Tiny homes can be just as practical and enjoyable as traditional homes. Still, they’re limited in space and there won’t be as many rooms. However, one room every tiny home should have is a recreational family room.
Creating a functional, recreational family room in your tiny house demands a strategy. The four tips below will help you develop that. But first, why is a recreational family space important to have in a tiny home?
Designing a Recreational Space in Your Tiny Home Is Vital
One of the best benefits of a recreational family room is it creates space for intentional family bonding.
Tiny home or not, you still need to grow relationships with your spouse and children and support them in doing so with each other. It creates an atmosphere of love, positivity, and communication. You can create lasting memories during family time, too.
Designing a space specifically for activities, downtime, and family gatherings is critical for everyone’s holistic health. For example, you can exercise as a family in your recreational room. You can participate in activities that stimulate the mind, like reading. In addition, recreational family rooms are great places to hold conversations in that provide emotional, spiritual, and mental health support.
If you’re ready to build a recreational family room in your tiny house and experience the benefits above, keep reading.
Four Tips for Building a Functional Recreational Family Room in Your Tiny Home
Building a recreational family room in your tiny house isn’t difficult. But it does require intention and strategy. These four tips will help you create a functional recreational room your family can enjoy, despite being in a small space.
Understand What Your Family Likes To Do
Every family views recreation differently. In addition, what kids find entertaining will differ from what parents consider fun.
Find a way to honor your family’s unique recreation vision. You must also try to accommodate everyone to some degree. Taking some time to understand what everyone likes to do and which activities are a must for them will help. Ask your kids to give you the top three recreational activities they want to be able to do in your tiny home. Ask your partner to do the same. Be sure to write yours down too.
The goal is to make sure everyone can do their top activity, with the remaining two only happening if space permits.
Know What Activities Are Realistic in a Tiny House
Aside from understanding what your family likes to do, you must also know what activities are realistic in a recreational family room in a tiny house.
For example, let’s say your family likes to bowl. Building a bowling alley in a traditional home is realistic if you have the money, resources, and help to do so. However, building one in a tiny home probably won’t happen.
Get an idea of what recreational activities can be hosted in your family room and make a note of them.
Gaming is one of the most common recreational activities suitable for a tiny home. Teenagers aged 13 to 18 spend the most time playing computer and console games at 69 minutes a day. Tweens aged 8 to 12 and young children aged 5 to 8 follow.
If you have kids in these age ranges, providing them with a place for healthy gaming is a must. You can easily store gaming consoles, computers, and accessories. And televisions can fit into tiny homes. So, a place for gaming in your family room is suitable.
These are also realistic activities for a tiny home:
- Reading;
- Working out;
- Arts and crafts;
- Listening to music;
- Board games and puzzles;
- Watching movies and TV shows;
- Using computers, laptops, and tablets.
Find a balance between what activities are realistic in a tiny home and what things your family likes to do to create the most functional design for your household.
Decide How You’ll Power Your Recreational Room
Deciding how you’ll power your recreational family room is so important to its functionality and how enjoyable it is for your family. If you don’t have the power sources you need to do activities in your family room, you won’t use it as you should.
So, be sure to choose energy sources that support an energy-demanding recreational room. If they’re sustainable even better.
For example, solar technology is shaping the future as an alternative energy source. Solar panels rely on the energy from the sun to generate electricity. You can leverage a completely renewable source of energy to power a technology-heavy recreational family room. The advancements in materials, cost-effectiveness, and installation make solar panels a great power source for tiny homes.
Consider regular electricity hookups, wind turbines, and generators as power sources as well. Do thorough internet research to see which is the best option for your room, family, and budget. Ask advice from other tiny homeowners too.
Create a Detailed Layout
As much as you want your family room to be functional, you should also want your tiny-home family to be comfortable in it. You want them to enjoy it. The only way to make sure all three happen is to create a detailed layout for your recreational family room.
Mapping out every detail ensures your maximizing the space while also accommodating the needs and desires of your family.
Visualize what will be where. Picture how you’ll enjoy the room as a family and how it will look when each person is doing their own thing. Detail where you’ll store recreational activity materials and accessories. Also, envision how the room fits into the function of your entire tiny home.
Get detailed. Draw everything out and finalize your layout before you start building anything.
Conclusion
A recreational family room in your tiny home provides tremendous benefits for your family. You can reap these benefits by following the above guidance for building a functional recreational space in your tiny home.
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