modern home: room evolution + string system

Stephanie Ebeyer
Oct 27, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Nov 2, 2021

As an interior designer, it's ingrained in me that residential and commercial spaces should look finished prior to moving in, however, I can now appreciate taking time to complete certain spaces through my own personal experience. We have a small spare room in our house that over the years I've struggled with how to furnish. I knew it had to serve as a guest bedroom but wanted the furnishings to be versatile so that the space could be used in many different ways.

Soon after we moved in, I purchased a compact pull-out sofa that converts to a double bed to accomodate guests. For many years the sofa was the only furnishing in the room and then I added gallery shelving to start bringing the room to life. The big push came when we had a photo shoot scheduled and I was given 48 hours' notice to prepare the house. Wedding gifts came out of boxes and were displayed, photos were hung and framed, and 2 beautiful chairs I struggled with where to place looked perfect across from the sofa. I also brought end tables I had in storage. The room looked complete but we never used the space except when hosting overnight house guests. Many of the photos, accessories, pillows, and even the area rug were from my wedding, which inadvertently became the design inspiration.

Fast forward to 2019 and the room was still not being fully utilized, and we also needed additional storage space so I was becoming increasingly more impatient with how to furnish. I decided to install a media storage system similar to one in our living room and had a horrific installation experience. I now had to have a damaged wall repaired and start the product research and procurement process all over again. By now I also had other priorities, so had to taek a break furnishing this room.

Ever since my honeymoon when I first visited Stockholm, Sweden, I fell in love with String System, a small-scale modular wall unit system. Having always lived in NYC where the cost of real estate is at a premium, I'm constantly intrigued by versatile furnishing systems, that work well in smaller spaces and had hoped to someday install String in either a personal or professional space I would design. Design Within Reach now distributes a curated set of select components from String and was instrumental in helping me procure a special unit for my spare room. In 2020 I also had to address "Work From Home", so now needed a product that could also serve as a home office in addition to all other functions, which was a tall order.

To begin the process, I moved the 2 black chairs out of the room to create a blank canvas and developed my design on String's website using their configurator to generate a list of components and complete the sale. This unit now functions as a media unit, storage unit, and home office, and is utilized every day. It has truly brought the room to life and fulfills on all functions we envisioned for the space including home office, den and guest bedroom.

The light-scale and depth of the system are perfect, and the dimensions are well suited for our architectural constraints including placement of power and data outlets as well as base molding. The vertical elements with open lattice make wire management very easy and accessible. The versatility of the drop-down desk is instrumental in how we use and transform the space. We recently had our first overnight guest since installing the unit, and we utilized the pull-out sofa after lowering the desk, which would have worked beautifully, even if the desk was left extended.

It took many years to install a furniture solution best suited for our space, and in the end, it was totally worth the wait! Time defined additional functions, and we were finally able to install the perfect product from String now with distribution available in the USA through Design Within Reach. As you consider furniture layouts for your home and commercial spaces, there may be merit in leaving some areas more flexible for growth over time to address new functions and options available in the market.

For more information please visit String and Design Within Reach. Please note that certain components featured in my unit are not standard options distributed by Design Within Reach in the USA.