One of the most important rooms every home has is the living room. This is usually where all members of the family gather and spend time together. The living room is also the avenue where you entertain your visitors and guests. And after a long and tiring day at work, you are most likely to stay first in the living room when you arrive home to rest for a bit before entering the bedroom or shower. Thus, the central and common space you and your loved ones all share is the living room that is why it is one of the most essential parts of your home.
There are a lot of activities done in the living room, like watching movies or Netflix, reading books, it can also be a fitness room if you do not have a gym at home. Indeed, the living room has plenty of functions; however, how can you make your living room multifunctional if you are living in a condo?
Here are some tips on how condo living people like you can make your living room purposeful and multifunctional whether you live in a condo in Manila, condo in Baguio, condo in Makati, or any condo in the Philippines.
Understanding the Open Plan Layout
An open-plan layout or an open floor plan is a layout design that combines two or more communal rooms by removing the walls between them and forming a larger shared space. For example, the wall that separates the living room and the dining room is suspended to make a wider and more airy space in the house.
Generally speaking, condo units have an open plan layout due to their size. Understanding this layout would create a more functional living area space for your condo and it would make the condo design spacious and less cluttered.
You need to analyze your space well and know the right floor measurement. Plotting the areas and furniture of your condo floor, like your sofa, coffee table, workspace, etc. strategically will be of great convenience on your part. It will also test your creativity in terms of planning your condo design.
With an open-plan layout, your condo unit will achieve a better traffic flow. It will also improve sociability and communication among the members of the family as it is the main motivation of open-plan layouts. Especially if you have kids, you can easily monitor them while preparing food or cleaning the condo.
Investing in Multi-purpose Furniture
Of course, having an open plan layout alone would not make your living room fully multifunctional without furniture. Truthfully speaking, condo living is not for large families that need wide space. Because of the limitation, you do not actually need a lot of furniture and huge fixtures. Instead, invest yourself with multi-purpose furniture to maximize available space and minimize clutter.
Listed here are some multi-purpose furniture you can consider in order to make your living room multifunctional.
Sofa Beds
Ideally, for studio size condo units, only three pieces of big furniture are allowed. These three are bed, couch, and cabinet/wardrobe. With this, a great invention to ever exist especially in condo design is multi-purpose furniture such as sofa beds. Who would have thought that during nighttime, you can switch your couch into a full-sized bed? This is a clear depiction of using multi-purpose furniture in your place. Imagine the amount of space you have consumed if the couch and the bed have their own area, right?
For one- or two-bedroom condo units, on the other hand, sofa beds are exceptionally useful especially if you have guests or other family members coming over. This type of bed is very ideal for movie nights as well for a more comfy and relaxing movie experience.
Convertible and customizable tables
Tables are generally big in size and often occupy too much space. Of course, you must consider the measurements of the table and the area where you will put it in your condo. With convertible and customizable tables, you can efficiently save space.
There are a lot of variations of this furniture depending on the convenience of the owner. Some people have tables that can be converted to shelves. Imagine during the rest of the day it is a piece of furniture that adds design and aesthetic to your place, but during lunch or dinner time it is a table. Fantastic, isn't it? Conversely, other condo unit owners have small tables that can be adjusted and transformed into bigger tables for special occasions.
Bookshelves
If you are fond of reading books or you just simply collect books for aesthetic purposes, you might want to try elevating your living room design by using bookshelves. Bookshelves’ main use is for book storage; but if you place a bookshelf in between your open plan layout, it will create a visual barrier between your living room and dining and kitchen area. Not only do you have proper storage for your books, but you also have a multifunctional “wall” or divider that separates your main living area.
Ottoman
An ottoman is a versatile furniture piece that enhances your living space. This can be used as a coffee table with extra storage inside. It can hold pretty much everything and it can also be used to put your feet up while sitting. Having an ottoman in your condo will indeed make your life easier because of its various functionality and purpose.
L-shaped sofa or Sectional Sofa
An L-shaped sofa or sectional sofa is one of the most practical pieces of upholstered furniture for large or small living rooms. This type of couch is multifunctional because it can be split into a couple of single chair pieces and can be configured in plenty of different ways. Just like sofa beds, l-shaped or sectional sofas can also be a good alternative for beds. So if you want a dry nap or you have guests coming over, this furniture can be a perfect spot for a restful sleep. Additionally, its style will make your condo design look modern.
Usually, these multi-purpose pieces of furniture are custom-made because they need the exact measurements from your studio. That’s why a great studio apartment idea is to have functional and multi-purpose furniture.
One good thing about having multi-purpose furniture is it is actually very practical and economical because there is no need for you to purchase multiple furniture pieces if you can buy one that can do two or more functions.
Maximizing Storage
Condo units are relatively small because these are self-contained spaces. That’s why there is a need to carefully plan out every space available in your living room and make it functional. In order to let this happen is to maximize the space with storage.
Decluttering
A helpful hack not only in condominiums but also for family houses and apartments is decluttering. In order for you to have a breathable and spacious dwelling place, you must remove unnecessary things like your previous school work, broken appliances, and furniture, old clothes, etc. from your space. You can donate these, or sell them online. I know that for some people, letting go of the old things is hard as they hold memories, but if they do not spark joy anymore and they are just collecting dust, then it’s time to do something.
Floor Area Elevation
Elevating the floor in your living room at least twelve inches high can give you a lot of storage space. For example, in a studio condo unit, you can raise the bed area in your studio and use the empty space below for storage. Also, have your bed frame customized into a pull-out bed for additional space. Elevation can be seen as a division from your storage making it feel separated from the rest of the space.
Additional Storage Space
A multifunctional living room has a lot of additional storage space. You can maximize this by the furniture you buy. Make sure that all the furniture is multi-purpose and that they have extra storage space like coffee tables, ottoman, console tables, etc.
If you live in a loft-type condo unit, make sure to also optimize the space below the stairs. You can hire a contractor to create custom-made storage cabinets for you so that the space below the stairs is not put to waste.
Overall, maximizing the function of your living room is essential in doing your daily activities, especially now that the world is halted because of the pandemic. Whether you have a small or big space, you can still make the most out of it by making your space multifunctional. Of course, you must not forget to let your creativity lead during the whole process.
If you are thinking of investing in a condominium, check out the offerings of Vista Residences.
Vista Residences is the condominium arm of the country’s largest homebuilder, Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. that offers ready for occupancy and pre-selling condominium projects in Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, Ortigas, Baguio, Cebu, and CDO that are strategically located within major cities, in close proximity to premium universities, transit oriented locations and developed business districts.
If you are looking for a condo for sale in Metro Manila, it has ready-for-occupancy condominiums in Taft such as Vista Taft, Vista Heights, and Vista GL Taft. 878 Espana and Crown Tower University Belt are the RFO condominiums in Espana. There are also pre-selling condominiums around metro manila such as Vista Recto, Plumeria Heights, Tennyson Heights, Bradbury Heights, Sky Arts Manila, and Kizuna Heights.
For a condo in Quezon City, it has 309 Katipunan which is near Ateneo de Manila, UP Diliman, and Miriam College. In its business districts, you may find Wil Towers, Symphony Towers, and Pine Crest. Should you be interested in pre-selling condos in Quezon City, Vista also has projects in the area such as Hawthorne Heights and Vista Pointe.
All of these ready for occupancy condo units in Quezon City and Makati are all rent-to-own properties of Vista Residences to ease the worries of future home buyers. These projects are ideal for people who want to start their own family, with their partner, or even if they want to live independently.
In another business district at Taguig, you might also be enchanted by Vista’s pre-selling condo— The Courtyard, which is only 15 minutes away from the Bonifacio Global District which is home to the country’s largest businesses and premier institutions.
Another prime location of Vista Residences' ready-for-occupancy condo is in Pasig, one of the fastest-growing cities in Manila. If you are interested in a home situated near booming businesses, lifestyle hubs, hospitals, and popular tourist spots, you may be interested in Cerritos Residences— a ten-storey residential condominium woven into Camella Cerritos East subdivision in Pasig City.
If you’re planning to start a home down south, Vista also offers a preselling condo for sale in Cebu, the Suarez Residences which is a remarkable 29-storey L-shaped mixed-use luxury condominium with a shopping center, hotel, and residential hub all in one tower. With all of these, Suarez Residences is an ideal lucrative investment in the Queen City of the South.
Wherever you may prefer to jumpstart your future, Vista Residences has a variety of condos to offer in all of the country’s premier cities which are all ideal places to live whether you are consistently on the go or planning to settle down.
Living in Vista Residences enables you to enjoy convenience, where everything is pretty much within walking distance or a few minutes away from the property; comfort because the project features and amenities are designed to deliver comfort at all times, which makes condo living a worthy investment; security that is 24/7 and CCTV monitoring, which makes the residents safe and secure within the property.
In completing urban living, all you need to do aside from having opportunities is to find a ready for occupancy condo to live in or just invest in various pre-selling condos in the Philippines in securing the complete city experience. Vista Residences is here to help in finding the best place to build both a new home and new life.
For more information on Vista Residences, email [email protected], follow @VistaResidencesOfficial on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, or call the Marketing Office at 0999 886 4262 / 0917 582 5167.
