So, you’re living in a fabulous home or apartment, whether old or new, and you happen to have at your disposal a fantastic attic or loft space. Brilliant! When it comes to domestic bliss, the more storage and living space the merrier, especially when it comes to big city living, where space and floor place is traditionally scarce and comes at a hefty premium. While they’re often a bonus architectural feature, or the end result of a careful renovation and remodelling, and attic or loft space can be the perfect way to induce a sense of added homeliness to your domestic interiors, while offering a point of difference to your home and a variety of living options.
But how to work with this space to make the absolute most of it? What to do to ensure the space is up to the job, whether it’s to become a new rumpus room, bathroom, bedroom or generic living quarters? Today on homify, we’re taking a deeper look at the all-important, and highly desirable attic and loft space, with a handful of fantastic new year tips and examples of what’s possible. Take a scroll through, and get inspired about making the absolute more of your loft or attic space today!
If you’ve got ample bedroom space, and don’t necessarily need an additional lounge room, as such, then your attic or loft could be effortlessly transformed into a classic, delightful home library space. For many of us, having a place where we can hide away from the outside world, and the rest of the house, is exactly what we need to fulfil our lives and induce a sense of additional domestic wellbeing. An attic library could be the best thing you ever added to your home!
Especially if it happens to look like this one: a delightful, fabulously designed and well-thought-out attic space, remodelled with brilliant style. Here, modern furniture and an ample bookcase bathes in decadent natural light spilling from the pitched attic ceiling to create a simple, yet wonderfully cosy space, perfect for a domestic hideaway.
Of course, before you get too giddy about transforming your attic into a fabulously appointed home library, a dedicated study space, or even an all-purpose games room, you might want to consider the primary practicalities first and foremost. For example, how is the actual structural integrity of your attic space? Is it ready to be inhabited and transformed into a new living area?
One of the most vital considerations you’ll want to ponder before going ahead with any interior design project in the attic is whether or not the space is adequately prepared: has it, for example, been waterproofed? Is the interior space safe from the elements?
Transforming any interior space can be a large challenge for anyone, whether you’re an interior design novice, or an old hand. This is especially true when it comes to the rather unorthodox and cumbersome attic and loft space – if you’re unsure about how to move forward with your attic project, especially with regard to matters of structural integrity, it’s a great idea to chat with a professional in the know, in order to get you safely on the right track.
Today, an attic or loft space in a given home is poised to become so much more than its traditional, or archetypal, usage: that is, a cluttered, cumbersome and out of control storage area, out of sight and out of mind, where we might tread once or twice a year (if we dare!). These days, the options for our attics are plentiful: libraries, studies, rumpus rooms, and even, if the space allows, a fully functional secondary bathroom.
The example here is case in point: a fabulously refurbished and remodelled attic space, serving the new purpose of auxiliary shower area and bathroom. Sure, it’s cosy, but with the right interior design treatment, it works wonders: in this case, a brilliant freestanding bathtub bathing in rich, abundant natural light, with blue tile-work and modern trimmings to finish.
Speaking of abundant options and choices, your attic can effortlessly be transformed into a fully functional living space in its own right, if that’s your desire. Sure, we need to keep in mind the actual dimensions of the space and the amount of room we have to work with, but with the right area, a brilliant, self-contained living space, or secondary apartment area, can be a dream easily realised.
Here, we see how an otherwise basic storage attic can be transformed into an elegant, modern self-contained living space with all the trimmings: open plan kitchen with adjacent lounge and living quarters, with ample room to move, and admirable views out the surrounding hinterland. Gorgeous!
While you might think that working with sloping walls is bound to cause headaches, it’s not always the case. It really depends on how you look at the situation. Sure, attic spaces aren’t known to be traditionally spacious, and the slanted nature of the pitched roof can make for a tricky design negotiation. But with a bit of nous and forethought, there are a range of clever ways for working around and using this to your advantage.
In the example here, we see how these designers worked with the slanted roof to create a fabulous, very spacious and stylistically pleasing storage area, which in fact doubles as a wall obfuscation and demarcation point between bedroom and living space, without overly compromising the openness and breathability of the space.
While cosy and often a little cloistered, there are many ways of working with an attic space to induce a sense of greater vibrancy and illumination. The first is to embrace a thoughtful approach to lighting, both natural and artificial.
During the day, a few well-placed windows can be used to harness maximum sunlight, while come nighttime, the right blend of artificial light can be implemented to create a brilliant, and room-appropriate sense of mood and feel. Here, a few well-positioned down lights embedded in the ceiling, as well as a clever use of corner lamplight, make all the difference after dark.
When it comes to the more cloistered and confined spaces in our homes, it's essential that we consider how to make these spaces breathe and flow as much as we possibly can. As well as tricking the eye into thinking there's more space than there actually is, ventilating a space, whether through ample open windows, an open plan setup, or the removal of walls, can make a space feel more spacious too, and should be considered a crucial design addition.
In this case, we have a very cosy attic bathroom that would probably feel a little too hemmed in without the timely and wise inclusion of this slanted ceiling sun window: wide, bright and full of light. Open up the attic with retractable ceiling windows like these, and your space can't help but feel light, open, airy and spacious.
Did you enjoy that Ideabook? Why not keep the flow going with a look at How can I use my attic space?
