Room exchange: new uses for old spaces

One of the most exciting aspects of moving home is planning what we’re going to do with each room. However, once we’ve moved in we rarely think about this again –even though we could easily make over our living spaces to create an exciting new home. And all without those expensive and back-breaking downsides of buying somewhere new!

Finding new uses for old spaces
Beyond the usual move to get the under-stairs cupboard converted into a downstairs loo or bathroom, or converting the attic into a bedroom, we don’t often think about the untapped potential for our living spaces. But while these kinds of conversions cost time and money, a bedroom swap might well only take a Sunday afternoon to get sorted and cost you nothing.

• Have fun with your plans. What are the aspects of other friends’ homes that you really wish you could have in yours? Changing round your rooms might allow you to fit new cupboard space into your bedroom or allow your hubby to finally have room for that big TV he wants. Even if some of your plans are too ambitious for now, there are always ways to you can create shorter term effects like more space without knocking down walls.

• Think about how you live now. For example, it could be that when the children were small the lounge was your main space but now they are older they value their bedrooms more, or that they’re out most of the time. In which case, is your lounge left unused except for TV-watching? Maybe it’s time that your box room (the one stacked with old boxes, a desk and computer) was overhauled as a teenager’s dressing room and the computer was relocated to the lounge. Add some nice bookshelves to create a more ‘grown up’ lounge space rather than a graveyard for old toys!

• Where do you really want to sleep? In most family homes, mum and dad get the biggest bedroom. But if one of the kids’ bedrooms is actually big enough for a double bed, why not switch with your children for a while? If you have two children over 5 years old, they might enjoy sharing the main bedroom space for a change, and then you could enjoy having one of their rooms for sleeping and the other as mum and dad’s dressing room. As the kids get older and crave their own spaces again, moving back into their original bedrooms will feel like new teenage territory – and by then you will also be ready to rediscover and redecorate your original bedroom.

• Being economic with your space. If you are limited on sleeping spaces, be inventive instead with how rooms are divided up. If your children are growing out of bunkbeds but still have to share a room, invite them to come shopping with you to find a solution that will help afford just a bit more privacy to each of them. Hanging a bead curtain across the room or finding a funky way of creating a screen can be a positive and fun way to solve a common space problem.

• What are your habits? As your children’s lives change, so do yours. Now that you don’t need to sit and play games on the carpet with toddlers, maybe you have more time to sit and chat with friends. In which case, if you’ve got the room, perhaps that corner of the kitchen swamped with old wellies could be cleared away and a couple of your comfier chairs could be added? If this is where you get to listen to music or the radio when you’re cooking or chilling out with a magazine, maybe there is enough worktop space to move your CD player or iPod docking station in too?

• Plugs and light fittings. OK so you can’t switch the main bedroom for the bathroom in an afternoon (unless you happen to be married to the world’s most amazing plumber) but even with less ambitious room swaps, do consider where beds, sofas, TV, tables etc need to go before you start shifting furniture around. Where plugs and radiators are will have a big influence on how the rooms will end up looking but with a bit of imagination you can still be bold and create an almost-new home!