It would be wonderful if every room in our home could be devoted to one single purpose, but most of us need to take a more practical approach to efficient use of our living space. In the case of this addition remodel, our client chose to combine the part time function of guest room with the full time function of library — while including a bathroom that could switch hit.
Vision
The client wanted to add a space to the front of her home to provide overnight guests a place to stay. At the same time, she wanted the space to function as a library for the majority of the time that it would not be inhabited by visitors.
Challenge
At the point where the new addition was to join the home there was a multilevel walkway. We raised the addition to connect to this walkway via a porch entry. Rather than simply add a room, we wanted to create a more self-contained suite to include a bathroom that would be available both to those staying in the guest room, and to anyone else in this part of the home — which up to this point had not been served by an accessible bathroom.
Accomplishment
To ensure that the bathroom served its dual purpose within a limited space, we created an oversized room with a pocket door that separated the full bath accessible to the guest room/library from a powder room accessible to the public space within the addition — a feature that truly defined the new room as a place for overnight guests, and not just a space for those wanting to enjoy a good book in a tranquil ambiance.
Highlights
Our addition was too small to have its own furnace, so we solved the problem of how to control the climate of the area by using a ductless heating/cooling unit that we discreetly installed in the library shelving unit. Since our client wanted to incorporate an original window treatment as part of the addition’s decor, we had a custom window created to accommodate this.