Hey friends!  Happy you are here!  To keep up with all of our DIY projects from start to finish, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Pinterest! So, I have been in the middle of a huge project over the last week or so.  When we built our home 5 years ago, we had 3 kids and thought we wouldn’t be having anymore.  Upstairs, my oldest girls each had a room, and we also had a ‘bonus room’ and a loft.  You can see the landing of the loft from downstairs in this photo here…

Converting a loft

Upstairs Loft

Well, fast-forward a few years, and something about getting past the ‘daze’ of having 3 kids under the age of 4 opened the idea of having more kiddos.  We had two more kids, and it was quickly time to start rethinking my space.  First, we turned the bonus room into a new room for my oldest girls.  You guys may have seen it in some of my old posts…

IMG_00313

This gave them a room to share once again.

I do love my loft, but I found that it lacked some serious function.  I have used it as a craft space and then a playroom.  Really, it just became a storage space for clutter and toys.  I would go upstairs and find the kids playing in their rooms, and a mess left in the loft (which is totally visible to anyone downstairs).

So…  I got an itch to close it in.  I let function win in this battle.  The trick was making it look intentional on both sides of the opening.

I had LOTS of help on this doozie of a project.  Meet Bapa, aka ‘The Bomb”.  This is my stepdad and one of my favorite people ever.  Not only is he an awesome grandfather to my kiddos, he also happens to be one of the most talented builders/handymen I know…

Bapa

He actually built this house, and Ashley’s new house.  He’s a keeper 😉 !  If any of you local DFW peeps are looking to remodel or build, email us and I can get you his info!  He’s the best around.

Each space is different, so I won’t really share a how-to here, but I do want to show you guys what we decided to do.  It may offer you some inspiration for your own space!

To start we had to close in that opening over the stairs.  We decided to make the wall in the room flush, but I wanted to have the wall facing the stairs to be recessed a bit.  That way I could leave the framing on the bottom and make it more of a feature wall.  So, we took down the railing first.  This involved a little bit of demo, but basically with lots of tugging and hammering the whole thing kind of lifted up and out.

removing railing

And a scary shot from downstairs…

Railing removed

To make this wall recessed, we used 2×3 studs rather than the normal 2×4’s.  We added a sole and top plate first, and then added our side studs.  We attached everything using wood glue, his Ridgid framing nail gun, and the air compressor.

You can see here that we set the stud back 1/2″ from the room wall here.  This will make the wall flush once we add the 1/2″ sheetrock.

Framing a wall

Here is what the other side looked like…

new wall

Next, we added all of our other studs.  We placed them closer together since we used 2×3.

Framing the new wall

Closing in the landing

He also added a few ‘Brooks blocks’… My youngest little guy is named Brooks, and he thought the extra support is always a good thing with him 😉  You can see these from this side of the wall.  The kids also made a time capsule to hide in the framing and Hayden put a plastic horse in there too.  This will be her room, so she wanted to hide a little something special. 🙂

Closing in a landing

After adding the sheetrock to this wall, we framed the additional wall that will hold the door.  We did use regular 2×4 studs for this part.

Building the new wall

Here is a shot looking out where the door will be into the hall.

build a door frame

At this point we put up the sheetrock and then taped and bedded the walls.

sheetrock a wall

building the new walls

Adding a wall

Close in a loft

And check out this ladder… Probably the coolest thing since sliced bread.  It’s a multi-ladder that is actually 3 ladders in one.  You can put the legs at different lengths to fit stairs and it’s super sturdy too!  We found it at the Home Depot.  Who knew?

ladder for stairs

I am SO darn excited about this space.  It’s full of natural light and it has some really fun ceiling lines and walls to play with. I love the dormer window.

Dormer Window

And, I have plans in the works for a built-in daybed right here!

Closing in a loft

We will be sharing free plans for this bed as well!  Can’t wait to show you guys the rest and how it all turns out.  So, who’s in the same boat as me?  I lost a little natural light downstairs in the living room, but I traded it for a new, beautiful bedroom upstairs.  Would you do the same thing?  Function won this time.  But, I plan to make it so pretty on both sides at the same time!  It’s a win, win in my book!

~Whitney

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20 Comments

  1. I appreciate the photos and details as you did this job. Please post a photo of both sides of the wall for the “after” completion. Was there already a closet, I didn’t see that.

  2. We are about to close our loft area and really like this recessed wall look. We are closing our loft for noise reasons in our entertainment room. Do you have finished photos. Looking for design ideas after the wall is enclosed. Our opening is about half the size.

  3. Hello,

    I would like to enclose my loft area as well. We are running into the same problem as you. The space just isn’t functional. We are in Red Oak TX. Help Please!!

  4. ????

    I built my own using plans that are better than this from www. WoodworkPlans.info – highly recommended you check those out too. They are detailed and super easy to read and understand unlike several others I found online. The amount of plans there is mind-boggling… there’s like 16,000 plans or something like that for tons of different projects. Definitely enough to keep me busy with projects for many more years to come haha

    Head on over to www. WoodworkPlans.info if you want to learn more – click the pink link above for some more plans! Best of luck on your building adventures!

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  5. Hello, thanks for the post.
    Looks like a fun project.
    Do you have a sense of the how much it costed you to do such a conversion?
    Best,

  6. Whitney, Quick Question! Did you built the new walls right overtop of the carpet? The whole thing looks great. Can’t wait to see that daybed.

    1. That’s a good question. I didn’t notice what this observant reader noticed, I was thinking…didn’t the man put down anything to protect the carpet while he was working with plaster? Love the color of the walls and I would have put a wall there, too.

      1. We did! We plan to replace the carpet soon anyway, so we did build right on top of the existing carpet… We can just cut it away when we install the new stuff! We did the same thing in my daughter’s room! 🙂

    2. We did! We plan to replace the carpet soon anyway, so we did build right on top of the existing carpet… We can just cut it away when we install the new stuff! We did the same thing in my daughter’s room!

  7. How fortunate that you have a closet in that space!! You must have been thinking waaay ahead when you built! 🙂

  8. Love it! You know with the recessed accent wall you could maybe incorporate some mirrors in whatever decor you decide to use in that space and it should reflect some of the light you do get in the living room. Then it will be a win win on both sides of the wall! 🙂 Can’t wait to see the finished room!