What You Can Do With a Flex Room

Home buyers today have very different wish lists. The traditional style home, with a formal living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, bedrooms, and bathrooms, is becoming obsolete in favor of homes that are better suited to cater to a family's specific wants and needs. To address this, many new builds include a "flex room," sometimes called a bonus room, which is a generic room (sometimes similar to a loft) that can take on various purposes based on how it is outfitted. Flex rooms are great for resale value, because they can adapt to the needs of the people living in the house. When you're house hunting and you see a room you with no predefined purpose, consider turning the space into one of these rooms:

1) A home office. Home offices are convenient to have, even if you don't often work from home. They provide homeowners will a place to retreat from outside commotion and get work down--weather that's paying bills, writing emails and letters, making phone calls, or filing important documents. 

2) A home gym. If you like to hop on a treadmill every day, save time and gym membership fees by buying your own! This is especially a good idea for Ohioans, since we can't always depend on sunny weather conducive to running and exercising outside. 

3) A playroom. For families, this may be your best option. Keep your main family room clean by having an additional designated area where your kids can play, build forts, and run around. This will keep you from having to pick up the main living area all the time, since most of the toys will be elsewhere. Once your kids get older, they will appreciate having their own living area, too. It will give them a place to do homework, play with friends, watch TV, and play video games.

4) A library. For avid readers, a home library is a dream come true. Many depicted existing home libraries are parts of large, expensive homes. However, there is no reason for smaller homes not to have one--especially if you have a room with a lot of built in shelving. If you don't, add multiple book cases, a comfortable couch, and coffee table. Make the room into a peaceful retreat and settle down with a good book!

5) A game room. Do you like to entertain? A flex room can serve as the perfect place for your foosball or pool table! If you plan to use a flex room as an adult hangout space, consider adding a TV and a wet bar with a mini fridge for beer or wine. Sounds like the perfect place to watch the next OSU game!

6) A media room. Often found in basements and called theater rooms, media rooms feature large TVs or projector screens and luxorious seating. For families who enjoy spending time together watching movies, sports games, or TV shows, a media room may be just right. Kids can also play video games there. 

7) A hobbies room. A hobbies room is the ultimate multiputpose room, because it can change along with your interests. It can be used for scrapbooking, knitting, playing and keeping musical instruments, arts and crafts, yoga, wrapping presents during birthdays and holidays, and much more. 

8) A guest room. If you don't have a designed guest room, consider putting a Murphy bed in a flex room. This way, the room can serve as a second living area most of the time but double as a guest bedroom as needed. Ideally, the flex room would have doors and nearby access to a bathroom. Note, a  flex room is unlikely to have a closet, since it would then be classified as a bedroom. 

So, next time you see a flex room in a home, don't think of it as a waste of space. Think of it as an opportunity to truely customize your home.