Kirsty McLuckie on space-age home solutions
The films of my childhood were full of ornate bookcases that would flip down into a ready-made double bed, usually when a louche man in a smoking jacket was making eyes at his leading lady.
I’m kitschy enough to covet an ornamental globe that glides open to access a cocktail set, the height of sophistication in the 1950s.
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Hide AdAnd, at the other end of the scale, I’d love a dance floor that rolls back to reveal a swimming pool, even if it is inevitable that the switch would be knocked at an inconvenient moment – with hilarity ensuing.
I still lust after such inventions, like the more recent innovation of a classic antique mirror to hang in a period drawing room. Press a button and it becomes a huge TV screen, perfect for the aesthete who likes a spot of telly.
Or the type of glass used in bathroom windows that is clear until you turn on the light at which point it becomes opaque – although the possibility of a malfunction at a crucial moment must be somewhat inhibiting.
Most of these features still seem impossibly glamorous, found only in a James Bond house where nothing is as first appears. But actually dual-purpose items – useful in more ways than one – are a necessity for smaller homes.
After all, it isn’t space-aged stylishness that makes us mount a flip-up table in a tiny kitchen, but the best use of space. Ditto a sofa bed.
Square footage is expensive and as prices rise many homeowners are looking to make the most of the home they already have, with multi-functionality a major plus.
More of us are now having to find room for working, and while it was easy to set up a desk in a spare corner when we couldn’t have guests, now that we can invite people to stay again, a cantilevered bed or a desk concealed in a wardrobe could be the solution.
Coffee tables that raise up into dining tables are useful for those with occasional dinner guests, and items with hidden storage are a positive boon.
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Hide AdMatthew Currington, technical director of The Lighting Superstore, says illumination can go a long way to ease a transformation from one function to another.
He advises layering different types of lighting to help create zones for comfort or utility. “If your kitchen is also going to act as a dining room, or your office as a bedroom, it’s easy to use lighting to transform the feel of the space. Pick LED lighting or spotlights for bright overhead lighting in a kitchen. Under-counter lighting or a pendant light with a dimmer switch can help change the atmosphere of your room and create a cosier setting.
He adds: “If you’re using a bedroom as an office space too, you can use lamps to help signify you’ve switched off for the day.”
Such considerations might not have Tomorrowland glamour. But illuminating a desk and a bed in different ways in a room that has both will certainly change the mood.
Louche smoking jacket optional.
– Kirsty McLuckie is property editor at The Scotsman