Decorating & Design
These 20+ Multifunctional Spaces Do Double Duty!
Updated on February 15, 2023
Although not everyone has a dedicated home office, these hardworking, multifunctional rooms demonstrate out-of-the box thinking. No matter what your motivation is for maximizing space, combining two functions into one room is always a smart move. Scroll down to steal this small-space hack!
This homework space makes it easy to catch up on emails while keeping an eye on the kids. A large chalkboard keeps track of daily schedules, while a generous table offers lots of surface for laptops.
A mini-office tucked away in a corner is bathed in natural light and makes use of dead space under the eaves for a family with four children.
Most homeowners wouldn’t consider placing a desk in front of the fireplace, but in this living room, it has an alter ego. The desk is a workspace from Monday to Friday, and becomes a bar on weekends for parties.
Homeowner Whitney Keeley’s Toronto living room also serves as a photography studio, with a few quick modifications. A roll of paper showcases her art collection and serves as a backdrop for product photoshoots. A vintage wallpapering table offers plenty of display space but is slim enough to fit behind the seating area.
The placement of this window precludes a typical bathroom mirror, but adding a round mirror and bench turns a vanity into a boudoir-like spot for primping, and lets Whitney get ready in natural light.
Alexandre Blazys and Benoit Gérard initially designed and used the hall as their office before moving it offsite. Now, it’s become an intimate lounge for reading or quiet conversation.
Screenwriter Tassie Cameron uses her backyard shed as a writing studio, but it also doubles as a guest suite for friends who want to stay over. Plus, it’s just a great place to hang out!
The secret to inserting a workspace into your living room (and having it not look out of place) is to elevate the elements. In this Montreal century home, a metal warm chair and light are sophisticated, while the desk’s curvy legs are sexy and sinuous.
To make this kitchen more multifunctional, an awkward sink area was turned into a built-in desk with shelving. A glass door that leads to the deck fills this corner with natural light.
Designer Montana Burnett’s home office easily morphs into a dining area with the addition of a leaf in the table. Arranging her work essentials on a tray makes it easy to move this vignette off her desk and transform the table into a spot to entertain. She stores her design materials in a large, family heirloom French Empire armoire. “I didn’t want to have to entertain with all my office supplies on display,” she explains. She painted the flea market Chippendale-style chairs white to highlight their graphic bones.
A potting area in this kitchen is a convenient spot to assemble arrangements and tend plants. Located just off the terrace, this is a retreat for the homeowners, who are both avid gardeners, and a clever way to keep messy soil and leaves out of the food prep areas.
The Murphy bed is a secret agent that is enjoying a renaissance in condos and other small spaces that require multifunctional furnishings. In this 900-square-foot basement, a Murphy bed can be easily tucked away to morph the space from a guest room into a workout area for designer Barbara Purdy and her husband.
In this Swedish-inspired townhouse, a sleek tortoiseshell-look console behind the sofa works as a writing desk or a serving station for the dining area. Its simple, spare lines make a quiet statement in the combined living-dining space, lending a modern edge.
In designer Kelly Anderson’s New Brunswick home, open shelving in the dining area puts gifts from friends and weekend-market finds on display, and serves as a spot to pop open a laptop to max out functionality.
As a parking spot, it functioned just fine, but when rotting roof beams meant money had to be spent to salvage the structure, H&H alum Meg Crossley saw an opportunity to reinvent her downtown Toronto garage. Her wishlist included a crafting space, DIY studio and potting shed. A large antique trestle table works as a generous crafting-potting/wrapping station.
In designer Robert Tanz’s 755-square-foot home, an antique Biedermeier secretary in burled walnut adds visual texture in the living room, serves as display for treasured objects and offers a work spot.
Robert didn’t need a huge surface area for this desk, but a swivelling nailhead armchair is also used to watch television in the bedroom.
A bedroom doubles as a walk-in closet in fashion designer Olympia Gayot’s small New York apartment. What keeps it from being an eyesore is how Olympia (she formerly worked as a designer for J.Crew) organizes clothing like a merchandiser would in a store. She groups striped T-shirts in a separate stack and folds jeans neatly together, so her staple pieces are easy to find and she’s not greeted with a big jumble whenever she walks by.
Designer Caroline McKeough and her husband, Tim, live in a compact 559-square-foot New York apartment where every inch counts. Tim observes: “We don’t think books take away from a space; they add to it.” Some would balk at accumulating this many books in tight confines, but one trick is that they’re all displayed along one wall of the apartment for a dining room/library effect. The slim-frame shelving unit helps the dining room feel open.
Caroline designed the two-person floating desk (she and Tim both work from home) to flip open and reveal two desktops and bulletin boards. “Since there are no windows in the entryway, I thought I’d play with making it even cozier with black wallpaper,” she says.
A French artist’s atelier — complete with soul-quenching sunlight streaming in — was the inspiration behind designer Sharon Mimran’s home office. The would-be third-floor workspace was a claustrophobic A-frame bedroom with one petite window. Sharon loves the clean look of sawhorse legs, so she had this stainless steel trestle desk made for her children years ago. Free of heavy storage above or below, the piece doesn’t block light or views.
This savvy mudroom also functions as a laundry room. Two well-equipped zones keep clean laundry separate from muddy shoes, but having both functions in one room means wet or stained garments can go directly into the wash. In the laundry area, closed cabinets hide detergent and cleaning supplies, while on the mudroom side, rows of hooks and benches make it easy to grab a coat or tie laces. A central counter-height cart bridges the two sides. Its height makes it ideal for folding, and a lower shelf and bins can store shoes or corral lone socks.
In this fully kitted-out kitchen by Toronto designer Karen Cole, a smart tabletop is a multitasking marvel. The mahogany table with brass legs is just 24″ deep, but pulls out to 48″ to serve as home office or bistro table when needed.
Deep file drawers behind one door increase the functionality of the home office without spoiling the visual flow.