Multifunction Room

143m2 isn't that small, is it? What about for a family of five? I didn't think so...before we tried living in it. One of those five is taller than me, another is the same height, and a third is not far behind. Only one is still a respectably small size. 

It's not just their size that causes complication in a smallish house. It's the stuff that goes with them. Yes, I admit we no longer have ride-on motorbikes, lego strewn across the floor, pens pencils and crayons covering tables, and blocks lying in wait for bare feet to tread on. Life has moved on somewhat. Now we are contending with infinity number of balls - rugby balls, soccer balls, netballs, basket balls, hockey balls, tennis balls, and whatever other kind of ball it is possible for a kid to own and use constantly under my feet. But what is worse is that even more often these balls are being bounced, hit, smacked, pushed, kicked and whacked inside my house. It's just a matter of time...

Initially, when we bought this house two years ago, I thought 143m2 meant less cleaning, less clutter, going along with the current trends of decluttering, reducing, only keeping what you love and can't live without. 

I was wrong. 

A smaller house means more cleaning as the dirt is still there, it's just condensed into a smaller space! It means incredible organisation...either that or just giving up (on seeing any horizontal spaces) for the next ten-odd years. I chose the organisation for the moment. Sometimes I change my mind. 

Recently, we've moved on a bit from multiple balls rolling around the floors. We're up to multiple devices cluttering up tables and benches. All my kids need devices for school, plus there are the ones they already had (iPods etc) and then there are also phones as they reach an age where they need one. Along with these come the recharge cables, headphones (so I can't hear their games!), cases etc etc. I have put so much time and consideration into purchasing the storage we need to keep things orderly and in their place, mostly to avoid constantly being asked where something is. However somewhere along the line, a crucial point was missed...

In our house, the dining room is the centre of the house. We usually come in the back door into the laundry, which opens onto the kitchen. Then, to get to all the bedrooms, family room, lounge, bathroom, toilet and front door, you have to go through the dining room. In our last house our dining room was huge, with a vaulted ceiling and two big french doors. We had a beautiful big 8-10 seater dining table with tall black leather chairs which my husband refused to sell on when we moved into this new house. It just never quite sit right in our new house, with it's cute cottage style.

The other big feature in the dining room was a coal range. A previous owner had installed it when this part of the house was added on in the '80s. It was cute, the brick work was very nice, but as a coal range it was just a bit difficult. It wasn't by the kitchen, it was really low so we had to crouch to use it, and coal isn't a local resource here in Wellington. We decided it had to go as space was at such a premium. It sold very quickly on Trademe which was great, but my husband wasn't terribly happy about taking it down the 4 flights of stairs to the road! 

The dining room also had some other nice features, such as a dresser with (fake) lead-light windows on the wall between kitchen and dining, lots of book shelves and cupboard space. But there were some elements that bothered me, such as the a single curtain on one side of the french doors, and the fact that people constantly used the french doors as the front door, leaving bags and shoes piled up on the floor.

Last summer we decided to take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, which has let a whole lot more light into the dining room as well as warmth into the kitchen. 

 This was the opportunity I needed to get a much-needed office space built into the space that the coal range had previously occupied. I was sure that with some organisation and a spread sheet or two, we could create a functional office 'nook' that would hold all the clutter that was bugging me.

 We lined the back of the office nook with t&g to match the ceilings which were t&g douglas fir painted white. Our builder put in four shelves in good, solid pine, and I built a desk which could fit the lovely carver I had bought and painted under it. Lastly I got hold of a great little metal draw unit to fit under. Now I have no end of space to store every known file box or book, baskets, boxes, pens, pencils, mail, printer, computer, phone, magazines, and even a bunch of photos, quotes, and pictures. 

The room isn't quite finished yet, as we are still waiting for the breakfast bar to finish the transition from dining to kitchen, but I will upload some photos of the drinks trolley, the new curtains, and the piano wall once I get some. We finally have a home for the fabulous world map my sister sent us as a house warming present.