When you build a new home, you can fit your home to your life, not the other way around. Even if you’re downsizing, or simply want a smaller floor plan, new homes have layouts designed with plenty of flexible space for you to enjoy your best life.
One of the downsides of traditional architectural styles like Victorian, craftsman, and mid-century modern houses, were their rigid floor plans, with rooms designed for a single use. Formal dining rooms and front entry parlors might look beautiful in pictures, but they don’t fit how people actually live. Homeowners living in older houses generally have three options when trying to live in these awkward spaces:
- Decorate the space the way the room was designed. This may result in you spending money – and wasting valuable square footage – on a room you’ll never use.
- Try and cram desired home features into an ill-fitting space. You can try to turn a formal dining room into, say, a game room, but chances are, trying to force one space to be something else will never quite work the way it’s supposed to.
- Spend a lot of money remodeling an old house to have a modern, functional layout.
Unlike old houses, new construction homes are designed with layouts that work for modern families. New build homes come with the usual living spaces, kitchen and eating spaces, and bedrooms, but many also come with flex rooms. Flex rooms in new homes give homeowners the space they need to make the most of their new home. Instead of cramming the home features you want into rooms designed around a specific use, you can use these extra rooms to foster a life you love.
NewHomeSource has all the info you need to maximize the flex rooms in your new home. Here are some resources to help you maximize the convenient spaces in your new home to perfectly fit your lifestyle.
Use Your Flex Room as a Home Office
If you work from home, setting up the perfect home office is crucial to your productivity and ability to get stuff done. Flex rooms allow you to create a work form home space that fosters a productive and peaceful environment.
Benefits of using your flex room as a home office:
- Flex rooms are typically more secluded than a downstairs den, giving you a quiet work space
- Flex rooms have plenty of space for your home office
- If you use your flex room as a home office, you may be able to get tax benefits by writing it off as a business expense
Here are some more resources to help you transform your flex room into the ultimate home office
- Maximize productivity in your home office
- Design inspiration for the perfect home office
- Tips for including built-in desks in your home office
- The best flooring for a home office
- The best lighting for a home office
- The best built-in shelves for a home office
- The best seating for a home office
Use Your Flex Room as a Home Gym
Sticking to your fitness goals can get overwhelming. Actually making time to go to the gym isn’t always easy: bad weather days and traffic can hinder your commute to the gym, or your schedule may be tight between work and family time. Sometimes, the hardest part is just getting there!
Fortunately, using your flex room as an in-home gym means you don’t need as much motivation to stay healthy. You can stock your flex room with equipment you actually use, and you don’t have to worry about annoying gym people not wiping down the machines when you’re ready to work out. Plus, your commute will be as easy as a few steps down the hall.
Here are some more resources to help you reach your fitness goals in your flex room
Use Your Flex Room as a Craft Room
Almost all forms of crafting get messy — fast. Transforming the flex room in your new home into the ultimate creation station means you don’t have to clear your supplies off the dining room table in the middle of a project because your family wants to eat. (Those pesky people and their appetites!) You can shut the door on in-progress projects, without your hobby junking up the rest of the house. And no more ruined projects because the kids, the dog, or the spouse let curiosity get the better of them.
Dedicating your flex room to crafting gives you the gift of space and organization. Instead of cramming your supplies into whatever cabinets happen to be available, you can design a spacious storage solution that works for you.
Your flex room turned craft room gives you a dedicated space to create without the interruptions of the rest of the home.
Here are some more resources to help you unleash your creativity in your flex room
Use Your Flex Room as a Home Library
New-home flex rooms are a gift that keep on giving to the bookworms of the world. Flex rooms are easy to transform into beautiful home libraries: all you need are shelves, a comfy chair, and a lamp with good light. We won’t judge you if you pretend like you’re Belle from Beauty in the Beast once you get your very own home library set up.
Here are some more resources to help you satisfy the bookworms in your home with a home library
Use Your Flex Room as a Guest Room
Flex rooms can also be used as extra bedrooms for large families, or people who frequently have overnight guests. Because new home builders integrate flex rooms with the rest of the home, using a flex room as a guest bedroom gives visitors a serene space that feels private, without isolating them.
Here are some more resources on transforming your flex space into a guest room nobody will want to leave
- Guest room essentials
- Getting your home ready for overnight guests
- Organizing a guest room
- Design the best guest room
Use Your Flex Room as a Pet Station
Pets are becoming an increasingly important part of family life. Whether you just have a fur baby, or a human baby and a furry best friend, people are giving more importance to animals in their life. Pet lovers can make life easier for themselves by using their flex room as a pet station.
For animal lovers whose pets have fins, scales, and feathers, you can use your flex room for a way to safely showcase caged animals, and give them properly-sized habitats. Fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds can have a safe home in a flex room, where their handlers can have complete control over light, temperature, and other factors that impact animal wellness. Plus, they can be shut away from small, curious hands.
Flex room can make life easier for humans with furry friends too. While luxury pet accommodations are fun to look at, you can set up practical and affordable pet station in your flex room. Having a calm and quiet room that a dog or cat calls home can really make crate training easier. Using your flex room as a grooming station can make it easier to care for your animals, while keeping the rest of your home clean.
Here are some more resources on creating a pet friendly home
- Ultimate pet friendly home features
- The best pet friendly decor
- How to create a pet friendly backyard
- Everything you need to know about pet suites
- The best high tech pet gear
Use Your Flex Room as a Playroom
For homeowners with children, a flex room gives you a great opportunity to design a fun and safe play area. You can give your children a wonderful area to explore and learn, while still keeping the rest of your home clean and pleasant for grownups, too.
Here are some more resources on creating a family-friendly home
- Why a new home was perfect for my family
- Best new home features for families
- Moving with Children
- How to buy a kid friendly home
- Kid proof flooring options
- Creating a healthy home for babies
Use Your Flex Room as a Media Center
A cozy media room can be a great use for your flex room. Video game lovers can design a comfortable and stylish space to play, without taking over the living room and other shared living spaces. If your family loves movie nights, you can transform your flex room into a home theater.
Here are some more resources on creating an awesome media center in your flex room
- How to create the ultimate the ultimate video game room
The beauty of flex rooms is that you can use them however you want! What home features would you want to create in the flex rooms in your new home? Let us know in the comments below.
After graduating in 2016 from The University of Texas with a degree in English, Sanda Brown became a content writer for the BDX with a focus on website copy and content marketing.
At the BDX, Sanda helps write and edit articles on NewHomeSource.com, writes website copy for builders, and manages a team of freelancers that work on additional content needs.