The Lowdown on your Loft Space

Hello World! Converting your loft is a brilliant way to increase your living space, but it’s not something you do every day, so you need to make the most of every square inch up there. Lofts present design challenges like steep roofs, jutting chimney breasts and, frankly, weird nooks and angles! Here’s how to make it all work for you.

Measure everything

Once the floor is safely boarded, head up there with a tape measure and measure everything! Every one of those weird nooks, the eaves height, the head height, the dimensions of any windows, the width of any passages.

This will help you and your loft conversion specialist to work out a design plan that will work. If the bottoms of one lot of eaves are only a foot above where you hoped to put a bath, put storage space there instead. That nook – is it big enough to turn into a feature shelf? Will that passageway accommodate Ikea’s finest or will you need to go bespoke? It’s all in the numbers, people…

Consider a built-in box bed

A built-in bed gives you a few more inches of valuable space, especially if you have storage solutions underneath it and some scaled-down shelving beside it.

Use a lot of white

If there’s one room where you can get away with a white floor – whether carpeted or painted – it’s the loft. The loft will probably get less traffic than the downstairs rooms and there’s much less potential for mud to get traipsed in. If the walls and ceiling are also white, it’ll be like floating on a cloud!

Speaking of painted floors…

The low foot traffic in the loft means that the paint will last for a while and it will also reflect light better than a lot of finishes, even if you don’t opt for white. It also has the bonus of being cheap!

Get over the low walls

Don’t worry about low walls; you can get scaled-down furniture and shelves from places like Ikea. If your space is particularly challenging, you should look into ordering bespoke modules.

Invest in the right window coverings

Slanted windows are always hard to cover and if you’re using your loft as a playroom, you might be able to get away with leaving them uncovered. If it’s going to be a bedroom, you’ll need blinds. There are motorized blinds, or ones you can move up and down yourself – pricey, but worth it in the long run.

Get down low

Make a low coffee table a focal point by scattering floor cushions around it – if you’re low on the floor it makes the ceiling seem further away! Avoid bulky or high seats and beds as they simply take up too much space.

Use smaller furniture

To make the most of your eaves and the areas under the lower areas of the roof, use children’s tables, bean bags and shelves as they’ll fit really well. If your loft is a playroom, think about a day-bed for naps or relaxing with a book. If your beams are sturdy enough, hang a swinging chair from the central one for a great finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping in!  Go with God and remember to be kind to one another!

Toodles,