Expanding Your Home As Your Family Grows

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The problem with having a family is that you need somewhere to put them. This is tongue-in-cheek of course, as nothing could be more of a priority than making sure you have a comfortable home while you grow your family or start it to begin with - for many people this is one of their main life goals and achievements, and for good reason.

That said, it’s instructive to see the expressions on the face of parents who just found out that their lovely bundle of expected joy is actually going to be triplets. All of a sudden, after the wonder of that outcome is appreciated, the parents have to start replanning rooms and eventual living conditions within that space. Thank goodness for bunk beds and open-plan wall-knock-throughs.

This is where the topic of expanding your adjusting your home as your family grows is always worth discussing. So, let’s discuss it, and hopefully yield some advice you can use going forward:

Dividing Rooms Into Two

If you’re hurting for rooms but have larger areas with open space, you may be surprised to hear just how effective a dividing wall can be in creating two rooms. Home design trends have heavily encouraged the “open plan” living space, but that’s not necessarily always the way to go.

For example, if you have one large space serving as your teenage child’s bedroom, but your toddler needs their own space now, you may divide that larger room into two, providing a bed for both with their own individual spaces. Or, you can use your own master bedroom to divide that space and move into one of the smaller rooms too.

This can give you increased utility around the home, expanding the home without necessarily extending the space outwards. This can be much more cost-effective, but make sure you’re not compromising on essential features like fire safety to achieve that.

Expanding Living Spaces

Open-plan spaces, contrary to the prior tip, can also be a good way to expand family space. It may be that adding a dinner table to your large lounge environment can help you clear space in the kitchen while using up space in your living area.

Perhaps you can knock through the wall to join the two spaces (or add a doorway if it’s load-bearing). In some cases, you can get the best of both worlds with an interior design renovation and extension, such as with conservatories that lead on from the kitchen, using materials from the Clear Amber Shop to format its structural integrity.

Don’t Forget The Exterior Areas

Expanding and extending into exterior constructions can be helpful, too. When your teenager starts driving, for instance, you may need further driveway space to park. You may renovate part of this to take up space in your front garden, which can be a necessary compromise to make so you don’t have to play Tetris with cars when leaving the house each morning.

If you have a vital provision that needs to be preserved, but you also need the home space, exterior constructions could be ideal. For example, it may be that you or your partner works from home full-time, and they need space to care for their daily responsibilities. However, your new child also needs a room. As such, having an exterior home office with a simple en suite facility can help your partner work in their own space all day, and you can use the old area for your infant to sleep comfortably. A little adjustment goes a long, long way.

Smaller Bathrooms & Conveniences

As your family grows larger in size, you’ll become intimately familiar with the morning bathroom negotiation effort. Need to use the bathroom or shower? Someone will invariably have thought of doing the same five minutes ago.

That’s why it’s good to extend the small conveniences if you can. Building an en-suite, or connective bathroom as part of your master bedroom will always give you time to freshen up in the morning, no matter how long your teenagers seem to use the main bathroom. An under-the-staircase bathroom might work well if you’re low on space also. 

In some cases, unique designs like wet-rooms can offer a helpful shower space with tiled surroundings as opposed to full-scale bathroom or restroom installations. As you can see, you have plenty of room to design around your needs and the growing requirements of your family.

With this advice, we hope you feel inspired to expand your home as your family grows. We wish you the best of luck in your efforts.