The third bedroom that nobody needs. The dining table that seats ten but regularly hosts two. The living room arranged around the possibility of children who will never arrive. For decades, the architecture of aspiration has been organised around the family home — and for a growing number of buyers, it has never quite fitted.
A new cohort of architects and interior designers is beginning to take seriously what it means to design a home entirely around two adults — their habits, their aesthetics, their way of moving through a space. The results are striking.
The Wine Cellar That Should Be a Library
When Sophie and Marcus — a lawyer and a surgeon, both 38, both deliberately child-free — commissioned a renovation of their Notting Hill townhouse, the first thing they asked for was the removal of every space that had been designed with children in mind. The playroom became a dedicated wine cellar with a tasting bar for six. The third bedroom became a library with a sliding ladder and a window seat. The garden — previously laid to lawn for hypothetical children to run around — was replaced with a formal parterre and an outdoor kitchen.
“We wanted a house that was entirely ours,” Sophie says. “Not a house waiting for something to happen to it.”
The Kitchen as Performance Space
Among the child-free clients of London designer Oliver Laws, the kitchen has become the room where the greatest investment is concentrated. “When you’re not planning meals around children’s tastes or timetables, cooking becomes something different — more like a creative practice,” he says. “My clients want professional equipment. They want the La Cornue range and the Miele integrated everything and the custom extractor that doesn’t compromise the ceiling height. They cook seriously, they entertain seriously, and they want the room to reflect that.”
We wanted a house that was entirely ours. Not a house waiting for something to happen to it.
The Bedroom as Hotel
The master bedroom in a home without children is the quietest room in the house rather than just another noisy one — and the designers we spoke with say this changes everything about how it is conceived. Larger format beds (super-king as standard, emperor for the more committed), dressing rooms for both partners rather than a single shared wardrobe, en-suite bathrooms with separate vanities and walk-in rain showers rather than a practical family bath.
Blackout curtains and acoustic insulation are almost universal among the child-free clients Oliver Laws has worked with. “When you can actually sleep in,” he says, “sleep becomes a priority.”
The Home Office That Means Business
Two high earners, both working — the demand for serious home office provision is higher among DINK couples than any other demographic. Not a spare room with a desk, but a purpose-built study with built-in storage, acoustic panels, professional lighting for video calls, and, increasingly, a separate internet connection so that one partner’s Zoom calls don’t affect the other’s.
Working with the Right Designer
The key is finding a designer who doesn’t assume that family accommodation is the natural end point of every residential brief. The practices that do this well tend to be smaller, more considered studios: Roselind Wilson Design, Nicola Harding & Co, and Studio Octopi in London; Commune in Los Angeles; Arent & Pyke in Sydney. All of them will design a home that fits the way you actually live, rather than the life you’re assumed to be planning.
