The Cozy Enclosed Loft
This 1923 Rustic Craftsman was an incredible treat to remodel. This home is stunning; from the exposed beams, and wide plank knotty pine floors, to the Art Deco stained glass, and river rock fireplace, you feel truly transported to another time. In these older homes, however, we often find there’s not always as much space for modern life as our clients would like. In this case, they needed another bedroom for their growing family. The original second story was built as a loft overlooking the main living and dining area, allowing filtered light to cascade through the cathedral style vaulted ceilings. This created the spacious feeling of being outdoors, but wasn't great for privacy or function when in the loft.
For us, seamlessly blending the historical integrity and new construction together in this gorgeous one of a kind property was paramount. We carefully removed the existing loft railings and reframed the new walls along the same lines, allowing minimal electrical and duct rerouting. Through this careful process, we prioritized recreating the design flow and structural eye lines originally intended in this home. All drywall was finished with a quarter inch float from the floor and curved corners. We shored up all wall connections, exposing the existing structural beams as often as we could, bringing all drywall finishings to roughly 1/4 inch recessed back from the beam's edge. We also kept the eight inches of floor that extended past the previous railing, continuing to honor and expose any original woodwork as often as possible. We sourced the bedroom door hardware from a local salvage to match the existing period hardware in the house. We felt it was important to incorporate a window feature allowing the filtered light to continue to move throughout the vaulted ceilings as it originally did in the loft layout. For this, we designed the wall above the living room to accommodate a half-moon window pane, again, blending our design with original architecture found in the home.
The interior of the room was completely enclosed to accommodate our client's wishes for privacy, and built out with a new walk-in closet complete with motion sensor lighting, nooks for shelving or storage. and four new recessed adjustable can lights. All paint was color matched to the original paint in the home, keeping the new paint to a minimum. The finished product produced what we feel is the highest compliment we can receive from our clients, “it looks like it was always this way”. This enclosed loft is now bedroom ready for all current and upcoming members of the family.
New Build
Framing and Drywall
