23 Jun Interior Design Ideas To Solve The Spare Room Conundrum
Interior Design Ideas To Solve The Spare Room Conundrum
Junk room, makeshift laundry room or somewhere to gather dust – how do you use your spare room? It’s easy for our spare rooms to become an unglamorous part of the home but it doesn’t have to be that way.
There are plenty of ways to utilise your spare room to help you get the most from your home. From making it a place to chill out to productivity, activity and entertaining spaces, the spare room has become so much more than a place to put up guests for a night.
Perhaps you are moving to a new house that has more rooms than before and you’re not sure how you should approach having a spare room. Let’s look at some of the best interior design ideas to solve the spare room conundrum.
A dedicated playroom
A dedicated playroom is an often sought-after parental opportunity to create a paradise for the kids and more order to the rest of the family space. The spare room becomes the ‘child zone’ for all the toys and art supplies.
Rather than having their toys spread throughout the house, a dedicated kids’ playroom can allow children to have a space to call their own. It won’t stop them from bringing their toys into the house completely but it should help to reduce the clutter throughout your home.
Stocking it with ample art supplies and a mini library is a great way to spend a rainy day indoors. Another design feature which can be useful is a large, soft rug which is perfect for sitting on the floor because, well, kids don’t always play by the rules.
Create a home cinema
If you or your family are big movie lovers then why not dedicate a room to your favourite pastime? The great thing about adding a home cinema to your life is how you can recreate that theatre feeling. A projector makes the movie and it’s vital that you make the right choice.
Experts at Golf Swing Systems, who install golf simulators that can double up as home cinemas advise, “To prevent unwanted shadows from your projector, ensure that it is a short-throw model and ideally positioned within 1-3 metres of your screen. A long-throw projector has further to travel and may cast a shadow that can be annoying and distracting”.
Once you have sorted the projector it’s important to consider the type of furniture and lighting you can use to enhance the atmosphere. Comfortable seats are a must, while low-level lighting is perfect for recreating that blockbuster movie screening feeling.
Entertain guests with a bar lounge
Perhaps your spare room is downstairs rather than up, which makes it a perfect candidate for a bar lounge. Creating a bar at home isn’t for everyone but for those who love entertaining it’s a perfect solution, especially if your kitchen isn’t ideal for hosting.
You don’t have to install beer pumps to make a bar, and a simple counter is a great starting point. Some display shelves for your drinks collection are ideal while a couple of stools complete the bar perfectly.
The fun part comes in deciding how you would like to decorate your bar lounge. Will you go full Club Tropicana, recreate your favourite dive bar or take inspiration from a classic speakeasy?
Homie bar installation experts, Luxury Home Bars, recommend adding neon lighting. They say, “Adding neon lighting that doesn’t just say “bar” can be a great way of personalising your luxury bar. It doesn’t have to be neon- it can be lighting that matches the rest of your home decor”.
It’s worth bearing in mind that committing to something as dramatic as a bar isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste and it may affect your home’s value when it comes to selling.
Enter, the chillout room
As many of us struggled through self-isolation and the need to work from home, we discovered that we needed to pay more attention to self-care. Finding hobbies and fun ways to spend our free time became more important than ever. However, so too did looking after ourselves, with home workouts swelling in popularity since 2020.
Another important lesson we learned from the pandemic is to take care of our mental health, from meditation techniques to finding time to relax. Creating a chillout room is the perfect tonic for a busy schedule, ensuring that you take the time out from your busy life to dedicate some time to yourself.
Lighting is one of the most important aspects of a zen space, with as much natural light as you can get being ideal. Comfort is vital, so consider chairs that feel like a hug when you sit in them and remove clutter to help maintain a clear mind. You may also wish to incorporate a yoga studio into your chillout room, which means you will need a bit more space to roll out a mat.
Unleash your inner artist
Mindfulness activities are a great way to forget about anything that is troubling you as you focus your attention on helping yourself or creating something. Art is one of the best mindfulness activities because it can be as easy as finding a pen and paper to get started.
However, art comes in many forms and your particular creative flair may be enjoyed through something like painting, clay modelling or even making your own clothes. Repurposing a spare room to become an art studio is a great way to give your creativity the room it needs to flourish.
Trying to create something on a kitchen table, and then having to pack it away before you are finished can lead to incomplete artwork. It’s all too easy to forget about the project you were working on if you can only work on it during the weekends.
Dedicating a space to arts and crafts allows you to pick things up where you left off, whenever you feel like it. That might be working on something throughout the week or dedicating large chunks of time to your project. Surface space is important in a home art studio, as is storage to ensure your supplies have somewhere to go but can be found in an instant.
Design your spare room for yourself
What is important when creating your spare room theme or function is that you make it your own. If it’s going to be somewhere you will be spending your leisure time, then it’s going to have to be appealing to you. But, if you don’t think this is your forever home then it’s important to consider how the changes you make can impact the resale value of your property.