Studio Floor Plan – What Was Build (and why it is better)
Original Studio Floor Plan
Reality Doesn’t Match Plans
Above are the correct original floor plans – there was a small bump-out to the right of the top of the stairs to the studio that was missing from my last post about the floor plan last week. This area was designed to be about 9 feet long. My original plan was to put a table in that space as shown by the big green rectangle.
Not long after they poured the foundation walls for my house it became obvious to me that what was being built didn’t match the floor plan. Two significant things happened that were going to mess up my plans for how I was going to use the space in my studio (most notably putting the table right at the top of the stairs).
The first change was they didn’t dig the bedroom/office area as deep as planned (they could only dig as deep as the old crawl space). This meant that instead of a split level out the back of my house where I would have an equal number of stairs going down and up it would be uneven.
There are only 5 steps going down into the bedroom but 10 going up to the studio. So that meant less space at the top of the stairs in the studio. So that table would have blocked the stairs.
They also built the garage longer than planned by a few feet (being guys they do things like this – add any additional space to the garage assuming everyone wants a big garage). The result of this was the 9 foot southern wall I thought I had – it suddenly became closer to 7 feet – no way my 8 foot long table would fit.
The solution
As they were building I kept thinking "that wall does not look 9′ long" so finally measured it one day. The placement of the 4′x8′ table at the top of the stairs was key for fitting in 2 sewing tables and still having enough floor space to not feel cramped.
So it was time for a chat with the builders, who were really great to work with so I knew we’d come up with a solution.
They said they thought I’d be happy to have more garage space. They are guys. Please – who cares about the garage?
After some pondering (repouring the foundation was not an option) the solution we came up with was to cantilever the studio further out to make the little bump-out 4 feet deep and they would build me a table that fit snuggly into that area.
So table at top of stairs and everything is good again.
The cantilever from outside:
Extra Bonus
As a result of this change two really cool things happened. First was the closet that was supposed to be in the laundry room got pushed into the garage because the door had to move over because of the cantelier. The only place to put that closet was into the garage (still accessible from the house but taking up floor space from the garage).
Result – my laundry room was much bigger (and ironically the garage was smaller, which definitely saddened the builders). I will easily be able to set up a table in the laundry room to dye fabric. An unexpected and very awesome benefit. I was thinking I would have to dye fabric outside or in the garage.
But what’s even better is that as I watched them build I keep noticing the space to the right of the stairs and over the laundry room. What was going to happen to that? Originally that space would have been part of the attic but with the cantilever it was suddenly a 4 foot wide space that looked exactly like a closet to me.
A closet in my studio. Something I had tried to design in and finally gave up opting to have them build a basement under the laundry room to store my art stuff. Wow – I was thrilled – a huge closet for my art (and with bonus access to the attic over the old house for more storage).
So this is what actually got built:
Thank you to the Universe
This is how the entire remodel project went – something would seem like a problem but the result would invariably be better than the original plan. In hind sight it would have been a mistake to build the studio without a closet in the studio so I suspect the universe was just looking out for me on this one.
Tomorrow I’ll post real pictures of all of this to compare to the floor plan. Then I promise – I’ll get to the lighting, cause my lighting, it’s awesome!
Posted by Lisa in: Being an Artist, The Studio
Tagged: artist, remodel, studio, studio design
Go Universe! I love it when stuff like that happens. I can’t help but giggle at the builders’ reaction to the garage shrinking. Such a guy thing!
I’m looking forward to the lighting post…
Funny how these things work out, isn’t it? How do you get into the closet? It appears to be the short wall but then you would bump into the table…if I”m following you. I’ll have to remember to check back for the photos.
Very cool! Thank heavens you have good guys to work with who were willing to come up with a solution. Sounds like you really got the best of everything. Can’t wait to see the final pics.
Carolina – I think they consider my garage rather inadequate. Guess it’s good no guys live there.
Minka – Pictures later today will explain it – the closet is over the laundry room so it’s higher up than the studio floor.
Vivien – They are the best – thanks.
it’s so funny reading this. we’ve designed and built 2 homes. no matter how obsessive we are about the PLANS we always get surprises. that’s why they are called “plans”, I guess. sigh. the computer engineer in me always went crazy (I do math to 17 significant digits why can’t builders get simple inches or even feet correct) about the errors.
one surprise we had on our current house was that we bumped out the MBR 4 feet so that meant we also got 4 feet in the formal living room (which we didn’t care about) and bumped the ceiling up to 10 feet as well.
well now that I’m moving my [oil painting] studio into the formal living room, I’m loving that extra 4 feet of width and 10 foot ceilings!