Look Up: There May Be Living Room in the Attic

salem1 says:

Love all the attic conversions. But sitting here in -26C wondering if that could be possible in Canadian winters

stephanieells says:

Yes it can! We have a great attic conversion in Revelstoke, BC. Just a little extra insulation...

rosiew says:

I have a room over the garage. Here in Atlanta it's referred to as a bonus room. Prob is that it's hot hot hot in the summer. Grandkids come downstairs sweating, albeit happy. Has anyone worked out a solution to this? I'd love to triple its functionality by using as a craft room also.

heypam says:

Same problem with our bonus room. Too cold in the winter, too hot in the summer. And we have new insulation!

Jason Shepard says:

We converted our attic space when we had to join three households together into one due to the economic recession. Our attic now contains 3 bedrooms surrounding a family room with a small kitchenette and a 1/2 bath. It was amazing to find out how much space was actually up there. Now if we could only dig out the basement deeper to make it usable for more living space...

W. David Seidel, AIA - Architect says:

Very helpful information Shawn, let me just add some building code requirements that are specific to California. If an attic was empty or used for storage and will be turned into living space, that is considered a vertical addition. A horizontal addition would be adding a room on the ground level. Any vertical addition in California forces the whole house to be brought up to current seismic code with new foundations and shearwalls. On an average house in San Francisco, that could add anywhere from $100k to $200k to the project base cost. On the other hand, the remodeled house will be able to survive a serious earthquake and might be the only one left standing on the street ... where ever the project might be located, it is always best to discuss it with a licensed architect in the early stages.

CAROLE MEYER says:

Best looking attics ever!

rgillenwater says:

Our attic is huge and would make great additional living space. The problem is, there is only a 2 x 2 access through the main level ceiling that you have to use a ladder for, so even storage is out of the question. Our house is very small and we'd be sacrificing valuable space on the main level to put in a stairway. It saddens me everytime I think about all that unused space up there.

hajibrahimrana says:

i love everything you post, thank you

diddlede says:

Just love all these ideas for use of attic space. So glad you posted them.

Ann Smitt says:

Thanks for posting the attic space ideas. We have an attic bedroom that is a challenge to decorate. Seeing pictures of real attic rooms helps to get our creative juices flowing to find the right solutions for us. Great job.

Nancy Langdell says:

THis is what I plan to do with my space over my garage. It's big enough to make into an appartment for myself and rent out the rest of the house!

homer9 says:

my attic is not tall enough, so i guess it would entail ripping off the old shallow roof and adding a new one that would be higher.Has anyone ever done this?

peggle says:

We finished the interior of our Chicago bungalow attic for our bedroom which is a nice size and a small bath with a shower off the hallway. We did this years ago without needing to dormer. We had 71/2 ft? in the center. I would have liked to dormer and add more height on the sides for larger closets and more head room I the bathroom but still too costly however thanks to this picture with the builtin drawers and cabinets I realized the solution has always been there. I have come back to this picture and gone to the builder site for pictures of the entire 2nd floor remodel more times than I can count. Lots of attic bathroom pictures on Houzz too. Love this site.