Quick Guide to Setting up a Multipurpose Garden Room

Thinking About A Garden Room for Your Home?

If you need additional room on your property, then you can't really go wrong with a garden room. A garden room is a wooden structure that is built on your property to address your space needs. Now, most garden rooms have a specific purpose that they are built for. Garden rooms can be used as a home office, a gym, a yoga studio, a movie theatre…the possibilities are almost endless.

But what happens when you want to use a garden room for more than one purpose? Is it even possible? The answer is a resounding Yes! And this guide will show you how to do this.

 

Garden room versatility

One of the biggest selling points for garden rooms, as opposed to other options like expanding your home, is the versatility that they offer. Firstly, as the client, you get a lot of input in the overall design decision making.

If you choose to have one built from scratch, then you get total creative control over its size, its design, and the fixtures and amenities to include. If you buy a prefabricated garden room, you will still have dozens of options to choose from.

Therefore, if you want a multipurpose garden room, you can design a multipurpose garden room. In the same way that if you wanted a garden room to serve one specific purpose, you can design it as such.

One of the most important design elements to consider for multipurpose garden rooms has to be the size, especially if it is to fulfil these functions concurrently. If you want a garden room that includes a gym and a home office, then you need adequate space for both purposes.

 

Best Place to Locate Your Garden Room 

Location and the amenities/fixtures to include should also be guided by how you plan to use the garden room. If you want a garden room that serves as an extra guest bedroom, then it has to include indoor plumbing.

A home office needs electricity, a phone connection and broadband cabling. Make sure that the garden room is equipped to fulfil all the functions to plan to use it for.

 

How to make a multipurpose garden room

Now that we know how versatile a garden room can be, we need to look at the steps you can take if you want to have a multipurpose garden room. They include:

 

Including partition walls 

If the garden room will serve multiple purposes concurrently, then partition walls are the best way to create separate spaces for each function. Basically, what a partition wall does is to turn the garden room into a multi-room structure.

Let's say you want a home office and storage space for your gardening tools. Adding a partition wall creates two separate spaces in the garden room, a home office and a tool shed.

Partition walls are a very easy DIY project you can tackle with a few tutorials, the right tools, and some time. Especially if you are adding them to an existing garden room structure. The partition walls can be included in the design phase when you decide to build or buy a garden room.

With partition walls, you have to divide whether you want internal or external doors for the different sections. An internal door allows you to move from one section of the garden room to the other. This is perfect for spaces that don't have to be kept separate like an office and a library.

However, if the sections are being used by different people, or for incompatible purposes, it is better to have external doors. For example, if a garden room has sections that serve as a yoga studio and a storage area for garden tools, there is no reason for internal doors to exist. It's better to keep them separate by having external doors.

 

Making creative furniture decisions

You can use the garden room furniture to enhance a garden room’s suitability as a multipurpose space. There are many ways to do this.

For example, larger furniture pieces like sofas and bookcases can act as a space divider if you don't want to use partition walls. They will mark the boundary between two, or more, areas within a garden room.

It is also easier to have a multipurpose garden room if you also include multipurpose furniture. If your garden room serves as a home office and a spare guest room. Then having a pull-out couch is ideal as it serves as a sitting area for the office, and a bed when the room is being used as a bedroom.

You can shop around for other cleverly designed furniture that can serve multiple purposes. It also helps to include small furniture or collapsible furniture that is easy to set aside or put in storage when not in use.

 

Include storage space

If you have a garden room or summerhouse that will be used for different purposes, then you must have some storage space included in its design or located adjacent to the garden room. Here, we are talking about garden rooms that are too small to serve multiple purposes concurrently.

You need storage space for furniture, equipment, and other fixtures that are not being used. For example, if you have a garden room that serves as a gym and a painting studio, the fitness equipment needs to be stashed away when painting and the painting supplies need to be stored when the room is being used as a gym.

 

Make the room look big

Through clever design and decor choices, you can make a small space seem larger. This is important if you don't want a multipurpose garden sheds Ireland to seem cramped and uncomfortable.

You can do this by painting the walls in light colours, or just going with white, which opens up the space. Adding a mirror and other reflective elements also creates the illusion of more space. Include smaller furniture which will better utilize the limited garden room floor space.