Creative Uses for Conventional Rooms Provides Custom Feel to Production Homes by Dena Amoruso
Tired of the usual four-bedroom production home with two and a half baths and a living room, dining room, and family room? Many model home decorators try to artfully suggest new and creative uses for somewhat boring spaces when outfitting model homes, but oftentimes are not permitted by the homebuilder to get too wild in their decorating ideas, lest potential home buyers are unable to picture themselves living there. Production home builders tout flexible floor plan options in their marketing materials and advertise them until they are blue in the face, but most homebuyers don't quite "get" all the purposes that builder options can be used for. By the same token, many homebuyers tend to think of extremely creative uses for conventional spaces as "designer-only"; changes to the original plan only custom homebuilders would consider implementing during construction. Not true. Even "tract" homebuilders offer vast arrays of options to make your home a reflection of your own individual tastes to suit a variety of uses. So what about pushing the outside of the envelope with some real imagination? Let's say, for instance, that you don't need all of the bedrooms for sleeping purposes very often (if at all). The most common "options" that are offered for these rooms by homebuilders are conversions to dens or offices, easily accomplished by eliminating closets in them and adding more electrical outlets to the equation. But what other uses could you put some other rooms to that your builder could help you plan for in the process of construction? No doubt my own imagination will not even scratch the surface, but these suggestions may provide some food for thought: Spare bedroom areas: Hobby room, home gym, music room, media room, sewing room, sports memorabilia room, family display (heirloom) room, play room, homework and resource room, library, art studio, or antique collection room, (whew!) to name a few. Your new home builder probably offers the ability to plan for many of these uses, smoothing wall surfaces, lighting areas for display purposes, creating built-in shelving, adding mirrored walls, or wiring state-of-the-art electrical networks. They can provide hard-surfaced floors wherever needed, and even add extra wall insulation for noise abatement if you don't care to share your audio tastes with your neighbors, or Mom and Dad want some sleep. Living Room: How often do you ever actually sit in your formal living room? Is it merely a room you feel obligated to (1) provide 'pretty' furniture for (2) keep the kids and pets away from, or (3) someday use when you entertain more often? I have childhood memories of my grandparents' formal living room, with its overstuffed Louis XIV furniture covered with thick, clear plastic that stuck to my legs as I squirmed. (To this day I have no idea if that furniture was ever permitted to breathe real air.) Although "great room" concepts have come back into vogue, some people still like having the extra space living rooms provide. If you don't wish to display your living room as a beautiful, but pickled display of uncomfortable furniture, lamps and pictures, then why not try something different? A baby grand piano with a simple upholstered occasional chair and ottoman, and a good lamp is an elegant, inviting, yet useful way to use a formal living room, even if you are not the quintessential musician. If your living room can be closed off from the house by adding a wall and double or French doors, many living rooms are also in a great location for a home office. One buyer from England that I once sold a home to even added a raised hearth fireplace to make the (now-large) home office more cozy while he worked. Some Baby Boomers I know rebelled against formal living rooms by selling all their formal living room furniture and replacing it with a pool table, decorating the living room with framed football jerseys and Lucite-encased sports headline clips on the back wall. Depending on the location of your living room, this is a great use for an otherwise wasted space in some homeowners' estimations. Builders can add a hanging light fixture over the table itself, and provide recessed, dimmable lighting all around. Add a wet bar, and - voila -- a veritable haven for entertaining, and you haven't even invaded the family room yet. Formal Dining Rooms: This is a room or area of the home that is still important to many homebuyers, perhaps because of the slowly disappearing sense of elegance and tradition with which formal dining rooms are recognized. Family gatherings and holidays, in many families, would not be the same without this room as a set-aside. Should you wish the room to be used for more informal dining, however, there are many furniture designers who offer the more comfortable "game set" type seating, usually in octagonal or round table shapes, flanked by wide, easy armchairs. The more informal and rustic breakfronts substitute for formal china cabinets, and music can be piped into the room's ceilings, providing a comfortable, yet special area in which to dine and relax out of the hustle and bustle of the kitchen breakfast nook and family room spaces. Wine racks and interesting objets d'art can also be displayed there, with subtle lighting to set the mood. Family Rooms: Although usually the room receiving the most comfortable furniture in the house as well as the largest TV set, the family room can now become the location for a communal computer center. This can become a Mecca where kids can get help with the homework, and surfing the Internet can become a family affair. With many families owning more than one computer, this is not an uncommon sight in many homes. Builders offer computer and structured wiring specifically for this purpose. And DVD stereo feeds via the Internet can hook up to the overhead "surround-sound" speakers, offering entertainment alternatives not even heard of ten years ago. Garage stalls that get used for workshops, play areas, home gyms, or finished rooms are not new to the conversion/option scene with homebuilders. Be careful, however, in eliminating indoor car parking area if your new neighborhood has strict rules about driveway or street parking, as many now do. Try to keep as many stalls free as you own cars for. Your neighbors will appreciate it, and your home value may someday gain from it if everyone plays by the rules. It's good to know that homebuyers need not "box" themselves into the same old uses their parents had for every room in the house. Using some suggestions from their builders' design center personnel, collecting and studying architectural and home decorating magazines, and touring upscale model homes can give homebuyers ideas for practical, but perhaps more unconventional uses for rooms that would smell just as sweet by any other name. The new American home can become whatever you make it, from the smallest starter home to the move-up variety. Giving buyers as much choice as possible is what homebuilders strive for, to satisfy the diverse new uses of the American home, making every one of them as individual as the people that occupy them. |
