I was thinking a lot about rooms recently - specifically, how rooms of homes are planned, named, and how their purpose is truly determined. How are those spaces defined, and who should define them? Is it the furniture stores that sell attractive, culturally acceptable concepts of what rooms should be and how time should be spent in them? Is it the architects that design the home initially, captioning the space on the floorplan? I mean, is it really such a stretch to delete certain traditional rooms and add others when you make a house your own?
My first thought was that there are some self-evident rooms that always seem to be standard issue:
- A kitchen is an easy one. They have specific appliances and such that truly dictate their purpose. You don't often see a sub-Zero fridge in a bedroom, nor a king size bed in a kitchen. Nearly every home has a kitchen of some kind--sometimes two in the case of an in-law suite. You walk into a house and nearly always know it is the kitchen, even when the appliances are all stripped out (courtesy of the ever-popular foreclosure or short sale, or just someone who REALLY wanted to take their appliances with them). It is an easy identification.
- Garages: Though I have seem my share of garages that become finished family rooms (in various degrees of DIY and professional "finish" to be sure), and a plethora of garages that are more storage spaces than a place to park a car (including how our garage was used growing up--never a car parked inside), it is pretty clear from the inside and outside that a garage is (or was) such a space.
- Bathroom: Toilet. Sink. Possibly a tub, shower, tub/shower, bidet, fan, etc. There is no denying a bathroom. Though again, in my travels I have seen a bathroom or two that has undergone DIY retasking: Photography darkroom, storage closet, blacklit greenhouse, and cat bedroom/bathroom are some examples.
That said, some long-standing rooms and spaces that used to be found on the majority of home floorplans seem to be disappearing. Parlors,
formal living rooms, formal dining rooms, etc. are some of the victims of this cultural design shift. They are being replaced by great rooms and open floorplans that show flexible spaces up for interpretation and imagination--not third-party declarations of purpose. Most rooms in an traditionally, culturally Western house (even those initially defined on a plan by an architect) are in reality left to your chosen culture, lifestyle, and practical (or not so practical!) needs as an occupant.
You define the spaces. When you think about it, the furniture (or other defining items)
you choose to put in it tell the room what it is - not the other way around. If you decide to put a desk and a chair in a walk-in closet, it becomes an office. Right?
When we move to our new home later this month, we have plans for:
- A LEGO ROOM: This space will take the place of an extra bedroom across the hall from my son's main bedroom. The plan is to give our little Lego enthusiast a place to do his thing, and create a gallery. We will be putting up several sets of wood plank style wall shelves, where we can take the plank down, affix a Lego baseplate, and he can anchor his creation for display short or long-term. He enjoys spending hours upon hours coming up with some pretty intricate designs, and understandably gets upset when they get stomped, vacuumed, or otherwise Godzilla-ed by visitors (big and small). This will give him a place to show them off but keep them out of reach as he chooses...AND keeps Legos off of my floor and out from between my toes in the middle of the night...clear WIN. Who needs a guest room, anyway? He will use this all the time.
- An official, dedicated HOME OFFICE: This will be in what is per plan, the formal dining room. Changes include replacing the chandelier with a much more practical ceiling fan, adding some doors for privacy, and filling with office furniture (and a chaise lounge allowing for a more informal workspace/reading place). This will also help set the cultural expectation in our family that when I am in that room, I am not at "home" - I am at work. Respect my space!
- A PROJECT ROOM: Taking the place of another extra bedroom (that also houses the upstairs laundry room), this is a place where our collective art and craft projects can sit undisturbed... and I can simply shut the door when I grow tired of the project until I revisit it or when company comes to visit! A guilty pleasure, but much more useful than a den or another guest room.
- A RUG-RAT RUMPUS ROOM: Taking the place of the formal living room (aka: "The excitement room" as my son said he wants to call it) this will be a room with a lounging couch or two, some colorful beanbags, a couple of stocked bookshelves, the train table (aka puzzle, Lego, Bionicle, and transformer table) and bins of toys. Though we initially thought about relegating this room to the basement, I actually like my kiddo, and want him (and his cousins) to be able to play on the same level where we plan to spend most of our time. It is adjacent to my home office, though separated by a set of french doors so I can keep an eye on him while I work from home (after all, good "fences" make good neighbors--even inside of your own home).
- The MAN LEVEL: The best use for a finished basement in our home is self-explanatory. The man level will feature a cool/dark early-to-bed early-to-rise snore-and-thrash-at-will bedroom for the hubster, full bath (where you can leave the seat up 24/7!), wet bar, adult beverage mini-fridge, and sound insulated video game/theater room. Enter the man level at your own risk...though betting some may never want to leave.
The interesting part is that I have been surprised at some of the strong reactions I get when I tell people I am scrapping certain standard-issue rooms to make way for others above. As if opting out of having a traditional formal dining room somehow diminishes my ability to "make house" - I guess it certainly makes me less of a contender for "Domestic Goddess of the Year," anyway :) Oh, and I am putting a couch in my kitchen. Everyone hangs out there anyway - so why not be comfortable?
What are some of the more creative room ideas/purposes you have come across? Have you ever stripped a room of its intended purpose, and transformed it into something that works better for you, not the architect?
