7 Alternative Uses for Formal Living Room Spaces

ByGiezl Clyde Ilustre - Interior Designer Decorating

Formal living room with leather chairs, cream sofa and white fireplace with mantel

Formal living rooms are places for entertaining guests and family during visits and special holidays. Unfortunately, formal living rooms go unused for most of the year and sit collecting dust. Has it ever occurred to you that there may be alternative uses for formal living room spaces? By sticking to a single traditional purpose, this unused room could become a modernized environment that you and your family can enjoy much more often.

This article will guide you through tactful methods of converting a formal living space into a productive one that you and your family can enjoy day to day. A hobby room, an office space, a library, a children’s play area, a billiard room and a bar, an exercise room, and a craft room are a few of the options available.

Library Space

Home library conversion with floor to ceiling built in bookshelves, a rolling ladder and a tufted leather reading chair

A formal living room can be converted to a tiny library with all the books scattered around your home. You could create a little cozy nook along with a window seat or indoor bench with a few cushions to create the perfect, cozy reading den. With the addition of custom built bookshelves or prefabricated book cases you can convert your room in to a genuine library.

Hobby Room

Contemporary craft room with a long white scrapbooking desk, open shelving with storage bins and a blue tufted chair

Storing your favorite crafts or musical instruments in the formal living space is a perfect strategy considering the functionality of the living space. A craft room or a gallery could be set up on a minor scale to occupy your leisure time by bringing in desks, storage drawers, shelves, and bookcases to keep a clean environment. For those who enjoy sewing, scrapbooking, or other hobby, a craft room could be a great spot to let you enjoy your favorite pastime. See more craft room ideas here.

White craft desk with deep drawers and lower cabinets against a sage green wall

Multi-function craft desk with drawers and cabinets. You can use this space as a craft room for your hobbies or a place to do activities with your kids.

Office Space & Meeting Space

Formal living room turned home office with a walnut desk, built in book shelving and tall windows

For those who choose to stay at home and work, merging the formal living room with an office space or customize it as your workstation with the addition of a professional meeting space. The living room sofas could stay and would come in great help for meeting guests. Meanwhile, the addition of an office desk and cabinets could make the space more useful on a day-to-day basis.

Children’s Play Room

Multi use play room with white cubby storage, a small wood play table and a soft neutral rug

If you are a single parent or obliged to take care of your young children, a living room is the best place that can be converted into a play area for your child. If you are not comfortable with the very idea of ruining the spot where guests get their first impression of your house, a tiny spot dedicated to the child within the space is another suggestion. Bringing in an attractive storage cabinet or chest where toys can be stored away is a must to maintain the room’s appearance.

Home Bar

Home bar with dark wood cabinets, backlit bottle shelves, leather stools and green velvet bench seating

If the formal living space is used heavily for entertaining adults, converting the space to a home bar is a perfect choice since entertaining guests often takes place in the living room. You can go the distance and install plumbing to create a full wet bar experience, or just purchase a portable home bar that you can position exactly where you want in the room. 

Portable brass bar cart with a lower wine rack beside a cream sofa in a bright living room

A portable home bar with wine storage can be rolled where ever you need it and stowed away when not in use.

Adult Game Room

Adult game room with card table

Converting your formal living space into an adult game room can be done by purchasing some elegant pieces, such as a decorative wooden card table or billiard table. Other game room ideas include installing a dartboard cabinet or shuffleboard table that would perfectly occupy the sidebar of the living space.

Piano Room

Formal living room music space with a black grand piano, leather wingback chair and a patterned area rug

A formal living room can easily be converted to a music room by adding a grand piano. Playing the piano is a vocation the entire family will enjoy. Recent studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that concert pianists have a larger cerebral cortex. Playing the piano may increase both children’s and adults’ memory and positively impact their reasoning and math abilities. Get more grand piano in living room ideas here.

In today’s world of modern living spaces, the idea is to have multi-tasking environments in order to best manage the space at hand. There are many other alternative uses for formal living room designs. Customizing the formal living space in a manner that rejuvenates the aura of the entire household is a personalized decision that could benefit the entire family and help you get more use out of an underutilized space.

To showcase highly specific designs, some images on this website use advanced AI-generation software to illustrate ideas and room inspiration. See our editorial policy to learn more.

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