There are several benefits to having a versatile home. You can repurpose your rooms depending on your family’s changing needs. You could even use your home for commercial purposes in the future if the need arises.
Some builders market versatility as custom-made homes. But customized homes are could still be fixed once they’re done unless you know how to maximize custom making. We’re also not talking about homes that could easily be set up, or taken apart and transferred to a different location. Those homes could be portable and mobile, but they’re not necessarily changeable either.
Here, we are talking about how you could change your home layout from time to time and repurpose the spaces without having to tear down walls or construct new rooms or add appendages to your home. It would need a lot of customization, and you can have it like a modular structure that could be easily assembled and disassembled. What you need to know, however, is how to make the constructed space flexible to your different needs over the years.
Foldable Room Partitions
An open-space plan is the most versatile plan for a home. However, it’s quite inconvenient when you invite people over, and they could immediately see your bed. Or maybe an acquaintance of your partner dropped by to get some business papers and you feel awkward eating dinner in front of him. To have some privacy, you need partitions. But they don’t have to be permanent. Have walls designed so that you could fold them and secure them into cabinets when you don’t want them.
Flexible partitions are also ideal for families or couples that love to invite people over. You could have a small cozy dinner in your dining space or a large party that could take up the entire home, except the bedroom.
Flexible porch
A great extension of our living rooms and dining areas are our patios. The patio, with its even flooring, is more stable and comfortable than setting up a breakfast table or a lounge chair on the ground.
After experiencing months of being forced to stay at home, we have come to love spending as much time as we could on our porch. On it, at least we can see that there’s still a world beyond our backyards. Porches are great for having breakfast, morning coffee, and afternoon tea. It’s also a great sundeck.
So instead of limiting our enjoyment of our porch according to the intensity of the sunlight or to the threats of rain, the porch could be designed so that it would be comfortable any time of day in any season. Or at least as long as you don’t need a heater. You just need a retractable roof or shade for your patio. You can put it out when it’s too hot and it’s also great to protect your floor and your furniture from the rain.
Fixed Deals
Unfortunately, you can’t keep changing everything. You will need fixed plumbing for your kitchen and toilets. Your dining area can’t be too far from your kitchen. Your bedroom can’t be too far from the toilet. The location of the kitchen and toilets would also factor in when you determine the functions of the other parts of your home so you need to plan well.
What You Don’t Need
Don’t have built-in anything except for your kitchen sink and toilet cabinets. Designers for small spaces often recommend built-in storage and even a built-in bed. These are practical for limited spaces. But if space is not your concern, have something you could easily move or replace.
Multipurpose Furniture
To complete your versatile home, your furniture should also be flexible. As many designs of multipurpose furniture are already available, getting the traditional ones feels wasteful. Why buy a simple sofa when you could get a convertible one that turns into a bed? Why buy a bulky space-consuming table when you could have one that could be folded up into a shelf or a storage closet?
There are also beautiful designs that could change the sizes of furniture according to your needs. A four-seater dining table could be expanded to accommodate eight more people. A love seat could be extended to become a long sofa. This kind of furniture allows you to free up space depending on your use of your rooms.
As we grow older, our interests and activities change. People renovate their homes to accommodate their new needs. But if you have a versatile home, all you have to do is move around or change your furniture, fold away or put up some walls. Your bedroom could be as big as your entire home or as small as your bed with your night table.