By enlarging an existing opening in the first floor ceiling, using lots of glass, and hiding storage—even rooms—behind panels and pivoting doors, architect Janet Bloomberg and contractor Sonya Singh created a stunning central volume of space that spills light throughout this 1,300-square-foot D.C. loft.
The client wanted more room and a white, pure space. The glass was the architecture firm’s idea, Bloomberg says. “He was a little worried about the privacy aspect. There is always a lot of convincing when I do the frosted glass, but he was a good sport, and he listened.” She removed the knee walls that surrounded the opening upstairs, replacing them with a frameless transparent glass rail. The existing skylight was enlarged to bring in more light.
Bloomberg found extra square footage throughout by capturing wasted space where walls had been built out further than they needed to be, and brought everything up to the rafters, where previously it was boxed down. The team was able to widen the galley kitchen almost three feet by snatching space from a powder room that “was excessively longer than it needed to be,” Bloomberg said, and by relocating a water heater upstairs.
With kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, stairs, storage, and shelving hidden away, all focus is on the serenity of that central volume of space, allowing the homeowner’s collection of artwork to take center stage. Upstairs, there is plenty of storage thanks to a line of closets that runs the length of the apartment’s second floor. Those closets lie behind white pivoting doors, while the master bath’s privacy is maintained behind a frosted glass door and adjacent 7x7-foot fixed frosted glass panel, which serves as visual focal point from the living room below.
See more photos of the loft and more winners of the 2015 Remodeling Design Awards.
