When Lindsey and Clint Herod bought their home in 2020, Lindsey, an interior designer, reimagined how the home could be used. The couple expanded the kitchen, turned the living room into the dining room, and transformed what was meant to be a dining room into what is now their favorite room in the home: a lounge.

The home lounge is the hot new room that remodelers and interior designers are installing in both new home construction and remodeling or redecorating projects. Despite its name, it doesn’t just have to be for parties. Use it to watch the news with your morning coffee, as a quiet place to meditate or, yes, as a place to wind down with a glass of wine or a cocktail.

The lounge’s popularity skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many opted to stay home and entertain in small, safe groups. We may have tossed our yeasty sourdough starter and ditched our herb gardens, but making our own cocktails didn’t fade away. It also adds function to your home by turning little-used space into a room everyone wants to be in.

“Decades ago it was common; everyone had a bar,” says Herod, founder of Lindsey Herod Design. “This absolutely became popular during COVID. There was a big surge in staying home and making cocktails at home and not going out to bars. People weren’t using their formal living rooms or dining rooms, so it makes a lot of sense to turn a smaller space into a lounge.”

In her own home, the kitchen used to be the place everyone gathered. Now, though, it’s her new lounge.

For one client, designer Kelly Gale Amen turned an extra bedroom into a wine room and lounge, bringing in books, barware, and objets d’art to display, then adding fretwork that mimics the leaded glass of the bookcases to French doors on the climate-controlled wine closet. Brown paint on the walls and ceiling gave the room a moody vibe and created a unique backdrop for pieces from the client’s art collection.

Another of Amen’s clients wanted to shift the dining table into their large breakfast room since the dining room itself was rarely used. Now, the space is a lounge that’s used daily, for morning coffee, evening cocktails, and the occasional girlfriends’ champagne toast.

The once-plain room is now brimming with color and texture: an olive green ceiling matches the velvet draperies, dark-green piping painted onto millwork, a pair of green boucle swivel chairs and a second pair of swivels in butterscotch leather. An antique washstand serves as a liquor cabinet and a china cabinet holds the homeowner’s extensive collection of barware.

Yet another client had a tiny breakfast area in a high-rise condo, and didn’t want to bother with a table there. Amen installed a marble ledge in front of a window and a pair of wheeled chairs allows the clients to use it for anything they want, even if it’s just enjoying the great view with a beverage.

“We’re adapting to a whole new way of living, period,” Amen says. “We can’t have any room that serves just one purpose. You had a dining room that was dead space and now you have a cozy parlor.”

Hallie Henley Sims of Hallie Henley Design said her clients ask for similar rooms, though they’re not all alcohol-dependent.

“It’s more about gathering with friends and family, and slowing down and enjoying each other’s company,” Sims says. “I’ve always said that when we design homes and it can multifunction for family life with children and up to adults, then we’re firing on all cylinders.”

One of her favorites, installed in a new construction home in 2021, is painted blue and has a climate-controlled wine storage closet. A big wine collector wanted a wine room, but since he and his family moved in, the room has been used for school fundraising activities and game nights.

The designers agree that going with deep rich colors and a moody tone is their first choice for a home lounge. They need comfortable furniture with luxurious texture, preferably performance fabric so no one has to worry about spills.

For drinks and storage, you can install cabinets and add plumbing for water and an icemaker. For a simpler, more budget-friendly route, use shelves or a china cabinet to store wine glasses and barware, and a bar cart to hold an ice bucket and bottles of liquor.

Furnishings and color palettes can take their cues from nearby rooms, but Sims likes to apply special treatment. If you’re installing counters, go with darker shades of stone to avoid red wine stains and consider dramatic backsplash tile or wallpaper for a little extra luxury.

“They’re a lot like a powder bath. If it’s a smaller, contained space, you can create a jewel box,” she says. “We use performance velvet on seating. If you’re going to have people in here drinking, make sure the textiles are bulletproof.”