ABOUT PRIVACY: Part I: Making a Basic Bedroom More - a Suite of Spaces

Melissa has the smallest bedroom in our home, 11 x 15 feet. Not bad actually. Still it's just a basic rectangle-shaped bedroom. But as you'll see, it can be made into something more. 
(Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.)

It has lovely northern and western light. Melissa's moved her bed to the outer corner of the room so it's framed by the two large 4-foot-wide windows, and is farthest from the bathroom she shares with Stephen. They tend to use the bathroom about the same time in the mornings, so it doesn't disturb her sleep, but she likes the outer space for her bed.

She prefers a removed feel for her work area, so I suggested she place her desk  in the corner where it's also flooded diagonally by natural light, which happens to be northern light. The best. 

Below and in the plan, you see that the wall her door opens onto also leads to her closet and its door, so major furniture tends to be placed on the window side, making the room feel overly-weighted on the far end. But as is, if her door is ajar, you can see directly into her room from anywhere on the landing. So most people using this room will do exactly that. There's no sense of privacy if she wants her door open, which in our house is an invitation to say hello.

Essentially, you can add privacy to a box of a bedroom like this by creating an entry into the room. There are several ways to do this, and you get a bonus when you do - more activity niches for yourself!

You can create these spaces as easy temporary DIY additions which you'll see here. I'll talk about more permanent options in Part II.

THE TEMPORARY, EASY FIX

The simplest, most flexible fix can be done in any room (rented or owned) by creating an entry alcove with something vertical that acts as a visual divider. Be as creative as fits your soul! I'll work the principle here with a shelf-unit, but you could use ceiling-hung fabric, an art panel, a textural wood piece, or anything that appeals. I like shelves or cabinets because they offer additional storage.  So here's what happens if you use one 6-foot shelf:

Placing just one tall shelf facing the entrance just inches beyond the entry door's full open swing creates a new path of entry that requires a turn before they see into your room. (Also notice that since this is earthquake country, I have anchored the end of the shelf to the wall with a piano hinge. This secures the shelf, but allows it to be easily rotated against the wall for moving larger furnishings in and out.)

Interestingly enough, an open-backed shelving or a divider works just as well; either draws the eye as someone approaches, so the onlooker's vision is foreshortened. It depends on how private a feel you need, and how much light you'd like passing through this "wall" you've created.

Now decide if you want the stuff on the shelves facing the entry as decor to intrigue, or facing the space you've created behind the unit. (You can hang a picture on the back for visitors to see as they pass or enter.) Maybe find or make a unit that has some of each?

Plus, you have this new niche behind the shelf. There's enough space for a small upholstered chair where you might read by all the natural light of that large window. Maybe with a tiny ottoman. You also have balanced the room's furnishing better as well. 

People will tend to walk into the room straight towards the desk unless they plan to sit on the bed. If you're reading my posts, you'll note right now there's "wasted square footage," that could be put to use along that wall. We placed Melissa's hot water kettle and tea set-up on a small, low carved table just behind her within easy reach, with her favorite books on a series of wall-mounted shelves above. It creates a vertical element that's very special to her, and it feels quite delicate and intimate. She likes her space spare, and only wants a picture on the wall. So for her, that space is where she kneels to prepare tea as she works, or stands to scan her treasured books.














Okay, if creating a sitting niche right by your closet isn't appealing, you can move the shelf or divider further back as you see in this second iteration, to allow the space for a second shelf perpendicular to the entry door. See what this does:

These units should be just high enough to cover what you want covered. You do not need to go high on both, and want light moving easy around these walls you create. So you might make one 6-foot tall, while another is 3 or 4-foot  high. 

You now have a protected entry. Hang some pictures along the left wall? Put a changing display on the shelf? A photo montage or collection you own? You are drawing your visitor deeper into the room before they turn to see where you are. While doing so, you get to choose what they see along the way. There's also a nice feeling of entry here and waiting to be invited in.

In addition, you have created a large alcove behind the perpendicular shelf. If it wasn't against the bathroom wall, you could put your bed against that low shelf using it as a headboard,or make it a seating nook with a comfy chair, or a creative task area. Music listening/making corner and collection? Up to you.

If you draw a plan of your room on graph paper to scale, you can play with the width of these two pieces to find more alcove variations. The shelves or dividers are creating circulation paths into your room. Directing these paths lets you add an activity area, and their heights and transparency lets you choose how much visibility you want that activity to have.

So if, for example, you're comfortable letting someone see over the perpendicular unit, keep it low. Try shortening it to about half the length that I show above. Doing so moves your "entry" more into the room's center allowing you to push the larger unit facing the door closer in. That allows you to fit a hamper right next to the closet, hidden from view.  As long as you leave 36 inches as your entry opening, it should flow nicely. Play.

And what you choose to use, and put on any shelves becomes another expression of you. Nice.

The Water Test - Part I

I'm back up and running, at last! ( A pinched cervical nerve knocked Phase II out of the contractor's queue because I couldn't draw the permit drawings - or any writing or drawing for that matter! Beyond the pain, as a designer, it was more than a little scary.)

Then the new job placed ahead of us ran overtime by 8 weeks until just 12 days ago. So, we've just started Phase II.

Now, onward with a vengeance!....

Well......no. Seems the City Inspectors are running behind this month what with vacations and lean staffing. Still our contractor Tim grabbed back time by doing all three rough-in inspections at once - plumbing, construction and electrical. But rather than the usual next day appointment, when we called to schedule,we had to wait five days until today. And there are really only odds and ends he can do until these three "basic bones" inspections are done.

The inspector arrived this morning, and spent 28 minutes going through every single thing Tim did, permit card in hand. Unlike most inspectors, he crawled under the house. He got up on a ladder. He filled the new plumbing with water to check for leaks. "Thorough." Tim said. 

Everything Tim did was spot on, but damn if the inspector wants us to take a few more steps towards closing air holes (in the leakiest old house I've every lived in), and asked us to change out the screws that came with the toilet flange in the floor to stainless steel or brass screws instead. I appreciate that he insisted that I make my home more fire-safe even if it's in just this one inner room, but I admit I hate wasting another day, for another inspection to check these off. Plus, the inspector also insisted on seeing a second water test: our water line test passed with no leaks today, but he wants us to do a vent pipe water test too. (You know, the vents up from fixtures so the gases escape.) They will only have gases, and air in them.

Tim spent some time conjuring how to do that water test for him. Oh, it's easy enough getting water into a vent. You carefully climb up on the roof with a garden hose- or several, depending where the water bib is versus the vent--and fill the vent line. But how to get the water out of the vents once the test was done with the redirected lines in our 1908 old house? Hmm. Seems like our only option is to cut apart a major pipe after the test.

 "So..." I said slowly, "We have to cut a pipe to make a new joint after the test to prove that all the joints in the vent line don't leak?" But hey, inspector says, we do.

We just had to schedule a recheck for these "corrections." I actually jumped onto the computer seconds after he left, and damn if the next available day wasn't Monday the 29th, a week away. No!!!

But Tim has a plan: He told me to holler at him at 4 o'clock, and at that point he called the inspector and pleaded for time tomorrow:
"We got all your corrections completed today. Is there any way you could swing by tomorrow to just sign off on them, so we can move forward?"

"Got a man on vacation this week. Call me tomorrow, 8am. Dunno, but I' ll try."
As Tim headed out the door a few minutes ago, he promised he'd call right at 8 to get any slot possible..

Let you know how it goes tomorrow...