No.2 Master Suite Renovation

We are moving right along with the renovation over here at the cottage! We are on week two and expecting about another 4 week until it’s finished. That when the REALLY fun part starts, the decorating!

The Demo

As I mentioned in post No. 1 we are turning 3 rooms (2 bedrooms and a bath) into one master suite. Our house was built sometime between 1890- 1900 so to say it has a modern flow to it would be wildly inaccurate. We want to honor the age of the home and keep some of the charm while making the spaces more functional for a modern family.

Bedroom No. 1 sans original closets (if you could even call them that)

One of the more charming features of our home is the total lack of wall space that doesn’t have some type of threshold on it, be it a door or window or a door turned air return vent (seriously). Alternatively, if it isn’t a threshold it’s a fireplace or a staircase or a window seat. So while these features do indeed add to the charm of the house it can make finding a place for furniture difficult, especially beds! We decided to delete the 3 very small closets from the bedrooms.

The two closets in the future master were deleted & we will he removing the window as well. We struggled with the decision to delete a window but it’s the only wall large enough for a queen or king bed to fit comfortably.

Bathroom

Even thought the bathroom is the smallest of the three rooms it’s having the most work done! We removed a linen closet (not pictured) so we could relocated the toilet & incorporate a double vanity! This bath had a single pedestal sink, a little underwhelming for a master bath. We also removed the original cast iron clawfoot. Look, we know. It was a tough decision but it was going to cost us more to refinish it than to buy a new tub & it was a very small, what they call, “child sized” clawfoot. Em was the only one in the house who could enjoy it. So well..

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bedroom No.2 aka future closet

Straight up fan girling over the hopes and dreams of this future closet!! This room was originally accessed from the kitchen, but we deleted that door during the kitchen renovation.. I’m really starting to notice a pattern with doors. We also deleted the original closet for this room, it stuck out into the bathroom & made for a tight awkward space in the bathroom. Since the bathroom isn’t very large we are snagging some space from this room for the shower!

Bedroom No. 1 fully demo’d

There is really nothing I love more than bringing this house down to the studs! I love seeing the near perfectly preserved backside of the 100+ year old clapboard siding. There is just something so magic about it!

Linen closet & L-shaped wall removed to open up space

And you thought I was joking about the air return put into a doorway .. while the door was still there. This is one of the more annoying things about our house that is not original to the home at all. This door was the entrance to the bathroom from the living room. It was the only way in the whole house to access a bathroom without having to walk through a bedroom. (We added a half bath under the stairs which was a game changer!)

since previous owners closed up the doorway for the air return vent in the living room side, they added in a linen closet on the bathroom side. It was actually one of the more thoughtful uses of space previous owners created. The list pretty much starts and stops there.

this space is going to be used for our toilet area & I am so glad it will no longer bump up against the tub!

you can see in the ceiling outlines of walls that were in the bathroom that won’t be coming back! It’s really going to open up the space!

Closet demo’d with shower walls frames in

The closet that dreams are made of! I am so so excited for this room! We are using a little of the space in the closet to expand the bathroom for a shower.

Be sure to check out the fixtures we have selected in the next post!

xo-Kate