Have you ever considered combining your guest room with your entry foyer? No? Well, we hadn’t either until we started floor planning for House 15. But… guess what? We did it, and we love it! In fact, we got an ensuite, lounge room, bar and mud room space in there too!

Multi-purpose rooms have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for good reason. They can offer a wide range of benefits that can make your home more versatile by using your existing space more efficiently.

So, what’s the key to creating a multi-purpose room than can transition seamlessly from one purpose to another? Bonnie says it’s to ask yourself, “What IS the purpose of this space?” Be totally clear in your mind about this before you start.

At House 15, this multi-purpose space would be used for living and entertaining, but also a room for guests to sleep when they visit. The extra challenge is that this is also the main entrance to the home, meaning it’s the welcome when you walk through the door, so it needs to look gorgeous at all times too.

Here’s how we made it all work…

THE GUEST QUARTERS

One of the things on the client’s wishlist for this home was a separate space where their relatives could stay for weeks at a time when they visit from overseas. Great idea! But rather than dedicating an entire room to a guest bedroom that sits empty most of the year, we created a space that can be used and enjoyed when the guests aren’t in residence.

Rather than choosing a regular bed frame for the guest bed, we built in a curvy rendered surround. The good-quality mattress means the guests will have a great night’s sleep when the room is being used as a bedroom and when it’s not, it’s a gorgeous daybed for post-swim hangs.

Behind the cute arched sliding door is a small but perfectly equipped ensuite. We repeated the same gorgeous tapware from Reece’s Milli range that we’ve used in the other bathrooms in the house. The colour is ‘Rustic Iron’, which gives a beautiful, sophisticated feel in contrast to the warm neutral palette. Do you recognise the tiles too? The wall tiles are the same Cremorne Calacatta marble look tile from TileCloud that we used in the girls’ bathroom and the floor tiles are the cute Northbridge Peach Terracotta Look subways which we’ve used many times throughout this house, each time laid slightly differently. This time we added a cute yellow centre tile to the pattern (it’s the Northbridge Butter Terracotta look subway cut down to size).

The most important function of this space is the ability to close off the bedroom and bathroom to give the guests their privacy. And the star of the show is the Luxaflex room dividing curtain, which can be fully recessed into a cavity when not in use. For both the room divider and French door curtains, we chose a fabric that’s opaque enough to provide privacy but also filters the light beautifully for a warm glow (it’s called the Amadora Ivory Light Filtering Curtain in the colour ‘Pearl’).

There’s also a guest wardrobe tucked away alongside the bathroom with space for hanging and folding. Recognise those pretty Lo & Co travertine handles? Yep, we used them in the girls’ bedroom. You know what they say, when you’re on to a good thing…

LIVING & ENTERTAINING

In the centre of the space, there’s a lounge and bar that can be dedicated to guests during their stay or used as another fabulous entertaining area/pool house the rest of the time. There’s bench seating in the bar and the most charming boucle sofa (she’s named Odette, and she’s from Castlery) and armchairs in the centre of the room, to relax with a book.

The exposed beams make the ceiling feel taller, and their imperfect finish adds a rustic touch to the room.

FRONT DOOR & FOYER

The main entry was previously on the middle level of the home, but when we reconfigured the floor plan it made sense to move it to the lower ground floor, to dedicate the entire middle floor to the kitchen and main living spaces. This meant incorporating the front door and the foyer into this space as well.

When you step into the beautiful new foyer, you’ll glimpse the guest quarters, lounge area and bar to your left and then floor-to-ceiling cupboards that act as a mini-mudroom to drop shoes, bags and brollies. Look straight ahead, and you’ll be enticed inside by the dreamy curved staircase.