Thinking outside the box

Wow, another beautiful day in Ottawa, so far!! We haven’t had many days like this so enjoy it while you can. I wanted to tell you today about an interesting project I worked on recently. This client has an 80 year old house and has done the upkeep over the years so it is in very good condition for its age. Like so many people over the last few years he wanted more space but wasn’t willing to give up his large beautiful yard to move to a new larger home. He has always wanted a den and space that his daughter and his grandkids could use while they visit from away. The solution, why not make the one space serve both purposes? This home had a very large attic space that would do the trick. So we designed the space with both functions in mind. The biggest challenge we had is how to get furniture up the very tight stairs. Ideally he would have liked a sleeper sofa but that was out of the question without doing some major redesign of the stair case which the client was not willing to do. Which, by the way, I agree with. In my opinion the stairs, as they are and as they were originally built, add so much character that changing them just to get furniture up the stairs would have been wrong. What I proposed was a davenport style sofa where the back folds down turning it into a bed. I found the smallest one I could that would still allow it to be used as a bed. There was still an issue with size so on the delivery day I had a re-upholstery company (who better to know how to do this) go to the house and take the davenport apart and take it up to the attic in pieces and re-assembled it. The client was thrilled. Take a look at the before and after pictures. I think you will agree it turned out beautifully. The reason I am telling this story is to let you know you have to think outside the box to make things happen. Another such story happen a couple of years ago. One the designers with our company worked with a client and he wanted this large wall unit for his living room. The problem again was stairs. The condo townhouse unit was a split level where you come in the front door to a large foyer but then you have to turn and go up the stairs into the living room. There was no way this was going up. So the designer spoke to Jerome, my husband and business partner and he told her it could be done if the client was open to an idea. All we had to do is rent a boom truck (with the driver) and lift the unit (well protected with furniture blankets) over the back yard fence on to his deck and walk the unit into the living room through the patio door. The client was thrilled. Think outside the box!!