Interior Framing, Early Progress

Some of the floor plan changes are taking shape, and so far, so good. It always helps to walk through the rooms to understand the size, scale and relationship to other elements. The translation from 2-D plans to real rooms and spaces is great for thinking about about finishes and furniture. 

STUDY POCKET DOORS

From the entry hall, the pocket doors to the study will be on left. The opening will be a standard double-door width, but the pocket doors require building a new wall for the pockets and tracks. 

View from the study

RADIUS WALL 

The curve starts from the entry hall. The former hall closet in view will be re-purposed to a niche with shelves on the left half; the right half will be turned around to make built-in shelves in the guest bathroom. The curved wall draws the eye toward the niche, as hoped.  

View of the radius wall from the great room. It creates a much larger entry hall and easier access to the bedrooms down the corridor. 

Framing close-up. The other side of the curved wall will be added to the guest bedroom closet. 

MASTER WALK-IN CLOSET

We are expanding the existing master bedroom closet by taking over the guest bedroom closet which was on the other side of the closet wall. From the plans, it looked like a good idea, but seeing it in person is a great relief. The new closet will be a great size and with only 1 pocket door to access the closet, we'll maximize wall space in the master bedroom. 

The opening will be a standard door width, with a pocket door to avoid a swinging door in the closet and the bedroom. The new framing in the background is the back of the closet wall, shared with the new closet in the guest bedroom (see picture below). 

The guest bedroom gets a new closet, since the master closet takes over the old guest closet. In the plans, looking at this change made the 3rd bedroom look a bit small, but in person the bedroom is still a nice size, about 11.5' square. It helps that it's a corner room with 2 large windows. 

GUEST BEDROOM ENTRY

The plans called for the guest bedroom entry doors to be pushed back from the original line of the hallway, to create a less narrow-feeling hall and a landing area into which all 3 bedroom doors opened. The effect is even better than expected from the plans, the landing area is about 6.5' x 6.5' and the back wall of the hallway is large enough to display art or add a small hallway table. As hoped, the hallway no longer feels like a boring rectangle with several doors cluttering the relatively small space. 

The subtle change makes a great difference in the feel of the hallway, and it doesn't make the bedrooms feel smaller. The space that's taken back for the landing area wasn't usable in either bedroom, it was just a narrow entry into both rooms.