A home to last generations is something to consider when building or renovating. It is not surprising that the needs of young families with young kids move to differing needs as they get older.
When kids are young they generally want to keep you in eye sight and with this in mind we have seen over the last decade or so the ‘kids playroom” incorporated as a must have into the floor plan. It is worth considering when doing this, how this room could be used in the future, what storage benefits it may have as well as airflow to ensure it is comfortable to ‘hang out in’ for the different uses as the years go by.
At our Belgrave project the kids playroom sits off the main living area. Future proofing of this space sees the incorporation of under stair storage as well as power points across two walls to potentially convert in the future to an office or small guest room.
Allambie house was set up with a potential future office/ study area in mind. The wall could also be closed off completely keeping a bookshelf on the living side and incorporating a door. Ventilation is provided in this space by louvres and the floor space at 3 x 3.5m allows for an adequate guest bedroom or office on the ground level.
An interesting project at the Inge house (review this project in our gallery here), saw a raise and build that required three bedrooms to be incorporated downstairs while the main bed with one extra remained upstairs. As the children in the family were very young (picture baby and toddlers) we decided to build one large bedroom downstairs so that two children could share. Regardless of the layout, some families like the idea of children sharing rooms at such a young age and this can easily be achieved with some foresight. The room was future proofed by allowing the layout to be easily adapted into two separate rooms as the children got older. This included wardrobe layout with a study nook that could easily be converted into a new door opening without having to build new cabinetry. Windows were set so that once a wall was built in the middle each room would have a symmetrical window opening.
This forward planning, whilst a little easier to tackle in new builds, can also be achieved with some planning, brainstorming and discussions with us and your architect and designer.