Update on Top Design Loft Challenge!




Linda Merrill of :::Surroundings::: is hosting a design challenge. Think you can design a better space for the lofts used in the final challenge of Top Design? Well, show us! Go over to :::Surroundings::: and get all the information. There will be a poll to determine a winner and there will be a prize! I don't think a deadline has been announced but get those entries in soon!

Click here for the main Loft Challenge entry with the contest instructions!

And keep checking back to the main :::Surroundings::: site for new entries!

Here's mine:

Sorry about the quality but I printed out the basic floor plan, drew on it, used wite-out on it, taped pictures of furniture on it, photocopied the finished product, then faxed it to Linda, who scanned it and posted it! Yeah, that picture's been through a lot!

Anyway, Linda did a terrific job with the floor plan. We didn't have the exact measurements so everything is approximate but I think it's pretty close. One interesting note is that you can look at some floor plans at the Santa Fe Lofts website and one of the plans shows the loft used on the show (it looks different because the bathroom is smaller and the main entrance has been closed off to make a walk-in closet, but it's the same plan). There are no measurements on the plan so it doesn't help in recreating it perfectly but the interesting part is that it says the total square footage is 1,400 square feet. On the show we are told the lofts are 1,700 square feet. That's a big difference!

I designed it for Matt's needs for a master bedroom and a smaller child's room. The master bedroom takes up the general footprint of the daughter's room on his plan but I attached it to the window to make it bigger. So this adds windows to the bedroom without really taking away any of the living space.

I added the smaller bedroom in the oddly-shaped, mostly unused entry space by the front door and moved the front door to the kitchen. I think in a loft apartment it is appropriate to enter near the kitchen and this door actually opens into a hall space leading into the living rooms so I think that works fine. Alternately, if you really want to keep the front door where it was, you could add a hallway above at the top of the smaller bedroom, which would create a very small, narrow space that is roughly the same size and shape of the room Matt created for his daughter. the difference is that this space would have windows.

I like having a nice open kitchen. That wasn't really possible here but I removed the hall closet to add a breakfast area and open up the kitchen a little bit to the main living areas. I think that connects the spaces a little bit and you should actually be able to see some of the windows from the kitchen.

So, those are my ideas. Get your ideas in to Linda!