Today’s luxury homes are finding space for single-purpose rooms common in 19th and early 20th-century residences that were edged aside by the open-concept revolution. Working from home and multigenerational living have driven the need for privacy and separation of tasks.
These rooms are again providing elegant solutions to the age-old conundrum of balancing family togetherness with the need to relax and recharge.
Libraries
When a reading nook carved out of a living room doesn’t provide enough room for your books and seclusion from screens and other distractions, it’s time to establish your home library. Built-in shelves, plush yet supportive seating, fine-tuned lighting and minimized technology are some of the fundamentals for a reading-centric space you’ll want to use again and again.
Sculleries
In pre-electric times, these were side rooms where servants did the grunt work of cooking, boiling water for various uses and washing laundry away from the family and their guests. Now they’re more focused on food preparation and partially or totally closed off from a more visible kitchen area to conceal the dirtier and smellier aspects. They often include dishwashers, sinks, ovens and extra counter space.
Dining rooms
Formal dining rooms were about to be written off as antiquated when homeowners began to ask for them back.
A dedicated space for eating elevates both family meals and social gatherings to occasions that warrant your full attention and engagement, oriented toward the people you’re with instead of the TV, kitchen appliances and other irritations that can emerge from a great room that tries to be everything to everybody.
Dressing rooms
Dressing rooms are essentially your favorite walk-in closet on steroids and a coveted space in high-end homes. They store your clothes in the most elegant and easily accessible manner and can incorporate safes for valuable accessories.
Vanities, mirrors and calibrated lighting make getting ready a dream, and you can add a coffee stand to wake up, a dry bar to unwind, and, if you aren’t trying to escape them, screens for your edification and entertainment.
