Call it flexible.
Call it multifunctional.
I call it our living-room-turned-play-room-sometimes-guest-room.
It is my belief that just because a floor plan or home builder calls a room by a certain name does not mean that you have to use it as said space.
We technically have a 4 bedroom house, but one of the bedrooms is small, downstairs, and used as a full-time home office for my husband. That leaves us with 3 bedrooms upstairs…one for baby girl, one for the little guy, and the master.
We also need a guest room. We moved away from all of our family, so when they come to visit we like for them to be able stay with us.
One year after we moved into this house that we thought would have plenty of room for our family and guests, the little guy was moved out of the nursery and into the room that was the guest room. Baby girl was on her way and we no longer had a dedicated space for our guests to stay.
When baby girl came along she stayed in our room for the first couple of months while we had visitors in town to help us out. Our visitors were able to stay in the nursery (where we set up the old guest bed) and have a bit of privacy. When our guests left, we set up the crib and baby girl took over the nursery. That is when we really no longer had a guest room!
At some point in the nesting frenzy that took place before baby girl was born we invested in an IKEA Ektorp sleeper sofa to fill the void in our empty living room (along with new carpet, new entertainment system and storage, new family room furniture, and new furniture for the little guys room).
We also invested in some storage solutions (also from IKEA) for all of the toys that we were accumulating.
When baby girl turned one, I decided that we no longer needed a dedicated living room and needed to move the toys out of the family room. So we turned the living room into the playroom.
Through all of this, we have had visitors come stay with us. I use the red storage ottoman (also from IKEA) to store all the bedding for the sleeper sofa.
Sometimes they choose to stay in a hotel (for a bit more privacy) and sometimes they choose to stay with us in the living-room-turned-play-room-sometimes-guest-room space. The kids love it when we have guests and they can go snuggle with Nana or Meme or whoever happens to be in the guest room. It’s definitely not a private space for our guests, but it works.
What do you think? How have your spaces evolved with new additions to the family? What kind of flexible spaces do you have in your home?
home is…using the space you have to meet your needs.
stephany taddeo 
Love it! That is exactly what I want to do with our dining room…I have to sell the table first, but then I will be on my way 🙂
Awesome, Steph! Good luck!
I am not surprised that you looked at your rooms with an open eye and saw new possibilities (several times, as I recall) and I can vouch for the comfort of the guest accommodations at your house as well as the much preferred availability to early-morning snugglers! Nana is a nuzzler!
When we were househunting 5 years ago, we looked for a dining room that could extend into a living room for large family gatherings or crafting parties… we turned our living room into a library and love the flexible space!
Things are always changing in our house! The kids, dogs, cat, and Ryan are all very patient with me!
So do you still have a dining room? Anyway, I love the changes you made and it looks awesome.
I was very comfortable there when I stayed. The only bad memory was having the dog that eats poop wake me up one morning by breathing poop breathe in my face!! Nightmares! LOL I Love your house!
Yes, dining room is still there…albeit very informal.
I’ll save those details for another blog post…
Is that a gigantic bulletin board? Can you tell me you purchased it? This particular post is inspiring me to work on my playroom/guest room/family room. I really like your ideas.
Jess-
Thanks for visiting!
Yes, that us a gigantic bulletin board. I found it years ago (over 6) at an office supply store (Staples, Office Max, Office Depot). It had an ugly oak frame that I painted black and then I covered the cork board with a linen fabric.
It has since moved to another spot in our house, but is still used for the same purpose of showcasing children’s artwork and holiday cards.
I have made some changes to our playroom/guest room and will blog about them soon, so please come back to visit!
Thanks a bunch for answering my question. We’re actively in the process of redoing our playroom/family room/guest room, as in, we just finished priming the walls and are awaiting the painting. I’m very excited. Anyway, back to your bulletin board. I love it. Perfect for displaying the little ones’ art projects in a “neat” manner. Can you tell the dimensions of yours? Thanks a ton.
Where did you get the storage solution that is behind the couch! ? I love it