Get Creative: One Room, Many Uses
Flex spaces,
or flexible-use rooms, are increasingly common in modern housing to
address homeowners' needs to accommodate their changing lifestyle and
allow them to "age in place". Flexible-use rooms provide important
options to homebuyers. Whether they be young couples with a growing
family or retirees needing creative outlets. A den might one day
serve as a nursery; a small parlor might transform into a playroom or
an art or music studio. The choice is entirely
personal.
Professional homebuilders recognize the value of providing
flex spaces in the floor plans of almost any type and style of house.
Luxury and custom homes, in fact, often include more than one
flexible-use space to allow the owners to follow several passions,
whether it be a full-time or off-hours home office, a hobby or game
room, an in-home theater, a wine room, or a craft area. Smaller homes
might provide a flex room for more practical needs, but the value to
the homeowner is no less important.
Flex spaces may also serve multiple
functions. An occasional guest bedroom or suite can easily double as a
home office, studio, or sewing room (or maybe all three); a loft
between secondary bedrooms is a perfect solution for an out-of-the-way
play space and quiet homework area for school-age children, perhaps
also housing their myriad computer and video game
collections.
The latest floor plans also incorporate flexible space into
more private areas. A sitting room in the master suite can serve as a
temporary nursery, while a nearby home office alcove might, upon
retirement, become a quiet reading nook or library for the couple.
Full-depth basements and full-height attic areas are also
prime spots for additional multi-use or flexible space that allow the
house to grow with the family. Left ready for wall and floor finishes
but otherwise perfectly functional, such areas may initially provide
easily accessible space for long-term and seasonal storage needs.
Later, they can be fully finished (and furnished) as the family's
needs change and their budget allows.
Flex space provisions extend outdoors,
as well. A covered outdoor area, complete with a compact kitchen or
barbecue, seating, and perhaps even a fireplace or flat-screen
television, extends and expands adjacent indoor living space and
serves a variety of functions in its own right.
The "future-proof"
concept of flexible-use spaces in today's housing also demands that
these room are properly equipped to handle the family's technological
needs for communications, data, audio, and video access. Regardless of
how the flex room is used, chances are good there's some electronic
gizmo or network that needs to be plugged in without having to rewire
the house. Modern flexible-use spaces allow for simple "plug-and-play"
access no matter what's on the other end of the cord ... or if there's
a cord at all.
The increasing popularity of flexible and multi-use spaces in
today's new homes is a reflection of contemporary lifestyle demands.
Modern households need their homes to enable them to follow a variety
of passions and pastimes, as well as allow the ability to change those
uses as the family matures. Professional homebuilders have recognized
and provided for that need with floor plans that deliver maximum
flexibility so that homebuyers can truly customize their living
experiences.
Warm regards,
Dan Steurer, MBA
Sunwest Development, LLC
P.O. BOX 3102
St George, UT 84771
(435) 674-0091 - phone
(435) 634-0965 - fax
dan@sunwestdev.com
www.sunwestdev.com
c. 2007 All rights reserved.
