a little switcharoo

A couple of weekends ago, we did a bit of rearranging in our home.  When it comes to home layout, I have a really hard time thinking outside of the box.  I think - this room is next to the kitchen, so it must be the dining room.  It's hard for me to visualize things in several different ways.  However, my friend, Kelsey, blew my mind a few weeks ago.  She suggested that I swap two rooms in my house - the music room and the dining room.  After thinking through the function of it, I realized how much better it would be.

THE MUSIC ROOM

Before:  We have lots of music stuff, but not enough to fill up this huge space.  I use this room for teaching piano lessons and sometimes writing at the desk.  The unused space in the middle of the room is what bothered me.

 

After:  This is not complete as we are still figuring out the perfect storage for sound equipment and planning on removing the low-hanging chandelier which is perfectly placed at head-level.  But I like that this is a more closed-off space for teaching.  I only teach a few hours each week and any practicing or songwriting that happens beyond that would maybe be an additional couple of hours.  The music room is used the least so it makes sense for it to be smaller.

 THE DINING ROOM

Before:  This seems like an ideal space for your dining room table because it's right next to the kitchen.  The downside?  You can't really see into the other rooms.  It's hard to feel like you're "a part" of the evening if you're in there.  If we have company over and the moms are feeding babies in there, we are completely separate from whatever else is going on just because of the way the walls are in that room.  My personal preference is to have a little division.  I don't love completely open floor plans.  However, using this room for the dining room seemed a little too divided.

After:  Again, this is not a completely finished product.  There are holes on the walls that need to be filled/repainted, woodwork that needs to be white, and wall space that we'd like to fill with family photos.  I would also love to eventually have a small sofa, accent chair, and coffee table on the rug.  By using this bigger room as a dining room and sitting area, we can actually use the space.  Our friends can eat at the table, messy babies can be fed, kids can play on the floor, and people can sit in the chairs, all while being engaged in the same conversation.  With the rooms this way, we are using our two living areas as two living areas!

Everything makes so much more sense this way.  I love that we can sit at our dining table and look out our backyard windows.  I love that I can be in the kitchen doing dishes and look over at my kids "having Cheerio time" in the mornings.  I love that there is more room for more people in our home.

If you're in need of a fresh change in your home, try rearranging some furniture.  Maybe even swap some rooms like we did.  It's such a fun way to welcome in the spring!