Smart Design for Dual-Purpose Rooms

"When you’re planning a multipurpose space, think in terms of zones," advises Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, a New York City interior designer, author of Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure (Bantam, $14), and founder of the popular Apartment Therapy blog. Ask yourself which activities need to happen there (weighing their relative importance), then allocate an area — sometimes separate, sometimes overlapping — for each activity, and finally list the items you’ll need to support them. Say your family room will serve as TV lounge, casual dining spot, homework center and craft space (in that order). Map out the room to scale on grid paper (noting windows, doorways and traffic patterns), designating a zone for each and using furniture groupings to distinguish them. Perhaps a couch and media center will command the bulk of the space in the center of the room, with a table and sideboard on one side for dining and homework and their accompanying supplies, and a crafting counter with integrated storage tucked into the other end. Use to-scale cutouts of furniture and move them around your virtual room, experimenting with different arrangements to find out what works best.