Plan of Attack

I've always loved floor plans. I'd flip through design magazines searching for those ads about gated communities in Arizona, just so I could stare at the plans, imagining myself walking through the halls, checking in on the baby, that sort of thing. I always built my Lego houses open on top (rather than at the back like a doll house) so I could stare down into the house, a bird's eye view.

Being a bit of a child-nerd, I loved to sketch out my small bedroom and decide on a new furniture plan before moving each bulky item into its new place. I'd draw the room on graph paper, complete with windows and doors, and cut out little bits of construction paper to represent each of my prized possessions. I still do this, though on a slightly larger scale and with contractors in mind.

Figure A (left, click to enlarge) is our new apartment as-is. Don't be fooled, it's much smaller than it appears. That said, the layout is great, right down to satisfying one of my needs, a proper "foyer", however tiny it may be. As I mentioned before, we're planning to nix the ridiculously small den and replace it with a pimped-out butler's pantry for all our storage needs. Figure B (below) illustrates how we'd like to remove the existing front hall closet, opening-up the entrance way, and add sliding barn-doors to conceal the new pantry.

Heading inside we plan on replacing the ultra-cheap Formica counter on the peninsula with something grand, a nice piece of marble I hope! We're gonna source out some off-cuts to see what kind of deal we can snag. By extending the counter out towards the living room, we can gain much needed dining space without designating room for a proper table and chairs. By doubling the width of the counter we'll be able to have casual dinners for four right in the kitchen.





For whatever reason, the patio door slides open from right to left - This seems to us a bit odd. It would make more sense for traffic flow and our furniture plan that the door open the other way. We'll look into swapping it as a possible solution.

Moving into the bedroom, The Easy Plan is to rehang the door so it opens into the small "hallway", rather than into the bedroom. The room is only about 10X9, so every inch will count. The More Involved Plan (Figure C, bottom) sees the walk-in closet removed completely (replaced with a wardrobe of some kind) and another barn-door installed on the outer wall. This would mean our guests would need to step into our bedroom in order to use the only washroom, but that's no big whoop. Creating a master suite, of sorts, this would open up the whole space, and, more often than not, it's just the two of us and the insinuation of an ensuite bath is nice.

We've scheduled a viewing so we can measure and see what really needs to be done. Stay tuned and let me know what you think of our ideas!