Upstairs Options

Fixing the Office/Nursery

Remember I said I thought this room was too large? Well, we did put 2 closets along the top wall, but still ... this is too much space for a nursery, or an office.

What to do? Well, you could do what's shown below. I added a vertical wall about midpoint in the office and removed the right-hand wall. This opens up the entrance foyer downstairs (by eliminating the ceiling), and reduces the office to a very cozy space. You may not like this, but it's an option.

For the record, here is what the entrance foyer space looks like with the above wall arrangement. And it includes a surprise! I made the east wall of the office into a 42" high railing, opening the office to the entrance foyer, below. The space above the entry closet (on the right, below, but with no door), makes a good plant ledge or space for displaying "no-touch" works of art. I added doorways into the den and living room beyond just so you can get an idea of what the entire space might look like.

So, that was one idea. Here's another. Let's say we leave the original office wall in place and add some space to the master bedroom (which is to the left). Let's see what we have.

I created a nursery "alcove" off the master bedroom (I used an invisible wall, but we could make the wall "solid" and add a doorway). The nursery space isn't large, but connected to the larger bedroom this way, it really doesn't have to be. The office (I left one of the closets in place) is oddly shaped, but I still think that's OK. Notice that I ensured there was room for entry into both the bathroom and the office from the hall. I've standardized on a hall width of 3'3", which is not terribly narrow. (Measure your own hallways, and see what I mean.) And it wouldn't be difficult to make the right-hand office wall into a railing as I did, above.

But, let's move on.

"Fixing" the Master Bedroom

Let's see if we can create some interest in the front facade. Check out the rendering below, then look at the plan view to see how I created a squared-off "bay window" in the master bedroom front wall. For some additional visual interest, I added some windows and gables over the second floor windows. Don't worry, everything I did is easy, since I only used the automatic roof generation tool. We might have to set the default window type (actually, I'm sure we will), but once done, everything is very straightforward.

Of course, I did work on balancing the appearance of the bay window between the nursery and the left-hand side of the house. But what's important to note is that this creates the illusion that the upstairs master bedroom wall is set back from the living room wall, with the bay window "sticking out" to meet the front wall of the living room. Well, you could argue that it actually is set back, but ... you see what I mean.

Here's the plan view that goes with the rendering.

Of course, everyone has their opinion, but I think I'm going to stay with the changes as I've laid them out, above. (I retain the right to change my mind at any point.) Also, consider that with the layout above, we can create a window seat in the bay window alcove, and we would not be adding much to the overall cost. I like that idea, but here is yet another idea that I might like even more.

Not to be outdone, but here's an option that shows the master bedroom bay as an angled, more traditional bay window. I present this, below, just for completeness.

The alteration, above, is just like the squared-off version, except that it has some additional side windows. It's OK, but on the next page are some options I think probably work better. But first ...

Another Change to the nursery/Office

Yes, here is yet another option for the nursery/office space that reduces the apparent mass of the second story by setting the nursery walls in from the first floor den walls by 1'6". This does force a slight rearrangement of the office walls, but such is progress. Here is the plan view, below, so you can see what I mean. Then I will show you the front facade so you can see the effect of this change.

Of course I kept the gables over the windows, because they are part of a "theme". I haven't quite decided what the living room windows should look like, so excuse the simplistic double windows.

For my money, I'm going with this option, since it works off the change I made to the front wall of the master bedroom. But ...

There is yet another variation for the master bedroom front facade that I'm going to explore on the next page. So, without another word, let's go there.