Making 2 Small Bedrooms into 1 Larger Bedroom

Here is a fun post that shows the same "solution" implemented at two different projects of mine.

Did you ever hear it stated that people used to be smaller? Well, furniture certainly used to be smaller. And people had way less stuff. Houses have grown much larger compared to the average family home of decades years ago. From the Census Bureau:

Over the last 42 years, the average new US house has increased in size by more than 1,000 square feet, from an average size of 1,660 square feet in 1973 (earliest year available from the Census Bureau) to 2,687 square feet last year. (2015)

With our king or queen sized beds, dual dressers, matching nightstands, and perhaps a cozy chair or bench at the bed's foot board, many bedrooms in older homes are simply not large enough to fit us! Add to that the issue that average folks years ago did not have nearly as much clothes and shoes as we often do today- and that means many homes do not have enough closet storage space either.

This was the issue with two different clients of mine. We removed a wall between two small bedrooms to create one larger "master" bedroom.

The first example was originally two really small rooms in an older home. The new room spans from front of house to back of house, 17.5 feet, allowing it windows on 3 sides. A new window was added for balance/symmetry, so there are a total of 6. windows (Six!) two on each wall. The area that used to be hallway to access the back bedroom was taken over to become double closets in the new master bedroom. We kept the windows, doors, and trim matching the rest of the existing home, but the clients personalized the space with more contemporary touches like interesting flooring, mirrored closet doors, and lighting. The carpenter cut back the oak stair rail such that no one can tell we made a change. This is always a design goal of mine: for an addition or renovation, especially in a historic home, to be seamless and harmonious- being sure to not have an abrupt or glaring line between "old" and "new" changes.

New 11'-8" x 17'-6" Master Bedroom

New back window and a whole wall of closets

New abridged handrail & balusters

BEFORE: Hallway was traded for closets

The other project I did this type of renovation on is also an older home, where bedrooms were small and there were almost no closets. One bedroom had already been re-purposed into a more useful second floor laundry room. Below is the before and after floor plans, where you can see how the design created a stair up to the attic, a renovated bathroom with a shower, a second floor laundry room with lots of storage, and a new large master bedroom with a large walk-in closet and many windows toward the river view.

Not everyone can remove a bedroom- some 3 bedroom homes, no matter how small the rooms, need to remain 3 bedrooms. But when it's possible, I find folks who live alone, or whose kids are grown and gone, are very happy to make the layout of the spaces work better for them personally, rather than worrying about re-sale. The  truth is that there are many homeowners who don't have 2 kids or need 3 bedrooms, and so more and more we find that renovating to create a more personalized living environment rather than the "standard" family home makes sense.

Blue House Next to the School Gets Added to

A new construction project to blog about! This is an older village home that I designed a small (tiny really) two story addition off the back to increase the size of the kitchen and enlarge a bedroom. That new larger bedroom will be the master bedroom and we are adding a new master bathroom and dressing room above the existing single floor family room section of the house. I've decided to call this one "Blue House Next to the School". It is located within village limits, but the large lot size and sprawling footprint help it feel like it's out in the town.

Here are some before pictures from the back yard:

Back of the Existing BHND to the School

Back Side - Existing

 So when you look at the back of the home, a newer single-story family room was added to the left side (with the triple/picture window). This is the roof that will be removed and a second floor added above that room to house the new master bathroom and dressing room.

The gable you see to the right of that section is the small kitchen with an unfinished bedroom above. That 13' wide section will be extended 6' toward the back so each of those rooms can grow larger. (that's our tiny addition)

Compare the "existing" and "proposed" floor plans below to see what a better/larger kitchen they will have with the addition of just six feet!

New Kitchen Floorplan w/ 6' addition

Existing too-small Kitchen Floorplan

 The new longer kitchen can have an island, a 'U' shaped counter centered on the new window, and will be opened up to the Office room with a breakfast bar seating area. The additional 200 SF allows much more space for cabinetry and upscale appliances, while maintaining the 3 different passageways leading to other areas of the home.

You can see the actual fixture and appliance locations stay just about the same. The new farmhouse sink will still be facing the backyard window- just 6' back more. With more space, cooking appliances multiplied to include both wall ovens and a six burner range. The large sized refrigerator stays along the shared Dining Room wall and gets cabinetry and pantry aside it.

Reusing Note: The appliances, sink, and cabinets have been sourced from high end kitchen renovations, which requires some flexibility - the layout shown here may not actually match the final product! Stay tuned!

Part 2: Modern Addition and Renovation to Classic Village Ranch- AFTER

To read Part 1 of this Post (and see the BEFORE photos and demolition floor plan) click on this link:
http://cwb-architect.blogspot.com/2016/09/modern-addition-and-renovation-to.html

To solve some of the issues and meet the needs of the current family living here, I designed a  17' x 32' single floor addition on the northeast side of the house. I set it 29' back from the front wall of the current house, so the front room would have more privacy from the street, and so the new master bedroom could have a door leading to the existing back deck. In addition, this "recessed" placement allowed for a new side entry door that one day can lead to a detached garage or carport in the right side yard. (A covered place for parking the car was part of the original design and a reason they hired me, but the owners decided not to build it at this time)

Larger windows toward the back (see new A/C heat pump)

New Addition w/ vertical dark gray siding and Ebony Windows

Since the exterior of the house (built in stages) was already a variety of different materials and not really matching, I decided it would be fun for the exterior form, color, and materials of the addition to be different as well and more contemporary. Instead of a more traditional gable roof, I designed the new roof to be a low-pitch shed that lays atop a side of the existing gable roof on the back. I used a dark color (to further recede) of vertical "board and batten" style siding and windows clad in black to add to the modern aesthetic.

New Addition - Back View

The new space has two bedrooms and 3 large walk-in closets. (A lack of adequate storage space is a typical issue with older homes.) The ceiling in the new rooms soar upward to follow the slope of the roof-line. (Changing ceiling height is a great way to vary space - especially here in a ranch home where all spaces had the same flat ceiling height.) High, square windows dot along the front elevation, with larger windows on the more private side and back of the house. A a glass door with a transom window above is located in the highest wall at the back of the master bedroom to connect to the deck. An exposed engineered wood beam supports the long roof rafters above that door at 10' above the floor, adding some interest.

Master Bedroom w/ exposed beam, vaulted ceiling, & door to deck

Part of the existing interior area of the home was demolished and renovated. The large wheel-chair accessible bathroom (14.5' x 12.5') and small bedroom closet were removed and all that space was incorporated into the back room, which will be used as a family room. With that room getting so much bigger, I could cut off the north corner of it and make that space into a new beautiful bathroom for the 2 new bedrooms to share.

Family Room (same glass door to same deck as in before pics - but room is a different shape

The existing front room (that at one point was a garage) changed use to become a home office with a large storage closet for files. The out-dated small bathroom behind that room became a new half-bath (and got a window) off the family room space and near the new side entry. A coat closet and relocated laundry is tucked behind a pocket door off a new connecting service hall helping the flow of how one can get from one space to another. In my designs I work to layout hallways and doorways to make interior views that line up with windows for views and light. This makes spaces feel larger and more inviting. This project shows that adding just a little space, but re-configuring it to work better, can make a big difference in a small home.

Laundry -moved to service hall

Entry Hall- more open & uncluttered

New window in powder room adds light

 

New "service" hall connects front to back

Master Bedroom door to deck in high wall- transom above adds light and a unique feature

View down hall from new Master Bedroom aligns with square window facing the street

Modern Addition and Renovation to Classic Village Ranch- BEFORE

This project is located in a small village neighborhood. The existing home is a quality older ranch (all rooms on ground/same level) that has a stucco finish on it's exterior and nice wood floors, arched openings, and brick fireplace on the interior. What was originally a front loading garage space had been incorporated into a finished room and a bathroom at some point. Then, in the 1980s or 90s an addition was made to the back of the garage part of the structure to enable a wheelchair-bound person to live there. A large bedroom, ramp entrance, wide doorways, and handicapped-accessible bathroom fixtures were part of that project. This addition matches the light grey exterior color of the rest of the house, but has clapboards rather than stucco as the exterior material.

All the changes made over time to this older ranch weren't as well thought out as they could be, plus the new owners wanted some additional space and didn't love the institutional look of the master bathroom and didn't need a bathroom that used up so much space. I took measurements and started designing some different layouts to reconfigure the existing space and add on again to gain some new space and organize the layout/function of rooms better.

BEFORE PIC Existing View- Front

BEFORE PIC Existing View- Back (left side gable addition & deck was added in late 20th century)

BEFORE PIC Area with single window to right of red door used to be a garage

BEFORE PIC - Inside the room that was a garage looking toward street

BEFORE PIC- Handicap Accessible Bathroom felt institutional

BEFORE PIC- Entry Hall had laundry and many different doors making it feel cluttered

BEFORE PIC- Room added to the back doubled as family room and master bedroom

BEFORE PIC- Looking toward closed-off/outdated bathroom in back of original garage (a window was probably there when it was a garage and before the 1990s addition covered it over)

 Partial Demolition Plan- shows former garage door on street side

The partial demolition plan above shows the side of the house that the work will focus on. In the front you see the room that was once was a garage and was currently being used as a child's bedroom. The original ranch (floor plan is cut off, but toward the left you see the kitchen in the front and an office in the back) does have 3 small bedrooms and a hall bathroom. Those bedrooms were being used as an office/studio for each adult and a guest bedroom. Behind that garage-turned-bedroom was a small windowless bathroom that was in poor repair. Toward the back of the entry hall was a bit of a jumble of doors and the appliances for the laundry jutted out of their closet - making for a cluttered space to walk-through. Behind this is the addition that was built for the person in the wheelchair. The bedroom and bathroom are very large for that reason, but for the current occupants those rooms felt awkward and wasted  a lot of space. The family living there didn't need 3 full baths, and did want a family room/flexible space for older visiting children, a larger office for working from home, and 2 bedrooms near enough to each other for their youngest child, but still with some separation from the rest of the house, the guest and working spaces, and the street.

In my next post, I'll show you the renovation and addition I designed to solve all these issues and how it all turned out... stay tuned!

The Transformation Continues...

See Transformation Part 1 for the first post about this project.

We added a first floor master suite and a large great room on the north side of the existing house. Existing room functions were swapped - the dining room moved into what was the living room; the old dining room was chopped into a new pantry and butler's pantry, as well as increasing the size of the kitchen. We moved the laundry room and added a stair to access a finished recreation room in the lowest level. We added porches and a large deck and lots of glass doors. We sheathed the entire building with rigid insulation and spray foamed the roofs and box beams. We installed new energy efficient dark green 4 pane windows, added a box bay in place of the dated bow window, and lots of classy trim details. We re-roofed with standing seam metal (not yet- you see roof membrane in these photos) and slate-look shingles.  The old chimney was extended higher and changed to stone from brick. Blue vinyl siding and fake vinyl shutters were removed and new grey cementitious clapboard and board and batten-style siding was applied with lots of trim accents.

Here are some progress photos showing before and after (really during) shots so you can get a feel for the scope of this transformation:

Front- before

New front view (addition on left)

 

Detail view of new Box Bay that replaced dated bow window on front

Screened Porch- before- was small and tucked into house

New 3-sided elevated screened porch has much more outdoor feel

Chimney- before

Re-faced chimney - now grey stone

Dining Room- before

Space that was the Dining Rm has become part kitchen & part pantry space

Living Room- before

Former Living Rm is to be new formal Dining Rm w/ box bay & added side window

 

Long view from Kitchen through arched Gallery Space toward new Family Room

New Family Room space in addition w/ vaulted ceiling & transom windows

Floor Plans

So it occurs to me I have shown the site plan way back in my first post and the front elevation in my "Context" post... but I haven't shared the floor plans yet!
Here are the drawings showing the layout:

My kitchen's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

or another title for this post is:
My House is Backwards

When an architect begins to design a new building, one of the first stages of the process is to look at the site and see how the location and the the program could mesh. The site has it's own characteristics like the path of the sun, prevailing winds, good views to take advantage of, not-so-good views or noises to block, legal setbacks, existing vegetation, and neighboring buildings.

Program is the word architects use for the spaces/functions to be housed by the building. The program for a house can include living, dining, cooking, bathing, sleeping, and storage spaces. There can also be studying, changing, reading, workshop, etc. spaces depending on the client's needs.

Here's a good explanation of how an architect starts the design process:  How an architect thinks - YouTube

I live next door to this new house... so the solar orientation of the site was well understood by me. My house was built in 1890, with a typical layout of covered porch, foyer, and living room near the street, and the kitchen in the back of the house. The problem is that the front faces East. So my kitchen is dark in the morning while we groggily make our tea and coffee and the living room (which like most people, we tend to use in the evening) is getting that morning sun with no one there to enjoy it! And then in the late afternoon or evening, when the sun starts getting low on the western horizon, it glares into my kitchen while I cook dinner and the living room is now dark enough to need lamps turned on. You see how my house is backwards? I really do sometimes wear sunglasses while preparing dinner.

When I started some bubble diagrams laying out the design for the new house next door, I placed the kitchen on the east to receive morning light. I placed the living areas toward the back of the house so from there you have privacy from the street and can enjoy the afternoon sun and the views of the mountains. In addition, the bathrooms and stairs with their small windows, are on the north side, leaving the south side open for larger windows that let the sun into the living spaces.

I hope this sheds some light (ha!) on how an architect positions built spaces in nature to the best affect.