These Families Are Stuck at Home During Covid, but Have Plenty of Places to Go

When Ms. Chua, 46, hired interior designer Alice Benjamin to help design her office last spring, she realized that there were other spaces in the home that also needed attention. “Our living and dining room had become the kids’ space over the years,” says Ms. Chua. “It can be pretty stressful to have the biggest and best space in your home filled with kids’ stuff especially during a pandemic.” Ms. Benjamin created a plan in which the tucked-away family room was transformed into a study and hang-out zone for the girls while the dining and living room got a dramatic refresh. The overall project cost roughly $250,000.

Ms. Benjamin took cues from commercial workspaces for the design of the girls’ area where she incorporated rectangular booths fitted with cushions. “The kids each have one where they can stretch out or sit up and do their schoolwork at writing desks positioned in front,” says Ms. Benjamin. Sconces illuminate the cocoon-like booths and charging stations ensure there is always a spot to plug in. Colorful cubbies nailed to the wall provide storage and the walls are covered in cloud wallpaper.

In the living room, a movie screen and projector were installed along with a custom sectional. “We weren’t a big TV-watching family before Covid,” says Ms. Chua. “But now that we have such a nice screen, we watch a lot of shows and movies all together.” Additionally, Ms. Chua’s Peloton software hooks up to the projector and while in quarantine during the colder months, the family has been doing yoga. “When the kids are home for remote school and I need to be their P.E. teacher, we do dance cardio,” she says.

Ms. Chua says her office, equipped with a desk at which she can either sit or stand, is now her dream space. It has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a sliding ladder. To expand the workspace, Ms. Benjamin transformed the adjacent room into a room where Ms. Chua participates in podcasts and video conferences. Dry-erase paint turned the walls into a blank canvas that she uses to map out ideas; the girls also enjoy writing on the walls and doing school projects at the adjustable table in the room where they can spin on swivel stools.

After spending a couple of months on lockdown at his home in Newton, Mass., Stephen Sullivan felt it was time to turn the finished basement into a room the whole family would enjoy and appreciate more. “It was a nice big open space with a tile floor, but it didn’t feel homey,” says Mr. Sullivan, who shares the house with his partner, Michelle DeSimone, and her 19-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, and 22-year-old son, Michael.

Mismatched couches from Mr. Sullivan and Ms. DeSimone’s previous homes provided the room’s seating and an exercise bike and treadmill gave the space a disjointed feel. While Ms. DeSimone’s children already spent time in the basement, “once Covid hit, we realized the area could be so much more; a place where we could all hang out together,” says Mr. Sullivan, who enlisted interior designer Elizabeth Georgantas to transform the expansive main room into a home theater.

“It’s a great opportunity to make a forgotten space into something useful and beautiful,” says Ms. Georgantas. To add depth to the stark white box-like room, millwork painted gray-blue was added to the walls and wall-to-wall carpeting was installed to soften the space. A new wet bar has an icemaker, refrigerator, sink, and microwave. A counter—with seating for four—is topped with a blend of marble, granite, and natural quartz that echoes the room’s hues.

Mr. Sullivan worked with MGI Systems to select a 120-inch screen with a projector and sound system for the room and Ms. Georgantas replaced the furniture with tiered, stain-resistant seating that can accommodate at least 14 people–“Much more if you’re willing to squeeze close,” she says.

The room’s focal point is an 81-inch-by-81-inch original poster from the 1965 James Bond film “Thunderball” starring Sean Connery. The piece also functions as a sliding door to the adjacent gym. Previously, the double-wide opening to the gym was awkward. “If someone was working out while someone else was watching a movie, it would be distracting and uncomfortable,” says Mr. Sullivan. Ms. Georgantas found the poster on 1stDibs from a gallery in London. “We then had to send it to a backer to cover in plexiglass. But all of the plexiglass at the time was being used for PPE. So we had to wait months to get it,” says Ms. Georgantas.

When the poster finally arrived at Mr. Sullivan’s home in October, an on-site craftsman made it into a sliding door. “The kids love it down here and now we want to use it as much as possible, too. It’s a very versatile space. We watch football games and movies, and the kids use the karaoke machine that hooks up to the screen.”

The theater, which cost about $235,000 to create, is also a quiet spot to seek refuge. The seating is equipped with docking stations in the armrests. “Sometimes, I’ll sneak down here and plug my laptop into a chair, stretch out and work,” says Mr. Sullivan, a principal with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP who hasn’t been to his office since March.

In August, Eric Clough took advantage of the pandemic’s impact on the rental market when he moved with his wife, Kate Fenner, and their 14-year-old son, Lucien, from their home in New York City’s West Village to SoHo. “We were fortunate to get an apartment with one-third more space, for one-third less than what we were paying previously,” says Mr. Clough, an architectural designer and founder of 212box, a multi-disciplinary firm that has designed 161 Christian Louboutin boutiques world-wide as well as other commercial and residential spaces.

When it came to allocating space in the new loft, Mr. Clough’s top priority was carving out a room that suited all of Lucien’s needs. Lucien, a freshman in high school, alternates between in-person schooling and remote learning on a rotating cycle. “We knew he’d be spending a lot of time in here due to Covid so we wanted his room to give him ample space for studying and schoolwork, a place to hang out, and a sleeping space,” says Mr. Clough. He used modular elements and wedges to keep furniture nestled close to walls—it all has a built-in-look, but nothing is actually screwed in. “The room’s millwork was built by an outfit out of state and trucked in. A local installer pieced it together like a kit of Legos using our drawings as an assembly set.”

Storage was also key. “Lucien is a fanatic about organizing his Legos. In the old house, he didn’t have a good way to store them, so everything was everywhere,” says Mr. Clough. He designed a system of 45 drawers to categorize the colorful pieces. A ladder rising from a bookcase inspired by an Instagram photo Lucien sent his father connects to the lofted sleeping space. “Since the room has 12-foot ceilings, we were able to accommodate two levels,” says Mr. Clough.

During the shutdown last spring, Mr. Clough spent time cleaning out his offices and sorting through materials left over from some of his firm’s projects. He incorporated several of these castoffs in Lucien’s room, including a batch of reclaimed tin which was installed on the wall behind the bed and a rug emblazoned with a tiger that never made it into a men’s store on which his firm was working. Bookshelves are 18-inches deep, which is a bit deeper than a standard 13-inch library shelf. “We wanted Lucien to have a lot of display area to incorporate keepsakes he’s collected,” says Mr. Clough.

A fluted glass door opens into Lucien’s room, which cost roughly $85,000 to build out. Strategic lighting ensures that the room is a bright, ambient space day or night. “Lucien is much more organized here. He’s really good about going to his room to work on long projects,” says Mr. Clough. “When he has remote school he is in there six to seven hours a day and he’s back again in the evenings for two to three hours. His friends hang out with him in the lounge area by his desk.”

Lucien is so happy with his room that he thanks his father often for creating it, says Mr. Clough, “I get to be ‘the best dad,’ which is pretty great to hear.”