Is Multi-Functional Furniture the Way of the Future, or Just a Passing Trend?

Buying a large property with ample room can be difficult nowadays. Thanks to increased property prices and the difficulty of securing a mortgage, we’re more inclined to buy smaller homes especially if it’s your first one. Sadly, it limits what we can do with our home and we need to find unique ways to make the most of our property.

One of the growing trends that we see nowadays is smart furniture or multi-functional furniture. The best way to describe this would be to imagine a piece of furniture that could fill multiple roles. A good example of this is a sofa that can also turn into a guest bed. This allows you to invite guests over and give them a comfortable place to sleep if they stay the night. When it’s not in use, it can simply be converted to a sofa for people to sit at and watch television or socialise.

It’s a simple example of how multi-functional furniture can enhance the number of features your home has without sacrificing space. Some people go as far to turn entire rooms into multi-functional spaces, but it’s more expensive and requires some serious architectural planning. However, these types of furniture aren’t catching on as much as people would imagine, and in this article, we’re going to be examining the effects of multi-functional furniture and how it’s changing (or failing to change) the interior design landscape.

Multi-Functional Furniture Has Existed For a While

Space-saving has always been on the minds of interior designers. Take a look at these clever dining room tables, for instance. While they might not be the same as the extending tables of old, it still highlights a point: that this type of furniture has existed for a while. Like most trends, they come and go as they need to. In the case of furniture, less space for our properties means that we need to utilise it in better ways, hence the return of smart furniture.

Multi-Functional Furniture Can Be a Hassle

Let’s face it, taking 10-minutes or so to extend a table or flip a shelf into a desk can become a massive hassle. It isn’t exactly quick to do, takes a bit of effort and you’ll also need to move all of the stuff off the surfaces before you transform one piece of furniture into another. This can become tiresome especially if you need to use your multi-functional furniture often. If that’s the case, then you may as well buy separate pieces of furniture unless you’re in dire need of space.

Multi-Functional Furniture Can Be Expensive

Let’s not forget that the craftsmanship involved with creating flexible furniture can create additional costs. It’s incredibly difficult to create sturdy mechanisms in furniture that allow it to convert into other pieces, so make sure the cost isn’t a factor or else you’ll be buying something that is low-quality, flimsy and can easily break due to all the moving parts.

Is multi-functional furniture the way of the future? Not likely. With so many costs involved, it can sometimes cost more to furnish a small property with smart furniture than simply buying a bigger property. It does have its uses (especially when it’s something small such as turning a bed into a sofa or extending a table) but the more complicated uses are still a little impractical, both in terms of use and price.

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