But, more often than not, home is all of these things and more. This is exactly why the idea of ‘multifunctional space’ is getting more attention than ever.

Today, our homes aren’t just one thing – they’re spaces that need to play lots of different roles.

Here, we’re going to explore some of those different roles in detail – looking at different jobs we need our homes to do, and how our shutter design teams are helping people unlock this potential.

Multifunctional rooms

Multifunctional living space is one of those ‘easier said than done’ ideas.

Unless you have extremely large rooms or a desire to move your furniture every few hours, you could easily end up with overcrowded spaces that don’t really fulfil any specific need especially well.

So, what can you do to make multifunctional spaces practical and attractive?

Light probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you’re considering how to create a multi-functional space – but it’s an essential element that makes a huge difference to the way a multi-use room can feel.

When you picture a dedicated kids’ play area in a room, you probably don’t think of somewhere that’s dull or needs lots of bright artificial light.

Likewise, if you imagine relaxing in a bath after a long day of getting things done, you’re probably not picturing direct sunlight shining in your eyes.

Light is a vitally important part of creating the right kind of ambience in a room – but it becomes very difficult to get right in rooms that have multiple functions.

This makes finding the right window coverings absolutely essential if you want to create rooms that have the right ‘feel’ as they switch uses.

Want to let the light flood in while you have a coffee and wake up?

No problem – you can open the louvres completely or open your shutters on their hinges for the maximum amount of light.

Then again, if you’re keen to turn the light level down and have a little privacy while you eat an evening meal or put your feet up, you can close those louvres completely.

Not quite ready to shut the world out completely? Again, no problem – just angle the slats so that passers-by can’t see in, and you can still enjoy the sun as it dips behind the horizon.

Whether you want the feeling of openness and life that floods in when shutters are open – or you’d like to close the world out and get ready for bed, the very same shutters cover all bases.

Storage is something that often comes up when our design teams speak to people about creating their ideal rooms.

While lots of people understand that shutters are ideal for dividing rooms and controlling the light through windows, fewer people consider them as something that can be used to create or transform cupboard space.

Shutters can be designed and manufactured to fit virtually any window space – and the same is true of the nooks and crannies that can be transformed into effective storage space.

Ever wondered how to make the most of the space under your stairs?

Maybe the space on either side of your chimney breast is crying out to be used productively.

Then again, maybe you’d benefit from the entire end of one room becoming an attractive cupboard space.

We’ve talked about the factors that go into making great multi-purpose spaces – but what does a multifunctional living space look like in reality?

When our teams work in family rooms, we’re tasked with creating communal spaces that can easily transform from one use to another.

According to Ideal Home, the best family room ideas create zones for play, homework, storage, guests, and a little of that necessary life admin.

Often, this is about creating boundaries – and not just physical ones either.

Even if days of studying are a long way in the past for you, you’ll no doubt remember how tempting it was just to put the TV or some music on while you should have been doing homework.

At the start of the first Covid-19 lockdown, home offices were wide and varied. For some of us, the end of the dining table became a work area – and, if we’re honest, most of us at least tried that laptop-in-bed idea to see if it resulted in never-seen-before productivity levels.

As time moved on and the ache in our lower backs from awkward laptop working became more serious, we decided on more ergonomic solutions.

Dining chairs became office chairs, and stacks of books propping up laptops were swapped for dedicated desks in hastily cleared corners of the room.

For lots of us, work-from-home is something that’s continuing beyond the pandemic – but working at home more permanently comes with challenges – especially if space is at a premium.

Creating distinct areas for work often has to be done in a room with another role. Today, millions of homes around the UK have offices in dining rooms, bedrooms, garages, loft spaces, and even on landing areas at the top of the stairs.

It’s not just productivity that will increase if you manage to work a good home office space into a multifunctional room – there’s a chance it will increase interest in your home if you decide to sell in the future too.

According to Which.co.uk, industry research suggests 44% of under-40s will look for a place to work from home with looking for a new property.

Multifunctional space that combines work and rest is a great way to maximise value without having to turn bedrooms into offices.

As a nation, we’ve seen lots of enforced changes to the way that we socialise over the last couple of years.

While lockdowns, bubbles, and limited use of leisure spaces are now thankfully things of the past, there are some changes that have left an impression on us – and home as a social space is something that’s stuck.

When pubs, restaurants, soft play areas, gyms, and other public spaces were closed or limited, we started doing things in our own homes.

Cooking a meal and inviting friends over replaced going out to eat – and we got more inventive with how we entertained children at home.

As such, our homes became places where we do more than just eat and relax.

When the rules allowed – we opened up and enjoyed with others, and, when it feels right, they’re places where self-care has been essential.

Multifunctional spaces have become an important part of how we’ve adapted to these new ways of spending time together and quality time by ourselves.

This is where attractive storage comes in extremely handy. Need to clear away the fruit bowl, blender, spiralizer, and recycling box before everyone arrives and gathers in the kitchen?

Why not create a tucked-away part of the room that’s designed for this very task? A shutter that cuts off the utility part of your kitchen will hide anything that doesn’t add to the ambience of the room.

Even if you don’t have a convenient utility room, then shutters can be used to create cupboard space where you might otherwise have areas that you don’t use.

When everyone’s left and you’ve collected compliments about how tidy your home is, you can lift everything back out, ready for normal life to resume on Monday morning…

Open a heavy pair of curtains, and you’ve still got a pair of curtains bunched up in your room – but open shutters completely, and there’s barely any evidence they’re there – just plenty of sunlight and fresh air coming from outside.

Since plantation shutters are designed to match the style of your windows, they’ll swing open or slide back to reveal the full window aperture.

Likewise, sliding track shutters can be designed to fold back against your walls – taking up virtually no space at all.

And, if you do decide to inject a little energy into your home by actually dancing like no one is watching while your morning coffee brews, you can always close the louvres on your shutters for a few minutes just to be sure.

Looking after ourselves – both mentally and physically – has never been more important.

Our homes are often a physical representation of how we feel – and if there’s no space for self-care in our homes, it’s something that can easily slip out of our minds.

Don’t panic; we’re not suggesting that we all clear our living rooms to make space for a series of gym machines – rather that we have somewhere that doubles as a self-care area.

• A place where you can sit quietly and practise mindfulness or read quietly

• Somewhere you can exercise – perhaps just with a yoga mat or Joe Wicks on the iPad

• An area where you can pamper yourself without constant interruptions

• A space where you can set up your favourite exercise machine – a Peloton bike or stepper, for instance

Having kids or grandkids in the house can be an absolute joy – but when you’ve stepped barefoot on a couple of Lego bricks or heard the Baby Shark song for the three-hundredth time, you can be entirely forgiven for wishing that they had their own space.

Shutters are a fantastic way to create space that confines the chaos of play without shutting children out of your attention.

When you slide a room divider closed between kids’ space and adult space, it’s entirely different to closing a door.

The British weather often means that swinging the doors open and inviting the weather into your home means putting a fleece on and putting mats down for muddy paws – but this changes when the sun breaks through the clouds in the summertime.

When the temperate breaks into double figures, it’s a great time to extend your living space to include garden or yard space.

Turning your garden into an area with multiple purposes often means making it as accessible as possible from your home.

One of the best ways to do this is through patio or French doors – but giving up a full wall to create access into your garden can often restrict what you do with that room.

This is where shutters provide a best-of-both-worlds solution.

When the sun is shining, shutters can slide back completely and your room can turn into a conduit between home and garden – meaning that alfresco dining and playing in the garden couldn’t be easier.

When autumn turns into winter and your close your patio doors for the final time in the year, you can slide full-height shutters over too – making sure the winter temperatures are trapped outside and giving you space to host a family Christmas dinner in the dining room again.