Stylish, Practical Spaces for Modern Family Living
The interior design of your home should suit everyone who lives there. Often that means there will be multipurpose spaces, and areas that need to work for different generations. When you consider what you want to use the room for – both the purpose and the people – you can start putting together a space that works for everyone.
Shared Family Spaces
Open plan living is on the up, and it’s a wonderful way to build a great family space. An opened-up room is brilliant for connection, but you do need structure within the space to avoid chaos. Use the following techniques to bring that structure in:
- Define zones – whether that’s dining, relaxing or study – with rugs, dividers and clever lighting
- Use flexible furniture like storage benches, stackable chairs and multi-purpose items
- Keep clear walkways and sightlines to maintain a calm and spacious feel
The Manu Oak Round Coffee Table with Storage from Daals is a brilliant example of multi-purpose furniture. It gives you a surface to use, and the storage allows you to hide away the clutter.
To help you clearly define zones within the room, you can use a room divider like this one from Amazon. The partition gives you privacy in different areas, and includes versatile storage.
Bedrooms That Work Harder
Bedrooms often need to accommodate additional purposes beyond sleeping, especially children’s rooms. Kids’ bedrooms need to be their sanctuary, study space and play area. This might seem like a lot to achieve, but you can use some of the techniques from designing an open-plan space here too. Other things to consider are:
- Start with neutral décor, flooring and big furniture to allow for growth and changing of preferences and needs
- Multipurpose furniture is king here, think high sleepers, storage beds and desks that double as dressing tables
- Hidden organisation like drawer dividers work brilliant for older kids and teens keeping stationery, jewellery etc under control
- A pro tip is to label drawer and storage to keep things neat and tidy.
Adults need a good bedroom space too, for more ideas on grown up spaces check out our Designing a Bedroom Oasis blog.
Smart Homework & Study Nooks
With the increase in remote working, it’s more important than ever to make sure that there is a suitable place to work, and work doesn’t take over your home. If you don’t have a separate office to keep everything confined you can look for nooks and hideaways to work from. Think about:
- Floating shelves and compact desks can make an under-used corner useful
- Consider lighting to avoid glare whilst having a light enough area
- Pegboards and wall organisers above desks give you vertical storage in an otherwise empty space
- A supportive chair is a must, but you can still have something stylish.
We love the Remi Scalloped Small Step Up Desk from Dunelm. It creates an attractive working spot, which can be cleared at the end of the day; a lovely piece that adds to the room. Alternatively, the Amberly Hideaway Workstation Desk from the Painted Furniture Company gives you a stylish and discrete work space in your living room.
Smart Storage
Clutter is the enemy for an organised and calm home. If it’s minimalistic living that’s your aim, head over to our Power of Minimalism blog. For a family home that needs a touch of order there are some simple things to try:
- Built and modular shelving provides plenty of storage for all the family in shared spaces
- We love baskets and boxes for storage, and these work especially well for toys – remember to label for ease of use
- Hidden storage is always a winner, and again you can look at ottomans or benches and coffee tables with storage.
For more ideas for achieving a calm home, read our Designing Calm: Interiors Without Clutter blog.
If your home still isn’t working for you, get in touch and remember us to follow us on Facebook for more interior design ideas.