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Multipurpose Spaces

Let's think about some of these different multipurpose spaces, so ah lot of you were dealing with this because well, two of you are this is well, I guess really all three of you actually are dealing with the idea of having open plans that everything needs toe happen in these particular spaces, all the activities happen at once, right? So how do we start to make these spaces of work for us so certainly making the most of the space that you have? And you've been starting to get some ideas about this so far yesterday and today, room's functioning for more than one purpose, which is the whole point of this multi purpose idea and the ideas of products and concepts that really help you make the most of what you already have, either being the products that you have with the spaces that you haven't well, actually, lisa and a little bit we'll bring your idea and the solution we had for your space into, um, our talk today because I think that we came up with a good win earlier at lunch time, so ...

let's look at some ideas for multipurpose spaces. This is actually the other view of the room I was talking about earlier too, with the frosted cabinet, so I'm glad we get to see that, but esso in these bookcases on one of these to be interesting but I also wanted this client to be able to hide a lot of the things that were happening in this base of this it's one of those zones that a lot of you have where their children spend a lot of time in this space and when we started this room, one of the main things just like this client's kitchen that we saw yesterday was that we really needed to curb the clutter control a lot of things that were happening in this space, but we didn't want to make it a kid free zone it's really, you know, it's their house too, and we wanted it to be beautiful and we wanted to to be functional as well. So how did we how could we come up with a way to have the kids toys and books and videos and video games and all sorts of things happening in this space but also keep it that serene feel she's the one who loved the beach and wanted things to build, be really soothing? And then we're blending with traditional architecture's so I was taking cues from several different things on our list. We we make the same list just like I've been teaching you to do with our clients and what are your priorities where those non negotiables, what are your inspiration spaces? And really then we start melding all of those things together and installing these bookcases with really classic traditional lines with the crown molding been having a little fun and personality with the fronts of them with these interesting grills they're all these intersecting circles so that made them feel a little more youthful and updated in this traditional home and then putting that film that we talked about earlier in the back of them allowed us tow have anything we needed in those shelves and it not really be cluttered visually cluttered on but it was close at hand also this thing with the cabinets on either side of the fireplace which are a little bit deeper so they're actually better for some of the toys and things that happen in that space so as you can see when you move some of these multi purpose pieces of furniture around also the little stools and things there's quite a bit of open floor space for the kids to play there so the parents can lounge in this space on watching television on the sofas we've got to swivel chairs we have a lot of things happening that air malta functional in this room there's swing arm lamps that you can't see on either side of this sofa so we've pretty much put every concept of multi purpose multi function toe work in this room it's long and narrow we have different seeing areas with little floating pieces all of it happening here and the toys and kids elements can be tucked away so it's actually really pretty and serene and in a sense, even though there's a tv here, you could easily use this as a quiet and relaxing space if you didn't have the tv on right. So, um it's really serena's faras the color palette goes also, I love just the use of space because from the traffic flow standpoint, you really can't put a lot else in the two corners where those cabinets are you really need to be be able to move around to the sunroom in the room behind on around the space, but it still allows you to really use that space really important storage and organization. Yes, how did you how did you make the grills could could an average person make them so can a cabinet maker anyone that makes custom cabinetry can do similar things like this with router is the tool that they use to create these designs, but there are also companies that you, khun order something like this from there's one company called pine chris that makes a lot of doors and they also make inserts for the cabinet, just like you would put a piece of glass is an insert into a glass front cabinet you can pop, they're decorative grills and so they're probably not this open they could be even change the scale but it allows you to have interesting patterns and fretwork and all sorts of things and just install them into an open front cabinet. So that might be a good source free. Um, if you weren't able to custom make them so we looked at this space earlier, but in this family room adding storage also, besides the fact that we had three zones here, this ottoman in the center is a clever way to add storage. So you khun put blankets in there, you could put games, and there you could put anything that had to do with the television, electron ix video games and anything that you might need in this area. Magazines the top just lifts up. So besides the idea of using pieces of furniture that are movable and float around the space, think about how many of the items in your room can actually have added function. We talked yesterday about ottomans this size being ableto house a twin bed that can pull out of him. They're a little bit different than this because they obviously go all the way to the floor. They're not on legs because it has a mechanism that has to go down inside. But it's essentially about this size, and you can pull a twin bed out of it. So no matter what it is that you need to accomplish whether it's, additional seating, sleeping, storage, a lot of times, you can accomplish that with a single piece of furniture. We saw the modular piece this morning that had a table in the center, storage in the table and then all the modular little stools that move around, so get creative with how you accomplish some of the challenges that you're dealing with based on the pieces of furniture that you're using. Okay, so we've looked at this idea before, but it's just starting to sink in for some of you, even in the brakes, sally said, I just had it all homo, and about using a desk is my daughter's bedside table, so again, not to really beat this horse to death, but I think don't forget that when you start planning out your space that you can move, um, zones into rooms like your bedroom, a work zone by using that disk or table, even like we saw this morning. I had that dining size table beside the bed because we had ample room there, so think about that also, if you're doing something like floating, abandon the space, if you have a really big open area. Think about and I'm not sure why you could tell us, aaron, why you don't feel like you could have a headboard, but headboards don't have to be really super tall, so you could maybe have a headboard that would similar mimics sort of the back of a sofa, something a little lower, and even push something up to the back of it like a desk. And so then you have that same idea the way I would put a desk behind the sofa instead of a sofa table in the living room, you could create a sleeping zone in a work zone floating in the middle of the room, but having a lower headboard like a rolled back headboard and then put something like a desk behind it, tell us about your your bid and why you were thinking ah lot ahead board. So you walk into the room and there's two bay windows on each side of the room, and so you're either block it do your view would either be blocked for the person entering the room, you'd see the back of a headboard, or you would block the view to the bay window, like not used the bay windows, basically, so think about that I think that would be a nice solution, because a bed without a headboard also feels a little bit. Like you don't have a sense of place about it, like the pillows fall off the bed there's a reason, a functional reason for a headboard it keeps the pillows in place, and they're not always falling off the bed. So there are companies that make lower headboards that, or even like a rolled back, almost like tufted look like a chesterfield sofa or the back of the sofa it's that might be a really nice way tohave the function of a headboard, but keep it low, and then it would also give you that place toe anchor something else, so a table or a chest or something with the lamp on it, and I would love the idea. And in theory, I don't know if it works in your space to bring a desk like this to the back of a bit headboard like that, because if you put a lamp or two on it than those lamps, if the headboard was low could actually act as you're reading lights in the bed and you could reach them and turn them off and on. So really cool, isn't it how you can start adding all kinds of functions and zones and activities into a space, depending on how clever you get with the furniture? But desker great to bring in for all sorts of reasons I've also seen people floating beds like that and putting a chest behind them because they needed storage chest of drawers and they didn't have another wall toe anchor that on, so that could also give you a backdrop for like a dresser or that kind of storage potentially if you needed that I'm so let's go out and look at some fun, clever ways that people have used to make the most of their space out on pinterest our trusty pinterest how do you say pinterest jake aaah pinterest daren't think glamorous about that it's just it is what isthe okay so let's think about these some of these are pieces of furniture some of them are rooms but some really fun ideas here so here's a great option for a coffee table that also becomes a workstation. So this raises that well you could eat their dying there or you could work there either way but it just allows youto have this lift mechanism in the coffee table so it changes the heights brings it to you almost like a tv tray right on git gets it comes into your to your laugh innocence this is really kind of the shape of your coffee table lee so that you showed me earlier so this might be a fun way to add some function for you innocence um so so many clever idea is right that we didn't even know about let's see where's my right here, okay, this is similar to what we were looking at earlier as faras little modular ottomans surrounding a table but the's each have storage in them. So this is what I was talking about with the photo a moment ago. Even tiny little pieces like this can have storage in them if you were really cramped for space in a small space or in these loft kind of scenario is that we've been talking about is there a way tohave almost every piece of furniture doing double duty in your house and I think there is so you just have to he might have to search a little bit harder to find them, but I think this is great. I think this would be great for kids as well because they could sit there on those stools, play games so it's more of a coffee table height um but it has interesting options for function. I love this idea. So this is where someone just completely threw away the concept of worrying about the book the book cases and use them as a backdrop for the room, so instead of thinking well, I can't put something in front of that why not? They made it work, they have low headboards, I love the swing arm lamps mounted on the front of the bookcases, and, of course, this is a very traditional space, but I think the idea behind it is just that, like, we were talking about drapery becoming a backdrop to something anything really can become a backdrop to a space if you are willing to think beyond the obvious, and they're probably not reading every one of those books every day anyway. So it's not a big deal that there's a couple of shelves that have books behind them, if they needed to get to him. These beds don't either one look like they're very heavy that they couldn't pull them out right and get to him, but it just allows them to be able to use the space in a way that they might not think about using it. Otherwise, I get excited when people do clever things like that s so this is just carving out a little nook. It looks like there's a breakfast area here, there's a desk, and really, they've tied it together. They've tied the space together, not only with the style of the chairs with the color palette, and it really doesn't look unattractive, tohave a visible, open workstation, right that has functional elements and using things like we talked about yesterday from the organizational stores, the container stores and all those places to make things look tidier and more cohesive. They have all of the containers for magazines and little boxes. I think that's great if you're going tohave an exposed workstation using containers to keep everything tidy inside is really key. That's how it doesn't look goes from looking really messy, like we saw in that kitchen earlier to being contained within each of those individual containers more tidy on the inside. So this is a great example of a space that could become several things. It's um, sarah richardson has a designer in canada and she has a great television show, but this could be an office. It could be a guest room. It could be a tv room. It could be all of those things. If the sofa seems like it's a little bit deeper. So if it's the right length or even has a hide, a bed inside, it could be a space. Someone could sleep on it. If you're going to move something around like that to pull out a hide. A bed, you keep the coffee table, something light and easy to move around and their storage in there. There's a desk in there. All kinds of activities happening in this space and are possibly happening in this space and it's really small and tiny so a lot of you are going to be looking at things like this so if you're accommodating guests in your space but you have a small square footage you're probably not gonna have guests every single week and a lot of you are only gonna have them a few times a year so you really have to think about not dedicating entire rooms of your home just when guests might happen to show up that make them function for you every day and then also be able to convert into something where guests could stay how many of you have people stay in your homes overnight very often you did well my brother's coming tomorrow actually, um I just give them my bed and put a blow up bed right beside it. I hear a lot of people do that that they give up their own bed when they have guests but I mean that's kind of sad to me because it's your space in your zone so I'd love it if you could hear a lot of people honestly that say that like I just give up my room for my guests and I mean it's very nice I love you to do that and generous but it would be great too if you could think of ways to have guest in other spaces in your home and be able to not necessarily get removed from your own space or we're gonna talk tomorrow about how to rethink all of your rooms in your house so maybe the idea is not necessarily getting attached to a single room is your master but having more than one sleeping zone and any of them could work for you that's kind of a cool ideas. Well, um then then its not such a big deal if you are giving up that room I love this idea of putting the bed and it's it's probably a full size bed so it's not huge but this is a really small rooms well, so a space saving idea of tucking the bed in and around um inside the cabinet tree with the cabinetry around it and storage on either side. I love the lighting, the two little lance on the inside mounted on the inside of the bed and I think this kind of space is really cozy. If I was someone's guest, I would love being in this space it feels like you're in a little nook it's really cozy and warm and quaint and charming there's a lot of things about it that air really appealing to me and I love how much is accomplished in this tiny little room a great example of the lighting though of adding lighting to really make a space functional so this is, uh, eclectic fund this would go to that um one of the maybe artistic traveler when we were talking last time about style little modern, a little funky little collected but this is that idea of just creating a lot of different zones in a space it looks like there's, a sleeping zone, it's living area, a bookcase and all of those things happening in a very tiny space. This is from the kia magazine, so just showing how modular furniture works in a really tiny small spaces, but the idea of kind of like the room I did earlier except it was much larger of combining the sleeping zone and the living area all in a space together. Uh, the idea of how they used the bookshop but make it worries me somewhat in my lower level room where we all sleep because it feels like it might get to, like cut off because we have a little bit lower ceiling in that room. And do you have any tips on how to use those kinds of dividers like shelves but without bullet making the room feel like it's cut off? Um, well, I think the nice thing about shelves like this that are open, as you can see through them all the way, so if you don't completely fill them with solid things and you leave some space that you can see through them that helps visually it's kind of the idea you were talking about earlier with the stools in front of the fireplace and you can see through them so as long as you're line of sight can move through the item that helps a little bit on dh it's really they're not huge and love them anchored all the way to the wall if you could do that besides the fact that you could actually fasten them to the wall so they're safer with your children and well topple over it's just kind of nice to leave as much space in the center I think to move around them if you can't say I like them and either all the way to the wall either on either side of one sign or the opposite would be putting them in the middle and letting there be traffic flow on either side of them but that's a little more sketchy probably a ce fara safety goes, I would want to fix this to the wall with like an anel bracket or some kind of ah piece of hardware to make it really safe um but I think because you can see through it that does help if it had a solid back it would be seem more like a barrier, but I love the fact that light and your your line of sight can move through the piece when that was three cubbies tall instead of four cubbies tall would kind of still some create the separation. I mean, not, uh, quite as much. Yeah, the only thing. And this when they do have stuff on top of it. So just think about how you're going to design. And if it's taller, maybe you aren't as inclined to put more clutter on the top of it or something. This is a busy there's, a lot going on in this space. But this is it looks like a person and personality that would love a collected look. So it depends on your style if you like something much more simple. Ah, a lower countertop might just be a catch all space. Think about how you live because either one could work depending on your personality. I love this space. So these are this is a bunk room and a living space or player. I mean, it looks like an actual living space. There's tv goes in that cabinet. Um, it looks like there's a bar. So maybe even the kitchen area over here. So a fun way to create several ideas happening in one space. A sleeping zone. We actually do create some of these bunk rooms for clients, sometimes they really love them. Especially people who have grandchildren coming to visit um so it feels like your case going glamping glamour camping at grandma's house, but it could be a guest suite it could be all sorts of things multi purpose I mean, honestly, you could even depending on what's happening with this table over here or bar area, it could even be a crafting space and you have all the cabinet tree there to keep supplies for crafting so lots of activities happening in a really small space here I love this one. I love the idea of making a dining room, a library or something another purpose that we've yesterday we were trying not to bash dining rooms too much, but a lot of people saying that they don't go into them that often. So for some people, books have become obsolete because they just use a kindle, but if you are a book lover or a collector of some sort, um, I think we're going to see another room in a moment that when we get to it, hopefully it's in this section uh, if not it's tomorrow I'll show you a living room that was another designer friend of mine who's from l a our that area had a really clever solution because his clients weren't using the formal living room at all, and so they took one of their hobbies and brought that into the living room but how many of you like this idea of having a dining room but making it something elsa's will is this one of your designs to this is not one of my designs but I'm really really fond of it let's see if it says um it doesn't say whose design this is but we do have the great thing about pinterest is you can click through and find the source and I was just curious as to the combination of the very traditional old dining table but with the sarin in check isn't that really fun? I love that so that goes back to our last course on mixing styles and blending styles um and we may have even seen this example what we weren't thinking about it from a functional standpoint of the dining room versus the library but I happen to really love this idea of combining but I do also love the combination of style there so the lighting fixture and the chain thing this is kind of every style rolled into one it's a classicist with the books in the library and the very ornate or very classic antique table and then you've got the modern tulip chairs and then you have this chandelier that's a shell so that's sort of that traveller may be a little bit of a glam look so a lot of things converging in this space but really really interesting I think that's clearly a lot of paperbacks I think people feel a bit snobby about books they all know I only want to put out like hard that leather bound book I agree and I'm a snob and I agree I'm glad you pointed that out there's always an exception to every rule and ah this is a great example of how and I think one of the things that makes this work is although there's a couple of found objects or items in there it's not like they tried to make this a lot of church keys and decorative things it's truly a collection of books and so it's all one thing I think it works to put hardbacks with paperbacks and all of those things together. If you start trying to use paperback books as decorative items along with really beautiful collectibles it gets a little difficult they look small in scale and just not quite so we're fine, but in this set example where they stuck to all books it makes a lot of sense continuity so it's like a displaying a collection as a whole like we've talked about this is a really fun idea. I love this idea so under the stairs which yesterday I showed you an example of putting shelves there but it's an often forgotten space so this is designed that all of those panels pull out under the stairs and they they store items adis season clothing any kind of item that you aren't going to use all of the time because that's just a wasted space in almost every home right under the stairs and so really really clever way to just squeeze out all the function in every nook and cranny of this house feel free to jump in if anyone has any questions or comments about any of these two so this is a combination of like a craft room or set uh wrapping station with the laundry so laundry room ideas but maybe we were talking yesterday about the laundry room and not needing these gigantic laundry rooms but if you have a laundry nuclear laundry closet is there a way you khun transition that in tow other needs that you have a cz well so this is has a wrapping paper station on the wall all sorts of crafts and ribbons and paintbrushes and other things that you would use for crafting supplies on the shelves in the laundry room I love this one this would look great for a loft space too um so a sleeping area a workstation great lighting multi purpose lighting bookshelves in the back super sleek and ottoman on the floor guess that's either a trash can or a hamper whips s o all kinds of things happening here very modern very sleek and it looks to me like the underneath the bed even probably pulls out for storage possibly in another bid but great multi purpose modern interpretation of a multiuse space here's an interesting room divider to think about for some of these. So this one is more like a screen divider, but it has shelving on it as well. And it's not very tall. So there's, all source of what this is was from wayfair dot com so just it's functional, it holds things. It could be decorative and it's also, um, serves as a way to divide two spaces are so quiet this afternoon. Um, another look att at a combination of sleeping that looks like there's two bids here. Actually, a work zone said two people could sleep in here and two people could work in here. Might be a great kid space. I love the modular option of these shelves that can hang in different directions on the wall. Layered lighting in the space are at least natural lighting, desk lighting, probably overhead lighting really sleek and simple. Any of these appealing to any of you or any of our friends out on the web, jumping on board with any of these ideas that destruction is a really cool space there for, you know, maybe a teenager or something, right, somewhere they can work somewhere they can hang out, I agree with that. Lost his grace storage you're curious one it's interesting the way it makes people sort of think about the multi tasking is saying maybe my laundry room cabinets are a better spot for the craft and wrapping paper because I don't use it every day and I can't reach the cabinets anyway. Right now we need that little pull out step d'or, the cabinet that pulls down and here's the idea of turning it just a closet a regular claws if you change, some of us have bi fold doors so you'd have to have regular doors on them, but if you have small closet space in your home, you can actually turn that into a works in there's tack board on the doors there's, pegboard with little hooks toe hold different kinds of supplies scissors other thing is a rolling file cabinet underneath it's, true and it's really just a couple of shelves and some organizing options, you know, like the modular closet systems would help with this and can add a ton of function two a little space. So have any of you done anything like this? Have any be created a work station in a closet? Sally yeah, my disc and sydney in the house before was in a big old thing, and I had this tiny little space and I moved my office time and so I I did find eye a little clock like I noticed that one has a mirror or a look through with something it's a bit depressing yeah, yeah so that is a great idea I love the mirror reflecting what's going on in the background so it mimics a mirror I mean a window and it also reflects the light from the other side, so that is one of the issues with having toe look at a wall, but a lot of us are having to do that anyway for putting a desk beside the bed or something like that. You're really looking into a wall anyway and it's nice to have this option of ah being able to see beyond what's right in front of us and I think the mirrors a really great addition to this space, okay, so, um any any ideas here that any of you want to bring into your home so far with these multi purpose spaces? I saw lisa to kind of let you sort of at least found this charming, didn't your face kind of responded to that space that one's really cute and I'm hearing things in terms I'm hearing a lot about lighting and that's something that's sorely lacking in my place, and so these examples of just how what, what a difference I just have overhead lighting and what a difference lighting makes I think one of the things that even sally pointed out in some other courses, but lots of people that look at my work or clients notice after we start working together, that I used lots of lamps and even when we were just showing I was showing you that living space with the piano and I think I said lamps on either side of the sofa and art light on the picture above the sofa, a lamp, a cross between the two chairs and even another small lamp over on a chest. So having the option toe layer, the lighting and a remis, what really starts my hair starts to make it feel really cozy lived in its that's soft ambiance, mood lighting that makes everybody love a space, and he might not know what it is about it. That makes it so cozy, but lighting can completely transform a room, and when you just have harsh overhead lighting like we're sitting in right now, I mean it is it could be really irritating sometimes and really overwhelming. And so having that option of dimmers and all different layers and levels of lighting is really, really important, so I'm glad you're picking up on that and maximizing the the natural lighting as well.