Get the latest This Old House news, trusted tips, tricks, and DIY Smarts projects from our experts–straight to your inbox. An extra room is a great place to set up a home movie theater. Contemporary Home Office .. My apartment is a small rental. Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting gallery. Straight ahead (opposite the kitchen) is entertainment built ins for TV. How to Turn a Reclaimed Beam into a Fireplace Mantel. I also provide 3 design tips to help you get it right in your second living room. Architect Darren Helgesen incorporated that spirit in this attic redo at a century-old house in East Hampton, New York, where he used warm finishes and smart details to turn the dark, sloped-ceilinged space into a shipshape two-bedroom suite. Hung from rails set atop corner posts, they enclose a 16-by-16-foot deck, giving it the elegant air of a glass-lined conservatory. Converting your formal living space in to an adult game room can be done by purchasing some elegant pieces such as a decorative wooden card table or billiard table. Now, everyone wants to spend the night in their little backyard gem! Our couch is right … The living room is awkward. Davis even managed to fit in a full bath, a laundry area, a food pantry, and a home-office space. Ask kids and they’ll tell you the ideal place to sleep is in a tree house or on a sailboat, like Max in Where the Wild Things Are. In a small house, every bit of space needs to work hard, as homeowners Samantha and Bryan Langdeau soon realized after buying their 1,200-square-foot Cape in Waterbury, Connecticut. With a living room storage cabinet like a hutch, you can keep blankets, books, games, and toys neatly organized and out of the way. Now, a desk niche makes use of a corner with natural light, augmented by recessed ceiling fixtures. Jul 12, 2014 - "19 ideas for what to do with that unused front living room" Jul 12, 2014 - "19 ideas for what to do with that unused front living room" Explore. Topping the couple’s wish list was an extra bedroom and bath upstairs. Garden walls really help a patio or deck feel like a room, whether they’re made out of greenery, stone, or, more unexpectedly, the old church windows used here. And with the real estate market being what it is, more and more people are trying to find new ways to add extra living space rather than go through the stress and expense of moving. Could a Mission Statement Help Your House? He anchored the furniture—vintage wicker and rattan united by a coat of hunter-green paint—with a natural rug, and hung mirrors and a watercolor from the shingles. It’s a super large (long) room that runs from the kitchen into the living room. If your living room looks like a long hallway, use a few clever illusions to open up the space so you don't feel like you're living in a bowling alley. Homeowner Susanne Hudson, a garden designer, snagged the five 11-foot-tall finds for $90 each at a flea market years ago and recently put them to use to define her Douglasville, Georgia, deck like enormous white pickets on a fence. If this is a problem you're facing, … 4. Guests can hang a left to check out the wine cellar or plop down on a sofa facing the stone fireplace and a TV. “Hidden components really help solve a lot of those clutter issues that we deal with every day,” Chi says. Need the room to match a calming rustic beach feel. In a similar way inside the house, there are so many important things like walls, structure & ceilings. A small house remodel can be as exacting as a jigsaw puzzle. When Alan Koch bought this 1933 cottage in Portland, Oregon, he knew he’d be finishing the 600-square-foot attic sooner rather than later. Hang open shelves above your washer and dryer units to add stylish storage to your laundry room. The new basement level added 915 square feet of living area and solved the moisture problem with perimeter drains and sump pumps. With its prime location overlooking the yard, a porch offers the perfect place for serious relaxation in mild-to-warm weather. Sometimes the extra room you’ve always wanted is right under your feet. Room Decor. Challenge: A large, open, and long living room that needs to accommodate multiple activities. 270 locations nationwide! So they asked their general contractor to rethink the entire space. There is an extra “room” that is 11-by-15 feet to the left of the main living room that currently has no purpose. What to Do With an Extra Room: 6 Unique Spare Room Ideas by Zoe Ursick Whether you’re an empty-nester, have kids off at college, or simply haven’t found a use for that empty spare room, you deserve to make the most of your extra space. Home Office. Some homes, like the one I grew up in, happen to have both. Feature a Writing Desk as a Sofa Table to Maximize Space and Function while Maintaining a Decorative Look This beautifully decorative, vintage style desk takes the whole concept of maximizing the space in a decorative way to a whole new level when placed behind the sofa. In the front, there is a tv. Use wire and wicker bins to organize cleaning supplies on shelves, and display motivational wall art to make laundry a little less tedious. Other game room ideas include putting in a dart board cabinet or shuffleboard table that would perfectly occupy the side bar of the living space. To the left is s set of 3 French doors. At 700 square feet, it could be a seven-person ¬office, she figured, but “I wanted it to feel open, like a loft, with lots of light,” says Beth. “We love our house’s location, but it was tight on space,” says Geoff Allen of the 1925 seaside Cape Cod in Barrington, Rhode Island, that he shares with wife Michelle Forcier and their young daughter. Soon Elizabeth and her husband, Chris, were picturing the equivalent of an 830-square-foot addition, minus the new footprint, with a whole host of amenities. There are an endless number of ways to use this room that would increase its value to your family - and your home’s value overall. The previous owners had put a pool table in there (as seen in the pictures). 10. Cushions in navy, white, and citrus yellow add color, while trim with a pale celery hue draws attention to the 1875 Carpenter Gothic’s louvered shutters and distinctive arched windows. We have a large open family room, kitchen and eating area but, I love our living room that opens up into the dinning room. Four kids-and their backpacks-were cluttering up the kitchen after school. The flooring inside is standard lengths of low-maintenance composite decking. The small 1950s ranch suited its new owners, except for one thing. 3D Visualization: Courtesy of Modsy Just chairs "If your living room is a small, pull a group of four chairs around an ottoman of some sort. Whether it is for that favorite morning routine of a cup of tea & the newspaper, some Yoga, stretching & meditating, or simply a refreshing game of billiards to recharge your batteries after a long day at work, an extra living-cum-recreation room with comfy furnishings like a cushy sofa, some floor cushions & … Then, to complete the loft look, John hung an AC duct nearly the length of the attic, track lighting, and a vintage wooden airplane propeller. Depending on the amount of storage, workspace and seating you need, there are actually quite a few ways to lay out a room similar to this. When it comes to a living room's layout, not all corners are created equal. ”It was always their favorite place,” says Cory, recalling how the couple’s four kids would hide out upstairs with friends every chance they got. And since he worked at home, Alan hankered for a light, bright office where he could spread out. Fold-back window shutters, pale flooring, and clear sight lines make the light-filled room feel much larger than it is. The beauty of an extra room is the ability to give it multiple functions and design it to best suit your needs. “And now it’s the ultimate sleepover space.” Snug built-ins with below-bed storage, roof windows, pine flooring, and lots of glossy beadboard opened up the attic and made it more functional. To create more space in your hobby room, incorporate free-standing bookshelves to store supplies. My living room is very narrow. And while some are meant to be left untouched (hence the power of negative space) others could do for a little sprucing up. Give your home bonus rooms without drastically changing its footprint. 1- An extra room is perfect to be a closet room. … “The look is classic, even a bit quiet, which contrasts with the house’s exuberant architecture,” Fallon says. They’re both useful and decorative, but in order to avoid making a lamp look like a wallflower at a party, it’s smart to style a few complementary pieces around it. The space holds a projection screen TV and … When the lease on Beth Krauklis’s office expired last year (she runs her own branding agency in Orlando, Florida), she cast an eye up to the attic apartment in her Queen Anne house. Swathi Anup, if you're into reading, I'd suggest a little entryway reading area: bookcases that are warm and inviting, a really cozy armchair, a lamp, and maybe a small table with flowers. Elizabeth Willett, was looking to fulfill several needs in her family’s 1927 Tudor-style house when she saw untapped potential in its walk-out basement. Repetition. This living room setup is very common in apartment living - the kitchen, dining area and living space are all in one open area. He ¬refinished the heart-pine floors and gave the exposed rafters five coats of white paint. Built-in furniture, cabinets, and open shelves—together with a new bath—make use of every bit of available space. Especially if it is rather small or far from the main areas of your apartment (kitchen, living room etc). For the furnishings, painted metal porch gliders and spring chairs from the 1940s had the laid-back look Hudson wanted; the iron candle stand and armillary sundial achieved the right rusted finish in short order. It's extra space, which is great, but it's hard to decorate around and keep it a functional, useable space for everyday living. Hi, we are moving into a very tricky space. After expanding the attic space by 100 square feet with a gabled dormer, Alan’s airy aerie is now complete, and makes the most of every square inch with smart space-saving details—like the closet pocket door that keeps the passage-way free and clear. Builders dug a foundation and basement for the addition, then took down part of the wall between the old and new below-grade spaces. All rights reserved. They put in a ceiling, finished the walls with insulation and wallboard, built an insulated subfloor, and added custom built-ins, a beverage fridge, and wiring for media equipment. Saved from houzz.com. Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery. And in the back, all this extra space. From the kitchen (facing the living room) to the right is fireplace with built ins. My living room is a living room/dining room combo. Imagine all the things you could do in your extra space: painting, planting, playing or nothing at all John gutted the apartment, cut holes for three new windows, stripped the plaster off the walls, and finished the ¬exposed lath inside with a dark stain and polyurethane. If you had the luxury of a spare room, what would you use it for? Whether you have a rarely used dining room, the kids are now grown and gone, or you just ended up with a spare room, this is a chance to think about your space in a completely new way. While the ceiling was low, it wasn’t too low, and moisture—that bane of basement remodels—wasn’t a problem. Skylights lend the illusion of height when raising the roof wasn’t an option. The old farmhouse had dark rooms, dead ends, and no place to park the kids' boots. Focus on the features. Her husband, John, who was already planning to replace the roof and siding, took up the challenge. All these things require protection from time to time. “The goal was to configure a sectional with a longer side and a shorter side to fit the wall lengths. It does happen, though. By tapping the upstairs, he figured he could carve out just such a space, as well as a comfortable master suite, reserving downstairs bedrooms for guests and TV viewing. They wanted a master suite. It’s a nice large space but I just have no idea what kind of furniture to put in there and how to arrange it. Look up, down, and all around, and you may find you have more room for rooms than you think—in the attic, the basement, the garage, or even an underused outbuilding. empty room after the entrance..what can I use it for? But while planning the side garden, they saw that this little 12-by-12-foot outbuilding had potential as a focal point. Whether it's to build a garden office, an extra bedroom to get extra income from Airbnb, or just an extra room for entertaining, you'll need to learn what to consider when designing and building your own garden room. “Blue hydrangeas and rose pillows brighten it up.”. Built-ins keep the space clean and functional. Ask This Old House master electrician Heath Eastman explains the uses and purposes of different types of electrical boxes. In some homes, it's called a "formal dining room", in others, a sitting room or a parlour. Enjoy Movies in a Home Theater Photo via @rndtechnology. Sometimes in the search for more living space there’s no place to look but up. “Embrace original features, which will add depth to the space,” Black says. “When those ¬Chicago Bears are on—holy cow—the whole family’s here,” Cathy says. Or a conversation area with 2 small couches facing each other, with music playing in the background, and/or a small faux fireplace that is high quality and pretty. 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Countertop mostly clear to allow room for folding clothes or treating stains when they moved into their.. Tricky space have about their homes is that they just don ’ t too low, it called. Claudia and Felipe Menanteau from Piscataway, new Jersey, looked up-to the attic to set up long! Idea in his own new York home, interior, room the Grands for,... And neat and we use it for enclose a 16-by-16-foot deck, giving it elegant! Basement level added 915 square feet of living area and solved the moisture problem with perimeter drains and sump.... A left to check out the wine cellar or plop down on sofa!

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