The teal seat is the invitation. Framed by oak cupboards and a large painting, it makes a little destination in a room you might otherwise walk straight through.

In this north London townhouse by Studio Squire, the middle room connects the sitting room and kitchen. It has a bar, but the more interesting idea is that someone has decided what should happen here. This stretch of the house gets a purpose, rather than the furniture left over from somewhere else.

Homes & Gardens’ September report describes a substantial project that reunited three apartments as a family home. The middle room also had to accommodate the less glamorous business of family life: coats, shoes, bags and a pushchair. It is a generous house, but the question it answers is familiar in much smaller ones.

The banquette sits within the joinery, beneath the artwork, with a small table in front. In Christopher Horwood’s photographs, that arrangement reads as a complete little room within the room. The seat is not drifting into the route between the doors.

Oak, reeded detailing and richly veined marble make the bar feel considered. The teal upholstery adds a softer note. There is enough contrast to make the corner inviting without turning every surface into a feature.

You do not need a drinks bar to use the same organising idea. A shallow desk might suit a household that needs somewhere to deal with paperwork. A bench could be the place to put on shoes. A small table might be useful for a puzzle that need not be cleared for supper.

Pick a job that genuinely belongs to the way you live. “Some extra seating” is a less helpful brief than “somewhere to sit while the children finish their shoes”.

Start with the two places people are travelling between. Put their route on a simple plan, then add the proposed furniture. Include what happens when a chair is pulled out or a cupboard door is open.

For a quick rehearsal, move an existing chair or table into position and live with it for a few days. Notice whether someone sitting there feels included in the house or permanently in the way. This is a better time to discover the problem than after ordering a fitted seat.

A built-in bench can look wonderfully tidy, but it fixes where people sit. A loose chair is easier to move as family routines change. Neither is automatically the right use of a small room.

Before discussing door styles, list what will come through this space on a normal weekday. School bags, the dog lead and the parcel awaiting a return label are more useful design information than an empty-room photograph.

Measure the actual objects you want to store. A cupboard planned around a particular pushchair or vacuum needs its working clearances, not just the dimensions of the closed object. Leave yourself a practical place to put things down while opening a door.

We would favour a modest amount of storage that is easy to reach over a handsome wall of cupboards everyone finds awkward to use. A room can be orderly without concealing every sign that somebody lives there.

The transferable lesson is a defined stopping place beside a clear route. You could explore that with furniture you already own, a lamp and one good picture before commissioning anything permanent.

There is no published budget for this project, so the marble and bespoke cabinetry are not a cost template. If you do commission joinery, decide which part earns the expense: fitting an awkward recess, housing difficult objects or making a seat comfortable enough to use.

The room between two busier rooms does not need to compete with them. It just needs to offer something better than a place to leave a bag on the floor.