If you are anything like me, you may find great enjoyment out of giving your kids a hard time. In early August, my wife and I had a little fun telling our son that we were planning to turn his soon-to-be empty bedroom into a nice new home office; he was not amused. Our son left for college almost a month ago and we still enjoy teasing him about all the possibilities for his bedroom. Now, in reality, we know he will need that room again when he is on break from school, but all the joking around reminded me about the possibilities that come with repurposing unused spaces into more useful, exciting and fun spaces.
One of our clients in West Chester recently did just that. They turned an unused bedroom into a home office. It turned out to be a really sharp and useful place to hangout. The repurposed room included a fireplace, hardwood floors, custom built-in book cases, and of course what every office NEEDS, a huge flat screen T.V. Now that is an office I wouldn’t want to leave.
In my own home, when my daughter returned after a year of being away at college, we turned an unused playroom into a small bedroom for her. This was nice because when she left for college, she was rooming with her little sis, so that was no longer an ideal option. The bedroom, not much bigger than her dorm room, is a perfect spot for some privacy and all the hours of studying that is required of a nursing student now living at home.
Another popular option is to transform formal dining rooms that often go unused or are only used a couple of times a year, at most. We’ve had many clients expand their kitchens to include the dining space by removing the wall separating the two rooms. The end result is a much larger open eat-in kitchen. (You can see pictures of these on our website or on our Houzz page.) Another way to transform the formal dining room is to open it up to adjacent spaces to make it feel more inviting and comfortable and lose the formal feeling. A change in lighting, adding wainscoting on the walls, hardwood flooring, a pub table and a dry or wet bar can make this a room that people gravitate to and bring back to life.
Although for now my son’s bedroom will stay just that, his bedroom, I can still dream about all the possibilities. I can already picture that 50 inch flat screen on the wall!
