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Today I’ll share a little tour of our flex room (aka The Snug!) with some current photos so you can see how we are using this multi-purpose space.
The Snug is an attic style bonus room located over our single car garage. We need it to be a flexible space, as we use it as a family guest room, sitting room, TV room, playroom for grandkids, office, game room and more. Life changes with the seasons, too, so we want this space to work for us even as we change and grow as a family.
Our home is around 1900 square feet (not including my parents 400 square foot Tiny Cottage) and our goal is to maximize use of this space as well as every room and corner of our home.
In the past five years since we moved in, The Snug has gone from starting out as a catchall room where we put everything that didn’t have a place in the rest of the house, to our storage room when we renovated our main level, to several years as a “use what we have” for now room.
I think it’s important to take your time before making big changes or purchases so you can really experience how you use a room, what works and what doesn’t.
The Snug Makeover
Finally this year we were ready to think more about what we actually needed in The Snug, what would be the most efficient use of the space and what we needed furniture-wise (both what we had and what we could add on a reasonable budget to make it more functional without making any permanent changes).
The only renovation or major update we’ve made to this room was actually few years ago at the end of our main floor renovation we removed the carpet and added the wood floors in here. That made a big difference in the feel of the room and makes it easier to take care of with kids and dogs, so I’m glad we were able to do that.
We haven’t repainted the room yet, other than touch ups! We will eventually repaint the entire room including the built ins (which were here when we moved in) but that is a project and expense we’re saving for a future time! :) We have some other fun ideas for the future as well, which I’ll share with you sometime.
This was one of our favorite rooms in the house when we first saw it (and still is now!). We love the ceiling shape, the dormer windows and the built ins, and also it has a fun peekaboo view of the water where we can see the ferry coming and going all day and night.
The room itself has a lot going for it already. The tricky part in deciding how to make this room work for us is that it’s long and narrow, and we needed it to be very flexible and functional as a multi-purpose space.
Flexible Furniture: Two Twin Daybeds + King Bed + a Full Bed
The main change we wanted to make was instead of the single rattan daybed we had in here before, we decided to get two twin trundle beds for greater flexibility.
We’re so glad we decided to go with the two. We love how it looks with the twin beds on this side of the room, plus with the trundle we gained three more beds (so if needed, this room can sleep a whole family and we can also pull mattresses downstairs or the guest room if we want a different arrangement).
These beds also make the room just very easy to use for any group or different sleeping arrangements. The daybeds are cozy for families and kids to curl up and read, watch a movie and spend the night.
And, the two trundle beds have legs you can pull down, so when you set them up you can pull them up right next to the daybed and create the equivalent of a king sized bed if you wanted that, or simply a side by side bed situation.
The trundles are not attached so you can also move those beds around the room.
The ease of these beds makes the room even more flexible for different family arrangements.
We did consider at one point not keeping the full bed in the room, but it’s actually really nice to have it for many reasons. It’s handy to have it across the room for even more flexibility (mom on one side, kids on the other for example!).
This bed is so comfortable and everyone loves it, too, it’s the most used guest bed we have.
The Slipcovered Sofa (Sectional)
As far as the sofa, we most recently had our Ikea Ektorp in this room. We decided to move it along with the rattan daybed that used to be in here to what I’m calling the “small snug” or the “morning snug” (formerly called the guest room). That small room is my new favorite daytime hangout where I can work in a quiet space, use my walking pad all winter, and it’s a little guest room for a smaller family. More on that room later!
In our previous home we had a Sixpenny couch we loved but it was sadly too big for this house, so we recently partnered with Sixpenny again to customize our sofa for us so that even though it looks and functions just like a regular sofa, it’s built in three sections. This made it easier to get up our tight staircase, and will make it easier for us to move it anytime we want to.
We now have two slipcovers for this new sofa, so you’ll see in the photos that one is blue and one is a soft white linen. Both are washable, which makes them wonderful for a room where family’s will spend time.
Quilt Hung on the Wall
I loved the idea of hanging a quilt behind our sofa. I did a lot of research to decide how best to hang it, and ended up finding this rod which worked perfectly! I’m excited to change up the quilts every once in awhile too for a fresh look, too.
This quilt isn’t in stock anymore but it’s from here.
Room for TV, a Workspace and Moveable Chairs for Flexibility
My husband and I watch TV here in the evenings, so it’s a cozy place for the two of us. We’ve been so happy with our new TV! I love that it looks like art when we aren’t watching it. And the picture quality is SO much better than our last TV!
My husband also works at the desk in the corner. All the furniture on that side of the room we already had, the “boat bookcase” has been in our last three homes!
We keep extra chairs in here that we already had, we love that they are portable. It’s nice for our needs right now to have chairs that are easy to move around or even move out of the room as needed. It’s always possible I’ll change my mind later on, but for now the flexibility works really well for us.
When we have family come to town, the whole room is their place to stay! It’s nice to have such a flexible room where people are comfortable and that we can still enjoy every day. And it’s helpful to have the Small Snug :) down the hall available too when we have more people here.
Portable Woven Room Screen
I bought this attractive portable woven room screen a few years ago and we LOVE IT! We’ve often brought it downstairs to create a little sleeping nook for our son. When we have a full house he has occasionally (and generously!) slept on a cot in the dining room, and the screen gives him a little privacy from the early morning wake ups from babies or toddlers in the house :).
We’ve also used it as a room divider for the people sleeping in the bed, or the couch!
Now that we have the daybeds set up like this, it makes the perfect screen for the people on the daybeds. I actually want to get another one since we’ve made such good use of it. I have the 4 panel but it also comes in a 3 panel or 6 panel.
We’ve been leaning it against the wall like this when we’re not using it and it actually looks great. You could even spread it out behind the daybed or couch and it would add nice texture like decorative art!
Cozy Bamboo Blinds
We recently installed these bamboo blinds and we are thrilled with how cozy they made the room! We can pull them down for more privacy and to make the room feel like a true SNUG! They are really beautiful, too. They are not the same blinds as the ones we have downstairs if you’ve seen those in our home. I like them both for different reasons. These still let a bit of light through which is nice during the day but you really can’t see through them very easily at night so do offer more privacy. And they are easy to lift and lower!
Wall Lights
We don’t prefer to use ceiling lights (someday we’ll get dimmers which will help) and table and floor space is limited for lamps, so we decided to install a few wall lights to bring soft light around the room. We love how much cozier that feels! For now we’re just using rechargeable bulbs, but we hope to have them installed permanently as wall fixtures at some point down the road. I love the brass tone and the color and pattern on the shades, too, they are really perfect for this room.
Rugs
Deciding on rugs and rug placement in this room was a little tricky. While a custom rug can be a good solution in an awkwardly sized or shaped room like this, I wasn’t ready to make that big of a commitment or investment.
With dogs and even little ones, I love having an easy to clean rug by the sofa and for now, we have no rug by the daybeds. We may put one there down the road, but the beauty of not having one large custom rug is we can remove either or both to clean them. And we could set up a game table for food or crafts without anyone worrying about spilling on a rug.
Window Seat Cushion
Someday we may make a slight modification or two to our window seat and bookcases and at that point, we would buy a custom cushion for it, too. But for now, we found this cushion here and it works just great for the dogs. That’s their favorite perch in the daytime. :)
Hope you enjoyed this post and perhaps it’s given you some inspiration for your home! I do my best to share ideas and inspiration from our home and things I love here.
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Similar Basket Storage Coffee Table (and another here)
This quilt isn’t in stock anymore but it’s from here.
Looking for something else? Find more sources in my shop!
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