Doing Double-Duty
Multipurpose furniture saves space and money while staying stylish for the modern home
Stowed away: Storage beds for master bedrooms are gaining popularity as floor plans shrink and designers create stylish pieces. Image courtesy Jeff Alan Gard
Furniture pieces that serve more than one function have been around a long time, but they’ve become more popular since the economic downturn.
“Consumers are a lot more sensitive about making smart choices with their money,” says Lisa Engel, vice president of product development at ClosetMaid, a home-storage company based in Ocala, Fla. “They want a lot more value out of each piece they buy, so they buy combination pieces.”
Hence, more ottomans with interior storage, beds with bookshelves and drawers, and shelves that double as computer desks. ClosetMaid is among the many companies trying to capitalize on the demand for multipurpose furniture like stackable cubes and cabinets that provide both storage and shelf space and benches with storage underneath.
The need for such products is partly a function of how people live. Everyone can’t have enormous mansions with room for a dedicated gift-wrapping room. More likely, rooms with limited space have to serve more than one purpose.
People are asking designers to accommodate these needs while staying stylish, says Melissa Salamoff, a Burbank, Calif.-based interior designer. Recently, she designed a combination guest bedroom, office and lounge area.
Combining all those uses in the same room is especially challenging when rooms are small, as is the case in older homes. Plus, some newer homes shrink secondary rooms to make way for open-concept great rooms. Children’s bedrooms, in particular, tend to be tight, Salamoff says.
Her solution is multipurpose furniture that is vertical to conserve precious floor space, preferably in colors close to those of the wall behind it, to create a feeling of openness.
But it isn’t just secondary rooms that can pull double-duty.
Kitchen islands can double as craft areas or contain pullout shelves and drawers for a computer workspace. There are even kitchen tables with spots to tuck away napkins and placemats.
Really, no place is sacred. An office can even be shoved in a closet, says Sayeh Pezeshki, of The Office Stylist, a Los Angeles design and consulting firm.
Mobile lifestyles mean that more people are investing in laptops, so desk space can be smaller and more versatile. Any shelf or counter will serve, and some wall-mounted desks on hinges can fold up and out of the way when not in use, Pezeshki says.
To maximize a home’s potential, take a tour of it with fresh eyes to get an idea where the deficiencies are, says Jeff Alan Gard, a San Francisco architect and custom furniture designer.
“Go to what you have now and think about what it does and what you wish it would do and then see if you can find something that accomplishes that in the marketplace,” he says.
“If you can’t find anything, you can always make it yourself or have it custom-made... there’s always a solution.”
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