Making room for more: The rise of flexible interiors

A living room is usually easy to recognise.

There is a sofa facing the television, a coffee table in the middle and perhaps a few chairs arranged for guests. The dining room has its table, the bedroom has its bed and somewhere, if there is enough space, sits a study.

But what happens when the living room needs to accommodate an overnight guest? Or when the dining table becomes a workstation for most of the afternoon?

The rooms remain the same, even as the lives inside them change.

Internationally, adaptable interiors are challenging this arrangement through movable walls, transformable furniture and rooms designed to accommodate several activities.

In Bangladesh, some of these ideas are still emerging. Others are already finding their way into furniture showrooms and everyday homes.

The idea is simple: rather than asking for more rooms, perhaps we can begin by making better use of the ones we have.

When the walls begin to move

Imagine a living room that can become two separate spaces when needed.

During the day, it remains open, with enough room for family members to move around comfortably. Later, a movable wall creates a temporary study or sleeping area. When the extra space is no longer required, the wall moves back.

Movable walls and rotating partitions are established ideas internationally, particularly in compact apartments where designers are experimenting with ways to make one space serve several purposes.

For Bangladeshi apartments, however, this is not yet a familiar feature of everyday homes.

Ishfar Quaderi, founder and director of Studio Oasis Ltd, sees considerable potential in the approach.

"I personally am a big fan of this," Quaderi said, highlighting the privacy and multifunctionality that movable partitions can offer, alongside considerations such as ventilation, maintenance and noise insulation.

A movable partition could separate a temporary study from the rest of a room or provide privacy for an overnight guest.

There are practical questions, of course. The mechanism needs enough space to operate, while ventilation and acoustic privacy depend on how the partition is constructed.

Still, the appeal lies in being able to change the way a room functions without committing to a permanent division.

Moreover, movable partitions can serve a purpose beyond separating spaces. A freestanding divider, an open grid or even a frame suspended from the ceiling can become a display for paintings, photographs and other art. Arranged thoughtfully, these structures turn a functional partition into a feature of the room.

And while moving walls may not yet be a familiar sight in most Bangladeshi homes, the idea of making partitions both functional and expressive offers a more accessible starting point.

When the sofa becomes a bed

Consider the sofa sitting in the living room.

Most days, it is where family members watch television, have conversations or settle down after work. But when relatives arrive for an overnight stay, that same piece of furniture could become somewhere to sleep.

A sofa bed makes this possible without requiring an additional bedroom.

Hatil offers several such designs, including its Mangosteen-345 sofa, which converts from a two-seater into a bed. Its Salamander-244 takes the idea further by combining seating, sleeping and built-in storage.

For Quaderi, the furniture should respond to how people actually use their homes.

"To me, a 'Home' should adapt to the people living in it, rather than asking people to adapt to a fixed layout," Quaderi said.

The same thinking can apply to a guest room. Instead of allowing a large bed to occupy most of the space throughout the year, a daybed or sofa bed can help the room function as a study when nobody is visiting.

The goal is not to make the room look like a bedroom and office competing for attention. It is to create one space capable of doing both comfortably.

Furniture with a second job

Not every multifunctional piece needs to undergo a dramatic transformation.

Sometimes, the difference is as small as an extra surface or a hidden compartment.

An extendable dining table can remain compact during ordinary meals and expand when more people come over. Nesting tables provide extra surfaces when necessary and can be tucked together afterwards. A storage ottoman can offer additional seating while keeping blankets or everyday essentials out of sight.

Quaderi identifies sofa beds, extendable dining tables, nesting tables, folding desks, storage ottomans and beds with built-in storage as useful examples for flexible homes.

Hatil's SmartFit range explores the same idea through furniture designed for more than one purpose, including its Juvenile-198 divan and Dennis-101 folding study table.

A folding desk can be particularly useful in homes without a separate study. Unlike a conventional desk that permanently occupies a corner, it provides a workspace when needed and takes up less room afterwards.

A bed with storage underneath works differently. It does not transform into another piece of furniture, but it allows the same floor area to accommodate both sleeping and storage.

Multifunctional furniture, then, is not always about making something move. Sometimes, it simply means allowing one piece to do the work of two.

One piece of furniture, different shapes

A sofa bed needs enough room to open. An extendable dining table needs space for additional chairs, while a folding desk still requires suitable lighting and somewhere comfortable to sit.

This is where the layout matters.

According to Quaderi, flexible rooms depend on creating distinct functions through zoning, furniture placement, lighting and storage.

A living room that doubles as a workspace, for example, might have a compact desk along one wall with dedicated lighting and storage for office supplies. During working hours, the corner becomes a small study. Once work is finished, it can return to being part of the living room.

Modular sectional sofas, for example, can be rearranged into different configurations, from L-shaped seating to divan-style layouts or separate seating units.

The room changes not because its walls have moved, but because the furniture no longer insists on staying in one position.

In urban apartments, where one room often has to serve several purposes, the appeal of flexible design is not difficult to understand.

A living room may need to accommodate guests, family time and occasional work. A bedroom might contain a study corner, while the dining table may also become a place for school assignments.

Quaderi believes multifunctional design is becoming increasingly relevant to Bangladeshi homeowners, particularly as working patterns, family needs and preferences for uncluttered interiors change.

But flexibility does not mean filling a small apartment with every convertible piece of furniture available.

Sometimes, simpler changes are enough.

A wall-mounted desk can leave more floor space than a large freestanding table. Tall shelves make better use of vertical space, while concealed storage helps prevent everyday objects from overwhelming a room.

The important thing is to consider what a room needs to do before deciding what belongs inside it.

A living room does not need to become a bedroom every night. A dining table does not need to serve as an office every morning. And not every home needs a wall that rotates.

But having the option can make everyday life a little easier.

The furniture may change position, a desk may fold away and a sofa may unfold into a bed. Yet the home itself still feels familiar.

It simply has a little more room for the different ways we choose to live in it.