

2. Use what you have - Do you have sturdy furniture with good bones?? Recovering what you have with color, pattern, and texture will transform the space.? Refinishing ?with a contrasting approach – neutral to color, color to texture, solids to patterns – creating contrast will reap rewards.?

3. Get rid of the institutional – leasing offices are in fact offices.? However, to a prospective tenant, they are the living room of the property.? Simple furniture changes such as removing corporate furniture (think desks and task chairs) for residential living and dining furniture approaches create a more welcoming front door to your property with limited expense.?

4. Create human scale experiences – Do you have a large volume, or a long floorplate?? Are you relying on overhead lighting as your only strategy?? Furniture groupings, lighting temperature and placement, and a variety of lighting sources are ways to make a space feel inviting.?

5. Don’t forget the ceiling – Ceilings are frequently an afterthought when in fact they are a huge plane or canvas to work with.? They can create moods, promote wayfinding, and showcase incredible accessories.

6. DETAILS – When you focus on FF&E and remove architectural decisions – the details matter.? Do you want piping on that pillow?? What books and objects need to sit on that shelf or table to demonstrate the lifestyle you want to get across?

7. Model Rooms sell a lifestyle – Residents want a lifestyle, and you have the opportunity to show them something incredible.? Does your model room show what they expect their units to look like?? They have books, furniture, art, and lives to put on display.? Show them what that looks like within the policies you have.? These rooms are places to bring the newest approaches – they are not the place for furniture to die.

8. Outside is part of the lifestyle – Your property, more than ever, supports live, work, and play for the end users.? The outdoors provides choice and experience for all of those activities.? Refresh your approach to outdoor living, dining, and working to support the remote worker by providing a variety of furniture groupings with access to power and good wifi.? Rethinking these areas provides an opportunity to activate these spaces and sell the lifestyle your end users are looking for.

All these approaches can be used in a small, medium, large budgetary scale.? You can address the high value areas or completely reposition your property with this thinking.? The critical consideration is – what lifestyle are you selling?? Does your property embody that possibility, or does it require interpretation?? Today’s end users have expectations and design sophistication that are attainable at any budget.?

B2 Architecture + Design understands the expectations of todays markets. Our team of designers know how to create lifestyles and experiences that keep your property at the top of end-user's lists. Are you ready to see what is possible? We are!

About B2 Architecture + Design

You can learn a lot about a person by where they choose to live. We know people want spaces that reflect their locale and lifestyle yet offer something they haven’t seen elsewhere. At B2 Architecture + Design, we design with choice in mind – because your space should tell your story, not your designer’s.

For over a decade, we’ve collaborated with clients to help shape the stories they want to tell through built space. With our commitment to great design and world-class service, we’ve created more than 70 unique spaces in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Washington —and had tons of fun along the way.