‘A place I could be me’: Meet the Aussies with dedicated hobby rooms

Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living area, and a lock-up garage: this describes many Australian houses, but for Melbourne man Goro Gupta, there’s one important space missing.

It’s a Transformers room, a dedicated space to house his Transformers collection.

“I’ve been collecting Transformers since 2005, while I was at uni,” he said.

“What started as just loving the cartoons has turned into a serious collection. I’ve got close to a thousand pieces now, although to be honest, I stopped counting properly after a few hundred.”

While Gupta once housed his collection on a shelf in his bedroom, when he got married and bought a home with his partner, a ‘must have’ on their list was a hobby room, a separate space where he could display his $40,000 Transformers collection.

He’s not alone. Despite the high cost of housing, many Australians are setting aside space at home as dedicated hobby rooms for pursuits from collectables to craft or music.

Gupta, CEO and founder of Ethical Property Investments, converted the garage into a dedicated hobby space, installing custom shelving and lighting, and setting up different zones for various Transformer collections. It includes a workspace for repairs.

“I also have a chill area where I can have a drink and watch something on TV while tinkering with the bots,” he added.

Gupta estimates the cost of setting up the hobby room at around $5000, a price that he said is worth it.

“I’ve always believed – if something matters to you, you give it proper space,” he said.

“The spaces you create shape how you feel. This was my ‘safe space’, a place I could be me and free.”

Although there are no statistics on how many Australian properties have dedicated rooms or spaces for hobbies, Nerida Conisbee, chief economist at Ray White, said that using a spare bedroom for a hobby such as sewing is achievable for most homeowners, given the average house size in Australia.

“Look at a city like Melbourne,” she said. “The majority of homes that are being built are houses, not apartments, at the moment. And they’re big houses, so they do typically have four bedrooms, and they’ve got at least three.”

Conisbee said that this, coupled with a declining number of people per household – down to about 2.5 in recent years from about 2.9 in the mid-1980s - according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, means many homes have one, if not more, spare bedrooms.

Additionally, ABS data shows that in 2019-2020, more than three-quarters – 77 per cent – of Australian households had at least one spare bedroom.

Managing director and senior buyer’s agent from Elite Buyer Agents, David Easterbrook, said he has seen a wide range of spare bedrooms – along with other spaces in the home – turned into hobby rooms throughout his 16 years in the profession.

Some are simple: “People will buy a property which allows a bedroom or area such as a garage, sunroom, living– area or outdoor studio for simple hobbies such as painting, sewing, music, or gym.”

Others have “more exotic requirements for people’s hobbies.”

“These range from golf simulator rooms where the height of the ceiling must be considered, and noise concerns catered for,” he said.

“There are also car and motorbike collections with workshops in basements/rooms/garages, some designed with security in mind and include car lifts, which can be disabled, making theft near impossible, concealed doors, and soundproof walls.”

Easterbrook said that the “exotic” is more common among those with “flexible budgets” and who prioritise their passions.

“Their heart decisions dictate their choices and remain a key factor in the property they live in,” he said. “They are not interests, they are loves and define those people.”

For St Ives woman, Lisa Saville, both her ‘heart’, that is, her passion for art, and her head, her profession as an architect, shaped the development of her in-house creative studio.

“My studio occupies a quiet room on the lower level of the house,” she said.

“It was initially a leftover concrete bunker of a space. Unlike the rest of the home, which is filled with light and framed views of trees and sky, this room is enclosed and inward-facing.”

For Saville and the rest of her creative family, the studio is a necessary space for drawing, painting, and crafts, while an adjacent music room provides a dedicated space for her children to play music.

“Creative work needs space – both physically and mentally,” she said.

“I’ve learned that if creative tools and materials are always packed away, it becomes much harder to begin.”

While Saville and her family now use the space regularly, she said the studio’s construction wasn’t intentional.

“Rather than a formal renovation, it evolved gradually – organising materials, introducing a large work surface, and creating a space that could comfortably support drawing, making and experimentation,” she said.

“The biggest transformation for the studio was simply painting the concrete block walls and floor a clean white and inserting the giant worktable.”

Overall, Saville said the cost of creating the space was “very little,” with only shelving, a door, and a coat of paint needed.

“The emphasis was on creating a functional space rather than a polished one,” she said.

Saville’s property is for sale, but she said that, as she and her family search for a new home, having a dedicated space for creativity and experimentation, or at least a room she can turn into one, is on her must-have list.

“I know that as a matter of priority, I will be looking to create similar spaces for expression,” she said.

“They provide an outlet for expression, curiosity and emotional processing – something that benefits not just individuals but the atmosphere of the whole household.“