One Awkward Living Room Feature, a Few Workable Solutions
Small spaces are riddled with awkwardness. Some of that quirkiness is due to the settling of the home, changes in building codes, etc. Other times, the weirdness is created by humans.
I’ve been putting this off for long enough, but the time has come for me to finally deal with what I’m calling the dreaded alcove. Only problem is that it’s not really an alcove. Keep reading as I explain more.
It’s week 7 of the One Room Challenge, and these project update posts are getting shorter and shorter. I thought last week was a doozy. Whew! This week nearly did me in. I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the details via my Instagram. But If you’re just joining me, you can find all the details on the space I’m transforming below:
Week 1: Small Living Room Makeover: The Challenges // Week 2: Mood Board and Floor Plan // Week 3: Lighting Design Plan // Week 4: Wall moldings // Week 5: DiY Fireplace plans // Week 6: Ceiling Decoration // Week 7: Awkward Alcove Dilemma // Week 8: Small Living Room Makeover REVEAL
Awkward Spaces, A Casualty of Multiple Owners
Each owner over the past 115 years has left their mark on this home. Not all “signatures” made were in the best interest of the new homeowner. There is a trail of DIY jobs is that look like… well, DIY jobs. One of them is a situation that we’re calling The Alcove.
Yep, what we’re calling The Alcove, is in reality, a blocked up doorway. After being inside of a good number of homes with this layout I could tell immediately that this doorway connected to what may have been a formal dining room.
Since the 3 story house was being converted to condos, the former dining room (the room on the other side of this doorway and wall) was walled in to create a bedroom. But no one bothered to hide the casings from the old doorway which (judging by the enormous size) might have been the location of French doors. Sigh!
We had LOTS of ideas on how to handle this. All of our ideas were great EXCEPT, due to the housing boom, we were unable to find a contractor. No one could (or would) take time away from a current project to work on this lower paying, much smaller job. To make matters worse, although this job was small, it was meticulous, and would require about 2-3 days of work.
For the sake of entertaining you, here are a few of the options we considered.
If the above ideas all appear to be ambitious goals, it’s because they are. Baw, hahaha! A girl can dream can’t she?
The reality is that our alcove will look A LOT less complicated than any of these. I wish I could show you what it looks like now, but we’re still working on it and honestly I don’t want to frighten you. LOLOL! Yes, I’m laughing but I’m also crying. LOLOL!
Reveal next week!
