Garden rooms are versatile structures that make it easier for you to have extra space at home. There are many different things that you can do with a contemporary garden room. You can use it as a garden office, a garden gym, a granny annexe, a BBQ cabin, a garden studio, etc. The possibilities are endless. But what happens if you can’t decide on a single use for your garden cabin and would for it to have several purposes? With a little bit of creativity, you can turn a spacious garden room into a multipurpose one. Keep reading to find out more about creating a multipurpose garden room.

Can a Garden Room Have More than One Purpose?

As mentioned above, yes. If you have some spare time on your hands and some imagination there are a lot of cool things that you can do with a garden room. Think of your garden room as your blank canvas. The versatility of our contemporary garden rooms allows you to easily transform them into anything you want. 

Whether you’re dreaming of a dual-purpose space such as a home office/extra bedroom or hobby room/tool shed, or even a space with more than two purposes, the important thing is to take into consideration the size of your garden room. A large garden room such as our Barbados Plus Garden Log Cabin with Storage Room or the Oscar 3-room Log Cabin will surely make things much easier. However, small garden rooms can also have more than one purpose, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t own a large one.

How to Turn Your Garden Room into a Multi-Purpose Space?

Now that we’ve established that all garden rooms can have more than one purpose, let’s focus on how to improve their functionality. By using clever interior design tricks, customized furnishings, and partition walls, turning your garden room into a multi-purpose space is a piece of cake. 

Design Tricks to Make Your Garden Room Seem More Spacious

A garden room that seems more spacious will automatically be easier to use for more than one thing. So, if you need a small garden office but would also like to use the space as an extra bedroom, all you have to do is find a way to include all the necessary pieces of furniture in the same space. Unfortunately, doing this isn’t always easy, so let’s take a look at a few useful interior design tricks.

• Choose Smaller Furniture. When furnishing a small space, it’s important to be really careful with the proportions. That means that you need to avoid choosing items that will brush up against the boundaries of the room. By leaving a little bit of space between things, the room will automatically seem airier and less crowded.
  
• Avoid Heavy Items. Very heavy furniture tends to eat up too much space. Overstuffed armchairs and sofas will seem much bulkier than sleeker ones while providing the same amount of sitting space. The same goes for your desk chair. We know that bulky office chairs seem very comfortable, but they aren’t any better than high-quality ergonomic ones with sleeker designs.
  
• Choose Furniture that’s Lower to the Ground. This might seem like a weird thing to do, but it might make a huge difference. This type of furniture is just as practical as a taller one, but it will have the advantage of creating a feeling of open space. For a garden office/guest bedroom, you are going to need a pull-out sofa, so we recommend choosing a low-to-the-ground mid-century one.
  
• Include Some Leggy Pieces of Furniture. Tables and chairs with legs can also create the impression of space while also being extremely nice looking. Streamlined furniture gives the impression of more natural light and airflow and a sense of openness.
  
• Add a Mirror. It is a well-known fact that, by reflecting light, mirrors make rooms seem bigger. If you plan on using your multipurpose garden room as a home office, extra bedroom, hobby room, granny annexe, or a combination, decorate one of your walls with a nice mirror.
  
• No Drapes and No Rugs. If you don’t live in a very cold climate, you can ditch both the lavish drapes and the dust-gathering rugs. To trick the eye into thinking that the room is spacious, we need to keep the space as simple as possible. Curtains don’t just take up space, but they also prevent you from enjoying the view. For privacy, use something more lightweight such as roman shades, shutters, or cellular shades.
  
• Use Light Colours. The best option to make a room seem bigger is to have white walls, but you can also opt for other light colours. White opens up a room and it has a soothing effect. It can also make the boundaries between the walls and the ceiling less obvious and make the room seem light and airy. If you feel that white isn’t a very fun colour, you can combine it with textured elements and colourful decorations. As mentioned above, garden rooms can have many different purposes and if you change your mind, white walls will always make it easier to switch from one thing to another.
  
• Keep It Simple. This is the oldest trick in the book. Equip your room with the essential items and avoid clutter and having too many objects lying around. If you want your garden room to be a home office and a guest bedroom at the same time all you need is a desk, a chair, a comfortable sofa, a mirror, a coffee table, and some storage space.
  

Install Partition Walls

This method is a bit more complicated but it can be a perfect solution if you own a large garden log cabin. There are many different partition wall systems available on the market and it’s up to you to choose the one that fits your needs best. Partition walls allow you to create one or more separate rooms inside your garden room and to have private spaces for each member of your family. They are great solutions, especially if the uses of the garden room aren’t compatible. For instance, if you want a painting room, your husband wants a garden gym, and your kids want a game room it can be a bit frustrating to share the same space, so this is where partition walls come in handy. 

Another aspect that you should consider when installing partition walls is whether you want to have internal doors, external doors, or both. We recommend making this decision based on how private you want the rooms to feel. Internal doors will make your space more versatile than exterior doors and allow you to transform the space into a common ‘living space’ if you ever want to. In some cases (if one of the newly created rooms will be used as a bathroom) internal doors are a must-have, so make sure you plan your budget accordingly. 

If, however, you need your rooms to be completely separate from one another, you can opt for external doors. This type of door works best if you plan on using your new rooms as separate bedrooms, or if you plan on turning one of them into a shed or a storage space.

If you don’t own a garden room yet and are planning to buy one, we recommend choosing one that has more than one room, such as our Murcia Two Bedrooms Lodge. A larger garden room with interior walls will make it easier for you and your loved ones to use the extra space for more than one purpose. Need help deciding which garden room will fit your outdoor area perfectly? Do not hesitate to contact us.