Remodeling the Empty Nest

A Place to Play
Another trend is having a space to set up the card table. “It’s the new cool thing,” says Rozell. More and more baby boomers are playing games like mah-jongg, bunco, Uno, and poker. Without the kids at home, they have more time to host card parties and want a room to play. All you have to do is clear out the bedroom furniture and put in a round table and club chairs, shelving or cabinets, and wooden floors, these experts suggest.

One of Abele’s clients, who had gone back to school to take art classes after her kids moved out, wanted an art room in the spare room. And she wanted it ready to go, says Abele, “We took out the closet doors and put in a small kiln,” she says. “We brought in a potter’s wheel on a bench so she could throw pots. We left easels out on stands. She had her paints out, ceramics out, canvas on the floor, artwork on the walls. It was her place to play.”

Home Work
Other families with less space might keep the spare bedroom but add a work area with a desk in the corner, says Rozell. It gets the computer out of the family room and provides a more private place to go online. If you’re going to do this, she adds, “Pottery Barn makes great bookshelves that don’t take up too much space.”

For those who need more than just a desk area, the newly empty bedroom is also the perfect place to put a home office. For a more professional look, hire someone to design and install custom millwork. That’s what Sisler Johnston did for her husband, who was helping care for their elderly parents. Their son’s bedroom was converted into an office decorated with matching mahogany desk, bookcases, and cabinetry for storing paperwork and supplies.

Store It
Empty nesters alone with extra space? “In theory, that may be true,” says Pat Simpson, an Alabama-based contractor and the host of Fix It Up, a remodeling show on HGTV. “But no matter how many cabinets or closets you have,” he says, “there’s always a shortage of space—especially in the Southwest, where for the most part homes don’t have basements or attics.”

You can make good use of a small bedroom by transforming it into a cedar closet. “It’s a safe storage space we can all use,” Simpson says. Just line the walls of the closet with cedar plank or panel liners, which you can buy at Lowe’s or Home Depot for less than $200, and it’s an easy nail-in weekend project.

“You can position the planks horizontally, vertically, or even diagonally to create a great look,” says Simpson. The benefits go beyond being visually appealing. Cedar planks made of 100 percent eastern red cedar smell wonderful, are safer than mothballs, and have a natural resistance to moths, roaches, and silverfish.

Buy extra cedar planks to trim the rest of the walls in the room. Then the entire space becomes a great place to store seasonal outdoor equipment and clothing that might otherwise take up space in the garage.

Wrap It Up
If you have all the storage space and bedroom you need, Abele suggests a hobby room. For one client she created a gift-wrapping room. “It’s great for families with grandchildren,” she says. She has used organizing systems, including peg boards and pullout drawers, to create a fun place to hang ribbon rolls and store gift wrap bags and ready-made bows. And she discovered that drawer organizers that you’d use for jewelry or makeup make a handy place to store gift tags.”You can get creative or carried away,” she says.

Whatever you do with that extra space, says Robert Weinstein from the Weinstein Design Group in Boca Raton, FL, make sure it blends well with the rest of the house.