Emily Osmond is an Melbourne-based marketing mentor and interior design enthusiast. She specialises in helping service-based business owners to book out with clients, and scale with online programs.
Why is it so important to have multi-purpose zones and spaces within a home? What are the benefits of having spaces that can be used for more than one purpose?
A: Creating spaces in your home that can be used for more than one purpose can help maximise the footprint of a home, contribute to more efficient running costs, and provide additional uses for areas that feel constrained.
In our case, we may not be able to afford to buy or build the size of home that we would ultimately love, so being creative with the way that we use the space available means that we don’t need to sacrifice the practicality and enjoyment of our home.
What are your top three tips to creating a home that is built for multiple purposes?
A:
1. Consider the lifestyle and requirements of your family. What activities does your family enjoy? Do you need a work-from-home or study space? What size family do you have? Do you enjoy entertaining? Answering these questions will help inform the key functions needed for your multi-purpose spaces.
2. Whether you are building or renovating, it’s time to be creative with the floorplan to maximise the space available. Take your time here – often several revisions are needed before you land on the perfect solution to create a flexible space for your family to enjoy.
3. Joinery is your best friend! There is so much that you can do with joinery to integrate the different requirements of your family while still maintaining a sleek aesthetic. For instance, a TV hidden behind joinery, an integrated bar fridge, a built-in desk, or even a hidden toy cupboard.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to put a space to better use?
A: If you have an unused or underused space in your home, it’s time to understand why it’s not being used and change this. For example, is the furniture in this space uncomfortable? Perhaps it’s time for an upgrade. Does the space feel dark and dingy? Updating the flooring, repainting, or changing window furnishings can often help. Does the space lack a purpose that works for your family? Decide what you would love to add to your home or relocate from another area. Perhaps it’s to do with one of your hobbies, creating a dedicated kid’s zone or finally creating your own work-from-home space.
What role can flooring play when creating a room with alternative uses? How does the functionality of a room impact your flooring selections?
A: In areas such as the kitchen, dining, bathroom, and entrance, where factors such as food, water and lots of foot traffic are at play, opt for a hard flooring option such as engineered timber, laminate, or tiles. Alternatively, if a room is mostly used for sitting, relaxing, or sleeping, carpet will make for a lovely cosy space. However, if you have a room that falls into column A and column B, typically hard flooring will be most practical and will provide you with the option of using a rug where a little extra softness and cosiness is needed.
How can rugs be used to demarcate or “zone” a room that has multiple purposes?
A: I love using rugs to demarcate spaces. I recommend keeping your open spaces all in one flooring so that it continues to feel open. However, you can use rugs to create “zones” within these spaces.
For instance, in our large open entrance, hallway, kitchen, living and dining zone, we selected Carpet Court’s Florence Oak in Iluka. This created a beautiful, spacious, calm, and open feel throughout the home. If you also have hard flooring throughout your home, you can add a soft rug to create a living zone to help ground the furniture in the space.
You can also add a rug to areas which are carpeted to create zones within an area for different uses. For example, underneath a desk or office chair, or a playmat style rug for the kids’ area.
Image Credits:
Home: @emilyosmond
Builder: @goldlineconstructions
Interior Design Consultant: @whitewith1
Interior Styling Consultant: @kirstinkdesignco
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