If you’ve always dreamed of a special room designated just for you or your family, dream no more. Creating a room that can serve as a sacred space for hobbies, passions, and favored pastimes is easily attained.
The first step in approaching any room design is to consider the room’s function, says interior designer Dawn Totevski of Sayville-based Design Inspiration. Once you know the functionality, you can determine the need for seating and storage. Secondly, decide on a style and a vibe, advises Totevski.
“Is it Bohemian? Is it modern? Is it farmhouse?” she asks.
To grasp the style her client’s going for, Totevski saves images to Pinterest that capture an array of styles.
Next, Totevski prepares a couple of floor plans from which the client can choose.
A MUSIC ROOM
For a client in East Islip with two elementary school-aged children, Totevski designed a music room where the kids take lessons and practice their guitar and drums.
“She wanted a designated place for them to practice and for them to learn, so that everything they needed was there and accessible,” Totevski explains.
To tackle the challenge of guitars which were taking up lots of floor space, Totevski commissioned Barricelli Custom Woodworks to create a custom wall-hanging piece of stained, rustic, reclaimed wood planks, to which they added guitar hooks. If, one day, they redesign the room for another purpose, the piece can easily be removed from the wall.
“We did a Bohemian look,” says Totevski. “We have some leather and a raw-edged coffee table, a fun black-and-white geometric rug and some really bright, bold colors on the paintings that we had custom painted by a local artist.”
The room also has a casual, slipcovered loveseat and leather pouf for both seating and decor, and a drum kit and music stands.
Designing the room to grow with the kids, Totetvski says, “Everything in there currently would be cool for a teenager, too. It was really funky and fun.”
Totevski endeavored to make the space inspirational, so that the kids can have fun, even when they’re practicing.
“The colors are vibrant and motivating,” she says. “It’s just like a fun, really cool lounge.”
SPACE FOR SCRAPBOOKING
Scrapbooking enthusiast Leane Paul decided to create a room over the two-car garage of her Coram home dedicated exclusively to her hobby.
With a framed-out room, Paul enlisted her husband and his friends to insulate, install sheetrock, and paint the walls. Afterwards, they added carpet and an air conditioning/heating unit.
“And he built the cabinets that are on the one wall,” says Paul. “And just over time, we kept adding pieces to it.”
Along one wall, there’s a series of wooden cubes where she can place different scrapbooking items.
“I have a scrap rack sitting on top of a table that has lots of supplies in it,” notes Paul. “We also put a television and a couch up there, so in case he wants to come up and hang out with me while I’m scrapbooking, he can sit on the couch and chill out, or if the girls are here, we can have the TV on in the background.
With eight additional 4-foot-long folding tables, the room can accommodate an octet of her scrapbooking pals, and also houses the scrapbooking albums she’s created, tool kits, magnet boards and a mini-refrigerator.
