Your 10-year-old wants to work on model airplanes, your teenager wants to watch TV, you want a quite place to relax –and everyone wants to be in the same room. How can a family room handle all the demands made on it?
Defined zones keep everyone together but out of each others way when you congregate in the family room. The four rooms shown here illustrate zone-planning. Each has a unified appearance but contains much more than a main seating area.
Changing the floor level is one way of defining activity zones. A conversation pit establishes boundaries within a room. So does a raised stage, a window seat, loft, alcove, or a desk placed away from the core of the room also let you have privacy and community at the same time?
Furniture arrangement and lighting can help break up the room. Instead of one large grouping, cluster the furniture into a core area and a smaller, intimate setting. Walls can be put to work to keep TV, stereo, books, and display shelves in one central area, freeing the rest of the room for other activities. Use recessed light, track light, or pendant pictures to beam down see-trough borders for different zones.
Provide a focal point for the main seating area. A fireplace, wall hanging, window, or storage system will make the area more relaxing by offering people something to look at. And the room will gain its character an overall atmosphere from whatever you choose as a dominant feature.
Music reaches new heights
Elevated on its own stage, the organ overlooks this plush-carpeted conversation pit. Children love to dive off and roll down the seating area; overnight guest sleep on it. Architect: Churchill- Zlatunich – Lorimer.