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Dormer expansion- what’s possible?


Hello! Posting as we are looking to add a primary bathroom into our bedroom. if you are looking at our house head on in this photo, it is the left dog house dormer shed. The current closet extends between the two dormers.


we have explored adding onto the left side of the house but it would be over the dining room and make the ceiling lower. Our primary bedroom is huge and i believe if we could expand the dormer we would have enough room for a bathroom within the existinf square footage.


does anyone have any suggestions? the only thing i have seen that ’makes sense’ to me is a nantucket dormer. thank you!

Comments (10)

  • PRO
    Patricia Colwell Consulting
    last year
    last modified: last year

    IMO touching those dormers will make the exterior look bad. Maybe post a to scale floor plan of the space you are working with and we might be able to help.IMO you either go all the way across the top and have a shed dormer the whole width (BTW not attractive on that house ) or you leave the dormers as they are Maybe a Nantucket but you would need your architect give you good drawings of the change The to scale plan could give you some ideas at least .I guess my question would be what would you then end up with behind the center part of the Nantucket.

  • Meredith Davis
    Original Author
    last year


    Thanks for your reply @Patricia Colwell Consulting ! here is a drawing of thr existing conditions with the current primary bedroom highlighted. the shed portion of a nantucket dormer would be the portion that is over the stairs, currently a closet. my thinking is this coild be incorporated into the primary suite as it is today but with a full height ceiling making it more useable space.

  • PRO
    Steveworks LLC
    last year

    I agree with Patricia, Any thought adding the bath in the rear next to the existing bath ( the plumbing and drains are already there) maybe a shed dormer, maybe move the existing part way into the adjacent bedroom?

  • Meredith Davis
    Original Author
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @Steveworks LLC We would have to move the bedroom door and would still have the issues with the room not being large enough and needing more space in the front of the room bc of where the chimney sits and the dormers.

    the adjacent bedroom is already pretty small so im hesitant to try to steal space there

    we’ve thought about building out to the left but would change the dining room ceiling height below and is more $$

  • Meredith Davis
    Original Author
    last year

    Do you mean a shed dormer off the side of th house? the roof is already full height in the back of the house

  • ptreckel
    last year

    Is this what you are thinking of doing? The issue is that your current dormers do not have a break with roofing beneath them, so the dormer won’t look continuous as it does in this photo.

  • Meredith Davis
    Original Author
    last year

    @ptreckel that is what i am thinking but that is a good point about the roof. another idea i had is doing

    something like this photo and jait expanding the dormer in the master.


    hoping people some other ideas! i’m stumped.

  • ptreckel
    last year

    WhileI like the look of what you posted, above, it won’t solve your problem. As I see it…you want/need continuous ceiling height for headroom space across the front of your house to accommodate the bathroom. What you show, above, is one slightly wider dormer, but the two sides of it have limited headroom. An option would simply be to eliminate your two dormers and replace the entire span of the roof (with modest set backs on either side) with a shed dormer. You could set the shed dormer back a bit to have a roof line separating the shed dormer from the facade of the first floor. I don’t have the skills to mock it up for you, but I am sure that someone here could do that!

  • Meredith Davis
    Original Author
    last year
    last modified: last year

    This is very crude but thinking of something like this


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