Adapting Spaces

No offense to interior designers (who definitely have a role in some situations), but at our house we've purposely avoided them and their curated furniture collections. 

Why? 

Because we're constantly evaluating how the spaces in our home are used. And so we often reconfigure rooms to meet the changing needs of the family, the occasion, or the season.

True, this means you'll often find us lugging furniture between rooms and floors, but it works for us. 

Might this be right for you too? Here are some ideas for how to get started adapting the spaces in your home.  

Furniture

"Modular" is your friend.  Sectional sofas in a neutral color can be moved in whole or in part to a different room. Small tables can live innocuously against different walls until they are combined to create, for example, a sideboard for a dinner party. 

Speaking of parties, maximize your available seating by investing in six or more folding chairs. (Pro tip: splurge on a slightly more expensive model with a cushioned seat and back.) Also consider storage Ottomans or benches, which double as seating and storage. 

For rooms that need to serve both as a workspace and something else, consider a Murphy desk or fold-down workstation that you can open when working and close to return to a more social space.

Finally, room dividers, such as a simple folding wood screen, will create flexible zones, and are easy to move around.  

Lighting

You can instantly change the mood of a room by changing its lighting. We recently found rechargeable LED table lamps that can be moved anywhere we need them -- to transform an ordinary dining room into an intimate space or act as task light for a project.  You might also enjoy trying color-changing, smart-home controlled LEDs (bulbs or strips).  Again, it's an affordable way of altering a space.  

Think Outside the Box

The best part of adapting your spaces is the joy of experimentation. Remember, none of these changes are permanent.  

For example, our friend took an antique wood table able to seat 10 and massively expanded it with DIY leaves so that it could accommodate 18 for Thanksgiving. To make this work, the table is rotated 180 degrees and stretched between the dining room and the living room.  "We once sat 32, with the addition of two side tables," he proudly says. 

Have your own ideas about adapting spaces? We'd love to hear them! Send us an email ([email protected]).