5H, a "Mini" loft upgrade..

The pictures below are of a space I upgraded for a client in the loft district. The space was basically a huge cube with curvy sloping floors but so much potential. Client purchased space as investment hoping to eventually move to Philadelphia from New York in a few years, but have it rented out until then... Issues: Kitchen was totally non functional after being installed by a shotty carpenter, lighting, wall color and vast space had no sense of zones or gravity...well, other than the sloping floors:) Bathroom was sparse and rough as well as no storage could be found anywhere.

Biggest question potential renters asked, "where's the bedroom?" We in the Loft world often smile and say "wherever you like", but often to someone who truly doesn't know or have that gift of spacial vision, it's a turn off and the space went vacant for over a year, even at a very low price.

I wish I had the photos of the space before the work was done other than these camera phone picks, but please try to use some patient imagination:)

I planned to give a privacy wall for the sleeping area, but wanted to keep the feel of open loft space by keeping the wall low, in this case I used the standard 8ft height.

I like the sliding/rolling doors because they take up no floorspace when they open and close, making hallways and entry areas have less of a flow obstruction when using them. In keeping with the "factory" feel, I proposed to make the bedroom door a rolling old timber style door. I couldn't find anything from my sources for this type of hardware and doors other than 1 ton steel 6ft wide doors...so I made one from scratch and even made the track and wheels..everything. The wood was salvaged from another old factory building that was being demolished and the steel is all raw, hot rolled new stock steel. Wheels were cut from a shopping cart:)

Kitchen was then removed, walls reinforced and re-installed. Lighting was changed to dimming track lights and some walls were painted different soft earth tones to help designate zones of use.

3 days after completing this project the place rented, it was the first person to see the place after renovation, the leasing agents said it was immediate:)

The client is still happy to this day and is planning to move next year to her "new" loft. We have plans for higher end improvements, upgrades and possibly a lounge area above the kitchen/bath:)