Flexible Living: Home Office or Guest Room?

It's both!

One of the reasons for the popularity of Flex Rooms is the ability to tailor areas in your home to how you want your home to live. Equally popular is having rooms that can serve multiple purposes.

The Kingsley (plan #42047 below) provides a flex room off the front entry, the most common location for a home office. Many people will opt to add doors for privacy from both the entry hall and near the stairs. Doing so makes having a space-saving Murphy bed (also known as a wall bed because they fold up against the wall when not in use) an attractive, practical option. With the Murphy bed, this space easily doubles as a main-floor guest bedroom, served by the bathroom just a couple steps away.

Murphy Bed Open
Photo Courtesy: Closet Factory

Scrapbooking, jewelry making, even jigsaw puzzles – flex rooms are prized when they can be home to projects-in-progress. The alternative is having to clear everything off the breakfast table. Where in the home can you leave your activities undisturbed? And, what special amenities would make such a room perfect? Do you need specialized storage to organize supplies? Would hard-surface flooring be beneficial, in terms of cleanup? How about a sink for washing out paint brushes or hard-surface flooring for easy cleanup?

In recent years, laundry rooms have become targets for flexibility as well. Like the Kenosha plan, the Harmon Haven (plan #42366) incorporates a hobby/craft room with the laundry area. Or, with plumbing already running to that room, adding a private toilet area is an option, especially if there’s a sink. We’ve even had some folks ask for a planning center/desk in the laundry room, which often shares its workspace with a folding counter.

Importantly, both the Revenna Springs (plan #35079 below left) and the Harmon Haven (plan #42366 below right) have windows for natural light in their laundry/flex areas, making those areas more inviting.

While there are an almost unlimited number of possible uses for flex areas, we would be remiss if we didn’t point out playroom opportunities. Often, in lieu of a two-story high entry, buyers will instead finish that second-floor space and when it’s sandwiched between a couple of secondary bedrooms, kids’ imaginations naturally gravitate towards playing there. Similarly, you may see some home plans that have identified this type of space as a storage area – but think about how much fun your kids would have!

Toddlers want to be with or near their parents, and parents want to keep tabs on their kiddos. With the kitchen often the activity hub of the home, having a play area off the kitchen (but not the Great Room!) is a wonderful thing, as seen in the Leinart (plan #29336).