The majority of us possess that one tricky area in our home that seems impossible to design around. Long walls, narrow hallways, tight corners, no windows — these can be devilish small challenges. But architect Richard Loosle didn’t have just one tricky room to repair. He had an whole house full of these: a two-story, 900-square-foot row home just 10 feet wide.
The home, which dates back to the mid- to late 1700s and was likely used as home for servants, is at Washington, D.C.’s historic Foggy Bottom neighborhood. Loosle’s clients, a family of four from Libya who journey to the U.S. capital for company, were tired of staying in hotels every time that they came to town. They bought the falling-apart row home to turn it into a part time home.
But the home had had just moderate renovations, the last of which happened 50 decades ago. Meanwhile, with such a narrow area, the house was dark and cramped. It had been Loosle’s job to start it up and make it comfortable.
at a Glance
Who stays here: A few who all the time lives in Africa using their 5-year-old twins
Location: Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Size: 900 square feet; two bedrooms; 11/2 bathrooms
Cost: More than $500,000
Before Photo
KUBE architecture
Uneven floors were just the start of the house’s problems. Loosle gutted the home, eliminated walls to open this up from end to end and replaced with the pipes, electrical and mechanical components. This gave him an opportunity to make the most of the 10- by 40-feet inside. “I’d done row homes before, but not as skinny as this,” Loosle says. “This is the most narrow you can buy.”
KUBE architecture
How to Tackle a Beautiful Space
Component the sea. At a row home, the single windows are at the front and rear. To create the space feel bigger, the ideal thing to do is start it up to all those pure lighting pockets as far as possible.
For Loosle, this meant he had to push all of the solid stuff to either side of the home. 1 side became the “chilly side,” he says. Dark porcelain tile that resembles steel covers the fireplace and a 2-foot-wide strip of flooring. The stairs are steel using a cable railing; steel panels wrap the powder room beneath the stairs.
About the “warm side,” a light ash-wood custom storage device extends across the wall. Warm bloodwood wraps from the floor up a side-wall part and becomes a drop-down ceiling panel to define the living space.
After the plaster was removed, just the lower part of the brick wall was in decent form. Loosle covered the top role in green stained shingles.
KUBE architecture
Historic building codes limited what Loosle can do to the exterior. He painted it gray, put in new sconces, replaced with the windows, took the shutters off and place in low-maintenance landscaping.
“That is pretty much all you can do,” he says. “The historic association does not care what you do to the interior, however.”
KUBE architecture
Focus on storage. But when it’s not done right, the walls may begin to feel like they’re closing in.
The ash device begins at the entry, starting as a closet, then ducks behind the bloodwood paneling before popping out in the wall to create a bookcase, then to a slide-out desk before turning into a coat closet and cabinet. It then wraps round the refrigerator and eventually ends up as a horizontal butcher block table. “It is one unit, but it changes in purpose for a lot of flexibility and storage for tall stuff, short stuff, computer stuff and kitchen stuff,” Loosle says.
The device stops just below the ceiling to give the appearance of more height in the space, despite the 8-foot ceilings. “You have to be smart when creating a lot of storage to never create the space feel bigger,” he says.
Flip the switch. Loosle incorporated a lot of artificial lighting through numerous collections of LED lights on dimmers across the ceiling, above storage components and up the staircase. But the most effective move was opening the home to the windows on the front and rear walls.
Before Photo
KUBE architecture
Loosle claims the kitchen had probably last been upgraded in the 1960s.
KUBE architecture
Smartly hide everything. Loosle pulled off the rear wall and installed a folding NanaWall to link the space to the rear patio and bring natural lighting in.
The kitchen sink, cooktop, oven and microwave are on one side of the home. Two rows of cupboards above provide a nice amount of storage. The refrigerator, a pullout pantry and a horizontal part of butcher block that acts as additional counter area forms the other hand. The homeowners may pull the steel table out for dining, move it in the living room or use it as extra desk space. There’s also a wine cooler and a sound system that pipes audio into the whole home. “There’s a lot of high-end stuff packed in here and nicely hidden,” Loosle says.
To find natural light into the steel-covered powder room, at left in this photo, Loosle let the stairs form a part of the ceiling, together with frosted glass to bring light in by the front windows.
Sink: Catelano; kitchen: New York Attic
KUBE architecture
Porcelain tile underneath the kitchen counters generates a trickle edge so water does not spill onto the bloodwood. The backsplash is glass painted green.
Before Photo
KUBE architecture
Thick stair railings made the staircase feel closed off.
KUBE architecture
Less is more. Currently cable railings produce the appearance of more room. “They nearly disappear,” Loosle says.
Think vertically. A dark gray ties the home together vertically with colour. The green backsplash in the kitchen extends into the second-floor wall, along with the front and rear interior walls will be the exact same colour on both amounts. It is a way to join the home vertically and add volume. “We’re talking about planes of colour and materials and not just rooms,” Loosle says.
KUBE architecture
Work your materials. The main bedroom is right above the living space, so below thefloor is that bloodwood drop-down ceiling in the living room. The idea this was for that element to symbolically become the base of the custom bed, which can be ash wood stained to match the bloodwood below.
Deep drawers produce storage beneath. Maple wood wraps the walls to develop into the headboard, rather than having one extend in the wall, which saves space and makes the space feel taller.
“At a traditional world you’d split up the wall with chair rail, baseboard and crown molding,” Loosle says. “We need things as straightforward as possible, therefore it seems taller. We also like to treat rooms using various materials. If all of the walls were all blue paint, it’d feel closed in.”
KUBE architecture
Steal the sunshine. A wall of built-in storage carries a TV and a desk at the main bedroom. This device also stops just below the ceiling.
The bedroom doors are metal frames with frosted glass to let light from windows on the front and rear sides come through them into the hallway.
The larger round light above the stair landing is really a solar tube that brings down sunlight. “Each of the light is on end, at the bedrooms,” Loosle says. “Together with the glass to the doors and solar tubes, you can’t feel like you’re in a black hole.”
KUBE architecture
Embrace modern design. Modern design turned out to be an ideal style for the streamlined property. Modern fittings are usually slimmer; traditional thick wood and thick metal could have appeared clunky.
Another solar tube brightens the major bath. 1 way Loosle worked to make the room feel bigger was to change the paint and tile. Dark tile on the trunk feels more sophisticated; light tile on the floor and glass at the shower help reflect the natural daylight coming in.
Before Photo
KUBE architecture
KUBE architecture
Get the magic touch. A push on a number of the fireplace panels reveals storage behind them. Small footstools and seats hide even more storage.
Before Photo
KUBE architecture
KUBE architecture
Open up. Since the lower part of the home can not be seen from the alley, Loosle was free to experiment a little more. “If you can not see it from the alley or a public room you can eliminate more on these historical houses,” Loosle says.
The glass NanaWall connects the inside to the back ipe patio. Additionally, it can help pull more light into the home.
Can you go even narrower? Step inside a 4-foot-wide workshop
See related