Do you have building plans and not sure what type of rooms to include in your new home? Or if you like to play with design ideas just for fun – Well, we got you! Our detailed guide on different room types has it all figured out for you!
Things have definitely changed in this modern era, with all new different types of rooms you can include in your new home that serve different purposes. Our Types of Rooms in our House guide covers the most common typical rooms such as bedrooms, living rooms to optional rooms such as; a home gym or even a cinema room.
Your budget, preferences and passion will determine what type of rooms you can have in your new home, the sky is the limit or should we say your square footage:)
Here are some types of the most common must have rooms with some optional room ideas. We also made sure to include pictures and design suggestions to make your new home look modern and attractive.
1. Living room
The living room (aka ‘sitting room’) is one of the most common and essential rooms in a house. This is where Family members or roommates unwind after a long day, meet to socialize and chat, watch TV, or even just rest and relax. The living room is also normally the main room for entertainment, where you tend to host, have visitors over and hang out with friends and family.
A typical living room is normally located on the first floor of the house and is the first room you see when entering a house. You can furnish and design your living room based on your budget and personal preferences by featuring the following:
- Sofas: L shape sofas, 3 cushions sofas or a loveseat.
- Comfortable accent chairs or recliners
- Coffee tables
- End tables
- Artwork
- Floor lamps and table lamps
- Television units and Sound bars
- TV Stand
- Area rugs
- Pots, Planters and Plants
2. Bedroom
Important and must have rooms in a house. Bedrooms are normally located at the far corners of the house for privacy or can be located anywhere in the house, first or other floors, depending on the architecture of your home. Some people even turn over their garage, attic or even basement into a bedroom.
A bedroom size depends on the house’s size and the type of bedroom. For instance, children’s bedrooms are often smaller than the master bedroom. The master bedroom often also includes a walk in closet and a separate bathroom.
The average master bedroom dimensions are around 14×16 which comes to about 224 square footage, that is often the minimum size to make sure you can fit a king size bed with a dresser or a closet. Other bedrooms such as children’s bedrooms or guest bedrooms are often smaller and around 11 ft x 12 ft making it roughly 132 square feet in size to comfortably fit a queen size bed, double bed or a full bed.
Master bedroom typically includes the following furniture:
- Bed: Cal king bed, King bed, Queen bed, Double bed or a full bed.
- Dresser
- Wardrobe
- Chest of drawers
- Nightstands
- Vanity
- Lamps
- Accent chair
- And other accessories that best suit your requirements and taste, such as: Rug, Floor or Night Stand and bed Lamps, Mirror, Plants etc…
Kid’s or guest bedrooms normally include:
- Bed: Queen bed, Double bed, full bed, bunk bed or a single bed
- Dresser
- Wardrobe
- Chest of drawers
- Nightstands
- Desk or Vanity
- Bookcase
- Toy Chest
- Accent chair
- And other accessories such as; Rug, Night Stand Lamps and Desk Lamps, bean bags etc..
3. Kitchen
The kitchen is known to be “the heart of a home” because we all must eat and love to eat and snack! Food isn’t just essential for our survival, it also provides comfort and a sense of belongingness. It doesn’t matter what type of house you have, every house has a kitchen and it is actually one of the most used areas or rooms in a house.
This is the type of room where you cook, bake, prepare food to feed yourself and your loved ones.
Kitchens may come in different sizes, designs and layouts based on the total size of your home. Normally, a kitchen occupies between 12% to 15% of the home’s total square footage. In the US an average kitchen size would be anywhere around 150 square feet (for a single-story house) to 174 square feet (for multi-story houses).
In the recent years, we often tend to see more and more open spaces designs where the kitchen has a large island overlooking the living room area.
Here are some general areas in a kitchen:
- Pantry area: Food storage space, canned goods, refrigerator etc.
- Storage area: Appliances, utensils, cookware
- Sink / Double area: Washing Utensils (cleaning area)
- Preparation area: A large counter space to work on
- Cooking area: Stove and oven.
- Preparing and dining area: Kitchen Island
4. Dining Room
Normally the dining room or a dining area is located next to the kitchen for an easy access. This is where you would sit around a large table with family and friends to enjoy lovely meals and spend times with your love ones.
The dining area brings families and friends together, it’s a place where you create special memories, such as: sharing holidays and other important events like dinner parties or date night, or simply an area where you eat with your family in the morning before you go to work or have lunch and dinner with your partner and kids.
It’s also convenient to dine in a designated dining area so you don’t fall into the habit of carrying food to other rooms making a mess. A dinning room also ensures you concentrate on the food, eating slowly, chewing and digesting the food properly while avoiding things like using a mobile phone or watching TV which normally leads to overeating and bad eating habits.
The size of a dining room depends on the space and number of family members you have.
Dining rooms always include a table and chairs, and sometimes a buffet, sideboard or a cabinet to store and display china or other fancy dishes.
The actual design of a dining room may vary based on your needs, for instance, if you have kids, perhaps, you wish to avoid glass dining tables with sharp edges and chairs with bright fabrics. Dining tables come in different sizes to suit small or larger parties. Some tables also have wings, that open up and become even a larger table.
5. Bathroom
The bathroom is another room that you simply cannot live without. This is where we excuse ourselves, take a shower, wash our face, brush our teeth or simply just stare at the mirror wondering how time passed by so quickly.
Some of us are more fortunate than others and have a private bathroom attached to the bedroom, which is often referred as an en-suite. Some people would also refer to a bathroom as a washroom or a restroom, but if the room only has a toilet and a sink than you would refer to it as a toilet.
There is no standard size of a bathroom; some are small and simple and some are more extensive and luxuries, it all depends on your available space, budget and personal taste.
An average size bathroom is anywhere between 36-40 square feet to fit an apartment or a small home. This size is the general size which can include ¾ baths as well as full baths.
Almost all bathrooms and some luxuries bathrooms contain the following:
6. Family Room
A family room is an informal room that can be used for all purposes in a house. It serves a similar function in the home as a living room. It is a gathering place for everyone to enjoy and relax together at the end of the day. Families and friends can enjoy talking, reading, watching TV, playing games and other activities in family rooms. It can also become a gaming room, a home theater, a music room, a lounge or anything else you or your family wants it to be.
Modern family rooms mainly contain:
- Mismatched chairs
- Beanbags
- An assortment of knickknacks (collected by various family members)
- Sofa.
- Love seat, chaise.
- Bookcases or Bookshelves
- Paintings, prints, posters, photos
- Throw blankets, pillows, foot stools
- Game consoles, board games, musical instruments
7. Guest Room
This bedroom is for a person who is an invited guest who usually stays in your house during an event or holiday. Visitors must be made to feel comfortable during their stay and this room can be perfect for your guest during their stay. A separate guest room would be ideal for maintaining the privacy and providing the guests with a relaxing and restful stay.
These rooms are often left empty, which ensures that the room remains fresh and pristine for the next visitor.
Mostly, guest room contains
- Bed
- Bedside table
- Chairs
- Wardrobe with locker facility
- Writing table
- Dressing table
- Center table
- Magazine holder etc.
8. Game Room
A game room in a house is for playing games, relaxing, and entertaining guests. Game rooms are set off from the rest of the house also decorated differently, or just a space in a bigger room specifically designed to make gaming easier and fun. You will need comfortable seating to accommodate your gamer guest, choose durable but luxurious furniture.
Modification of your game room will depend on your personal tastes and if you plan on hosting lots of guests or just a few at a time. Figure out what you like to do, then fill your game room with anything that you like such as:
- Home Theater area
- Board Games and Tabletop Games
- Pub Games and Large Games
- Video Games etc.
- Snack bar
9. Nursery
Nursery rooms are for new born babies, which are made to welcome them into the family. So, it needs to be set up as a nursery for the baby and caretakers needs, not a kids’ room. Therefore, the furnishings should be different. You need a crib, a chest of drawers for the baby’s stuff, and a changing station. While designing a nursery, you need to keep as a priority the safety and protection guidelines to make the room baby friendly and safe.
If you want to spruce it up even more, you can put in a rocking chair and some whimsical decorative elements and lighting. After all, you can’t entirely depend upon the light corning in from the windows. Most parents do end up providing some kind of a night-light for their kids, even if your child does not need it, the soft light will let you stay half-asleep at the same time as you are tending to your child.
If you’re worried about the air quality within the room, you may want to invest in an air purifier, dehumidifier, a space heater or all of the above.
Nowadays most parents add a baby monitor to the nursery as it helps keeping an eye on your precious baby when they sleep but also helps to keep track of your baby’s sleep and wake cycle. You may probably want to ensure you have a proper safe place to keep the baby monitor. If you don’t have one yet then just position the crib in a way that would let you look into your munchkin’s crib from the doorstep of the nursery.
- Crib
- Dresser / changing table
- Rocking chair
- Foot stool
- Air purifier, humidifier
- Baby monitor
- Basinet
- Baby Bouncer/Rocker
10. Home Office
Depending on your field of work, some professions allow people to work from the comfort of their homes. Especially now more than ever before, working from home has become the new norm due to the pandemic looming over our heads.
Having a home office and working from home has a long list of benefits, from not having to commute to wearing your pajamas all day. Even not having to think twice when you have to go #1 or #2, but most likely the biggest benefit is that you save money on renting a separate office space accumulating more expenses. That’s why having a home office and working from home are much more appealing to so many of us.
Most offices are located at the far end of the house, away from rooms like living rooms, which tend to be noisy. Your home office needs to offer a quiet environment for maximum concentration. No one likes to get easily disturbed or interrupted when they work, and especially not by family members who seem to enjoy fun activities in the house.
You can design and furnish your home office as you like based on your taste. Some home offices are very minimalistic to avoid clutter and assist with productivity, while others, that are more heavily furnished carrying decades of outdated paperwork and files.
All you need is a desk and chair, or even a standing desk if you prefer standing up and step into your “work zone”.
Below are the most common items featured in a home office:
- Computers
- Comfortable Chairs
- Tables, or desk
- Sofas
- Book Shelves / Bookcase
- Area rug
11. Attic
The attic is the space between the ceiling of the top floor in house and the roof of the house. Attics are more commonly found in houses with a sloping ceiling, (ake “A frame”), which are typically located in colder geographical regions due to greater volumes of snow and rain.
Attics are typically designed with lots of insulation and sometimes with heating or air conditioning equipment. They tend to be the quietest room in house because they are secluded and distant from the main living spaces.
Some attics are neglected and are not used but some are transformed to magical relaxation spaces, even into an office, a den, a study room, a storage room or a spare bedroom. Before you consider converting your attic, you would need to determine if your attic’s structure and area are strong enough to support and maintain the purpose of the room you wish to create.
The size of your attic is determined based on the slope of the roof and the floor area. You also wish to make sure your roof is in a good shape (no leakage), solid and protected. There are endless design ideas for attics, this room can become anything you wish, the sky is the limit.
12. Playroom
This room is normally designed for children, especially if you have more than one child as this is a great way to keep the little ones contained and prevent them from causing a mess in other areas of the home.
Playrooms can be located upstairs or downstairs, depending on the architecture of your home. There is no standard size for a playroom, you can use any spare room as a playroom.
Most importantly, a playroom must be designed with the word safety in mind such as; wood furniture over glass, anchoring furniture to the wall, no sharp edges items, Age-Appropriate Toys, and children proof accessories.
The ideal playroom should have enough space for kids to play alone, with their siblings or even invite friends over. It is a place where kids can be kids, free to be creative, imaginative and messy.
A typical playroom normally has a colorful design and contains the following:
- Age-Appropriate Toys & Games
- Books
- Toy organizers
- Kids table & chairs
- Chalkboards
- Cozy Fort
- Indoor Slide
- Floor pillows
- Beanbags
- Area rug
13. Library/Study Room
A home Library room can also be used as a Study Room where you can read books, do research and even just hang out, write affirmations and inspiring life goals in your diary. I’s a quiet room with warm ambient that should make you feel calm, relaxed and inspired.
It is normally book lovers’ favorite room in a home where you get to display and show off your book collection. Even though our world has shifted somewhat to eBooks due to the advancement in technology, many still love and prefer reading real paperback books over eBooks.
It doesn’t require much to build a library room, you just needs some bookshelves, a ladder or step stool to help you reach the high shelves, and a sitting area. You could even reduce it to a bookshelf in living room, office, or even the bedroom.
Having books in the home is also proven to improve children and adults development as a home library increases academic success, vocabulary development, attention and job attainment.
The library room should be located in a quiet area away from noisy rooms like the living room or game room. It should be where, one can concentrate. You can get standing lights or table lamps but you probably shouldn’t rely on ceiling fixtures, also you can make it more attractive according to your preferences and budget.
14. Basement
A basement is a part of a building located below the ground level, either partially or fully. Not every house has a basement. For instance, basements are more common in the colder regions, used as a shelter during storms or other unfavorable weather. It’s a more secure room but can have some issues like respiratory etc.
It tends to be the most underdeveloped space in a house. Some people do not even finish applying the drywall before they move in. It depends on the space that you can transform it for multiple purposes. If the basement has enough standing room, then can be used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the boiler, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system are located; so, also are the amenities such as the electrical distribution system and cable television distribution point. You can even use the basement as a storm shelter during harsh and stormy weather or as a laundry room or even a game room.
Basement should be a standard in every home, because it can be used for any purpose just like a storage room, dark room, bank cellar, parking space or to keep equipment requiring constant air conditioning.
15. Laundry Room
The Laundry Room is a room or an area that normally features a washer and dryer and sometimes even a sink with some storage room. This is where we clean our clothes, shoes, and other utilities, it is also a place where you can fold your clean clothes, or may even store some items such as; extra towels, bed sheets, ironing board, and more. It’s all about how much space you are working it. A Laundry Room can be in the bathroom or the basement, or in a totally separate room. The best location is adjacent to the kitchen with access to the backyard. This makes it easy to hang laundry outdoors while having a washing line outside.
You also wish to make sure your Laundry Room is well insulated to avoid mold, water damage, sound and vibration. Tile flooring is ideal when it comes to preventing potential water damage. Tiles also absorb sound more efficiently and make it less intense. You may like to go all the way and soundproof the room as well, it all depends on how sensitive you are to the sound of appliances. You can also control the vibrations coming from the appliances by using rubber pads under the metal feet.
This is one of the main reasons why many choose to have their laundry room in the basement, not only the basement is more secluded from the rests of the rooms in a house, the basement floor also provides a stable surface for heavy machines, stacked washers and dryers, side by side washers and dryers with more room to prep and separate dirty laundry, fold clean laundry and extra storage space.
Most laundry rooms also have a storage space for laundry detergents, softeners and other laundry accessories such a dryer wool balls and even a drying rack or two for clothes that can’t go in the dryer.
Common appliances found in this room may include washing machine, dryer, large sink, ironing board and iron, laundry baskets and storage space for items such as coats and shoes. The room can also use as dual purpose; utility room and a storage room.
And if your budget allows you may also indulge with….
16. Home Gym
One of the biggest advantages of having a home gym is that if you’re a fitness fanatic then you can exercise whenever you want. People who want to achieve their fitness goals, should have a home gym or space because many health professionals advise clients to have a gym at home for convenience and accountability.
Home gyms are easy to design, as you can convert a spare room, the basement or even the attic into your home gym. You do not need to spend too much money on its construction or renovation. All you need to invest in is the gym equipment and have the determination and commitment of working out.
The home gym has items like yoga mats, lifting weights, and other machines depending on your style of exercise. It should be spacious to move freely while exercising. If you don’t have much space to work out, then you could still do yoga, skip rope, or lift free weights. On the other hand, if your home gym is spacious, you could put in a boxing bag and exercise machines like treadmills or stationary bikes etc.
Aside from the gym equipment, you might want to get an AC or a fan for the room as well or at least a functioning window should be in place. If you often find yourself sipping on protein shakes or even just water while working out, you could get another mini fridge for your home gym too.
17. Cinema Room
Cinema rooms can provide you with a movie watching experience that’s even better than what you might get from your local movie theater. That’s why home cinema rooms have become a popular addition to homes over the past few years.
You need some comfortable sofas recliners, armchairs, end tables or snack tables, and a TV (point a projector at a blank part of the wall or a screen). To darken your windows use thick curtains that will also block some of the outside noise.
You can also lay down a carpet and put acoustic foam on the ceiling. If you do not want to travel to the kitchen to get refreshments, then you can keep a microwave and shelves of microwave popcorn in the home theater room as well. Creating a snack area can be a fun addition to your cinema room.
You can design your cinema room as you want based on colors for walls such as grey, dark brown, burgundy, or black are good choices. There is a reason that movie cinemas are all painted black. So, dark grays and deep maroons tend to be popular home theater colors.
18. Garage
The garage can be completely separate from the house or it can be connected by an interior door. Sometimes, the garage can take other functions, for example, it can also be used for storing various tools that are necessary for the upkeep of the home. However, if there’s a separate shed in the garden, the garage can just be a room for storing vehicles and automotive accessories. Many people use garage as workspaces, studios, and many other purposes.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many different types of rooms in a house. Depending on the house’s architecture and size, you can make any room type according to your preferences.
If your home is relatively smaller, then several important functions can be combined in a single room. A dining room can be in the kitchen, it can also even be connected to the living room. Similarly, the living room can be used as the home theater, a library, an office, and even a guest room.
If your home has more rooms, then a game room can be used as a cinema room, a basement can be a laundry room, a music room or even a home gym.
The goal of the above guide is to show and share some ideas about the different kinds of rooms that could be featured in a house, keeping in mind that not all rooms are mandatory and you can still have a lovely accommodating home with just a few rooms or even one room or a studio apartment. It’s all about how you choose to furnish and accessorize your home to suit your personal style while still being practical.
Feel free to share your favorite design tips, accessories or items you simply cannot live without in the comment section below. We would love to hear more about what makes your home so special to you, or learn more about what rooms you would love to feature in your dream home.
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