OlderWritten By: Nicole, Customer Care Manager at Heritage Homes
Most of us have an ‘extra’ bedroom in our homes. We keep this ‘extra’ bedroom for when those friends and/or family members come to visit. Sometimes those visits can be few and far between and this ‘extra’ bedroom becomes an un-used room in your home while other areas of the home are getting over-crowded. Kids can always have a camp out in the living room when guests come to visit – leaving having your kids bedrooms for the few times that the guests do come and stay overnight. Below are some ideas to make that ‘extra’ room in your more useful for one, two or all of you in the family.
1. Playroom: Keep the kids rooms clean by having their trucks and dolls in their own play room. Having a play room makes it a “fun” place for kids to go and play and keep their toys in one area of the home and make more room in their bedroom. Fun ideas are to paint one of the walls with black chalkboard paint, magnetic paint, or better yet – half and half! Over the years, this room can then grow into being the teenage hangout- a place outside of their room to hang out with friends and not having to be in the living room with their parents.
2. No kids or kids that are grown, but you are a kid at heart? Make it your studio/storage room. A place for your crafts, painting, instuments, Maybe the room is divided with gift wrapping room, scrap booking, crafts on one side and then a place outside of the cold garage for all his hunting/sports items with extra shelving, cabinets or wall units made for storage. Makes it a well organized and labeled area and much more accessible and resourceful.
3. Home Theatre: want the living room to be just a visiting room, then move that TV into that ‘extra’ bedroom and make it your own home theatre. Have fun with placing theatre chairs into the room, bar area with a mini fridge for your sodas, and possibly a microwave for popping popcorn so you don’t have to go to the kitchen,
4, Office: one of the most common things to do with the ‘extra’ bedroom is an office area. If you have kids that have homework, incorporate a desk in this area so they have a place to concentrate as well, instead having all the distractions at the kitchen table and/or their own bedroom.
5. Fitness Room: great place for the weights, treadmill and stationary bike. Add a TV into the room and a large mirror on one of the walls and your have your own gym right in your home.
6. Media/Game Room: a great place for the Wii or XBox to be at and keeping the mess and noise out of your living/family room. Have a futon be one of the pieces of furniture and still makes for an ‘extra’ bed in the home. Place a shelving unit for all the games and a small table in the room with 4 chairs around it as an area always ready to play board games or a card game is a great addition.
7. Is the ‘extra’ bedroom near the master bedroom? Turn it into HER dressing room. Have wooden shelivng around a portion of the perimeter of the room for the folded clothes, add some rods, a place for HER to get ready at (vanity area) and a mannequin in the room to help with deciding on outfits. A large enough place for the steamer and/or ironing table to be in its own place and always ready to go and don’t forget an oversized mirror and a lounge chair. Having this dressing room for HER just made the man of the house have the largest closet they would ever have as well: the entire master bedroom closet!
These are just a few ideas to do with that ‘extra’ bedroom. Tweak and make them your own and what works best for you and your family. As mentioned above, futons incorporated into any of the above rooms still gives a place for guests to sleep and don’t forget about the good ole murphy beds – there are quality murphy beds to look into as well. Enjoy the endless possibilities with your ‘extra’ bedroom.
