I think we all look for unused or underused space in our homes that we can reclaim.
It may be under-bed space for storage or getting creative and using space between the wall studs, like this sanitary storage cabinet that holds your trusty toilet plunger and brush.
We just finished a project at our house where we reclaimed some underutilized attic space. When we first moved into our home, we had two unfinished attic spaces and one was a narrow area with a pitched ceiling.
You can’t really see if in this picture but there is a dormer window in this space. Believe it or not, the builder just ran the rafters right through the space. Why they didn’t header it off is beyond me!
Anyway, we finished this space {which goes into a larger, more usable room} and it was where I stored a lot of the smaller accessories that I use {or don’t} for my design business.
Last year my hubby was wishing he had a place other than the basement for his keyboard. He had also bought a guitar and was looking for a place he could watch the DVD tutorials that came with it.
I also have a water rower machine that we have never had a great place to put.
As I thought about all those different needs, it came to me that we have two attic spaces that we could possibly use to address the music/water rower issues. We need to have accessible attic space to use for storage, but this weird, angled ceiling area seemed to be great square footage to commandeer as a new loft space.
The left wall of this space was shared with our catwalk area and you can see what it looked like when we bought the house in this photo.
{Yes, isn’t the oak stair railing, ceiling fan and door casing trim just beautiful? Ugh.}
I could just imagine a usable loft in that space {and a new stair railing!, new fan, trim, wall color, etc.}
Over the years we have changed out all our interior doors in the house. 
You can see that they were your standard, 6-panel hollow core doors. {The door at the end of the upstairs catwalk goes into the storage space.}
Here’s what it looks like now, after finishing the new loft project. We redid the railing while we worked on this project (and changed out the trim kits of the pot lights from black to white).
Stay tuned for a tour of this new loft space and a post about the barn doors we installed!
I snapped this photo with my iphone, so I apologize for the poor quality.
About Diana
I’m a busy working designer & home stager who gets a lot of joy & happiness helping clients transform their houses into homes they love. I blog as part of that creative process. In our “spare” time my hubby & I are updating our Cottage in the Woods that we share with our cats. I’m a Christian & look forward to someday working for my Heavenly Father, the Greatest Designer of all, decorating mansions in Heaven!
