Deb Durham blog #3 (small house feature)
Hi there! Last time I featured this home’s bathroom/laundry/soaking tub remodel solutions within the existing footprint of the home. I renovated this 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,200 sq. ft. all adobe home outside of Santa Fe, NM.
Now I’ll show you how to visually expand the space throughout a home with choice of materials, colors and furnishing selections plus one more remodel for the master bedroom space since many asked about the master shower and why I did not put the soaking tub there. Again, your idea of small may be smaller than this home, but these tips will apply anywhere you want to get a bigger bang for the buck out of your square footage.
Use the same floorcovering throughout including bathrooms and closets.
Without drawing attention to different flooring when changing rooms, a space feels bigger. Also, if you are using tile as I did here, place it on the diagonal throughout. It’s a bit more expensive labor-wise because of extra tile cuts but I feel well worth the investment when you see the results. The diagonal is expanding. These are natural stone Golden White (sometimes called China Gold) quartzite 16″ tiles. Make sure you seal well, especially in the kitchen area. But if greasy stove top splatters still end up on the floor, you can remove them with Goof Off or Goo Gone.
Also note the use of translucent glass on the shoji style sliding doors to the guest bedroom plus guest bathroom/laundry and pantry doors. They provide privacy while allowing light. Lastly, consider glass top tables that take up minimal visual space.
Choose all tone on tone colors throughout the house.
When walls, flooring, ceiling, trim, kitchen cabinets are all varying shades of the same hue, there is no visual break so that space appears to expand. To blend with the floors, I chose American Clay Loma “Nantucket Sand” with straw for the walls and a neutral BioShield wash/stain for all wood surfaces so that the wood grain is still visible. I brought in punches of color with art and accessories.
Reconfiguration of master bedroom/bath/closet.
When I bought this home, there was just one bathroom which was in the master bedroom and it had two awkward doors to allow guests to use it. Also, it had a dinky corner sink not worthy of a master bedroom. I found a great piece of furniture at World Market – Cost Plus, actually a side board, to serve as the new vanity. It fit the width perfectly and unlike traditional vanities which go to the floor and feel blocky, its longish legs provide openness in the small bathroom. To accommodate the sink plumbing and not lose any storage capacity, I had my contractor mount the 3 center former drawer fronts onto a panel and make it one door. A pocket door replaced the two original regular doors, also saving space.
The existing shower had a soaking tub at one end, but in addition to being very uncomfortable and not having a view, it was pretty ugly IMHO. I chose pebbles in same tones as the stone tile for the shower floor. Notice I created a border of stone. I think it gives a more finished look than if the pebbles covered the whole surface.
And by removing that original tub, I was able to expand the master closet to include a set of built-in drawers. Another change for the better was replacing the one inoperable window in the shower (what were the previous owners thinking?) with three small square windows evenly spaced so that two fall within the remodeled shower and one is in the closet. This design feature allows for fresh air which eliminates the possibility of musty closet smells.
Please let me know if these ideas were helpful….or not. Cheers!