1 May

What to consider in a multi-purpose room

With the trend toward open plan living, multi-purposing spaces has become a lot more commonplace in recent years. In smaller homes, multipurpose rooms also serve the purpose of getting more bang for your buck, and must be handled even more carefully for a successful outcome.

The key with multi-purpose rooms is to ensure you have enough space for each purpose. You won’t get pleasure from either space if you’re trying to cram too much into one area.

Some rooms such as bedrooms and dining rooms in most cases shouldn’t be used for more than their intended purpose. A desk or office space in a main bedroom takes the functionality away from the office and restful feeling away from the bedroom, so detracts from both. In a guest room which is very infrequently used, however, an office space can work well. Children’s rooms also need to be multi-purpose generally, to allow for homework to be done.

Building a study into the wall cabinetry and having wardrobe doors close over the space can look great, and if the space is large enough, you can have a wall of books and use the space as a library.

Be aware of noise and interaction levels if you’re aiming to incorporate a TV area into a common living space, especially if someone else will be looking to work or study in the same area. A TV can be very distracting, which has led to media rooms being so popular as it segregates the TV watching into a separate space.

Where multi-purpose rooms can work very well is in a kitchen/laundry combined area, or even better, when there is a butler’s pantry and laundry, which is an effective use of space. A laundry can be incorporated into the kitchen, but preferably its better if it flows on from it. A combined bathroom and laundry is commonly done in apartments, with varying degrees of success.

While building has gone through a trend toward large, open-plan spaces, we will no doubt see a return to smaller builds at some point, at which time people will need to consider more clever use of space.

If you have any queries about how to incorporate multi-purpose functionality into your rooms, visit the Beadles showroom.

Cheers,

Beadles