photo by chotda
Unless you live alone there are undoubtedly times you wish you had your own place. Maybe not an entire house to escape to, but at least a room of your own. This can be hard to come by.
Typically in modern homes there are common rooms and bedrooms. Unless you can afford a really big house this doesn’t give each family member their own room. And even if there is a bedroom for each person, they don’t really satisfy the desire for a room of one’s own very well.
The typical bedroom works well for sleeping, not so well for dressing, and is terrible for desk work, hobbies, or sitting comfortably and talking.
One solution is to make bedrooms bigger to accommodate more activities. This takes more space, money, and natural resources.
Instead, I think designing bedrooms with the emphasis on daytime uses could greatly improve our enjoyment of our homes.
Let’s start with the children’s rooms. A daybed with back cushions makes a casual couch and leaves more of the floor open for play. Even better, put it partially into a nook with windows. A desk with shelves above works well in a small nook as well. If it’s a room for two, the daybeds and desks can be on opposite sides of the room.
Master suite with bed nook, sitting area, and dressing area
A couple’s bedroom can be made up of a bed nook and a sitting area. Instead of dressing in the small areas around the bed a dressing area can be put between bedroom and bathroom.
More radical possibilities include the use of Murphy beds (folding straight up against a wall), fold-and-store futons, loft beds with a desk underneath, and fold-down desks and tables.
Setting up the bed to dominate a room just doesn’t make sense. I say give each family member a room of their own and put the emphasis on waking activities.
Maybe we could change the name from bedroom to “personal room”. What do you think of that idea?
