Homeandgarden: Like it cozy? A loft may not be for you

Like it cozy? A loft may not be for you

By JUDY STARK

Living in a loft would be so cool.

Those huge windows, overlooking a cityscape . . . a vast space, unencumbered by walls . . . exposed ductwork, industrial lighting . . . it would feel like SoHo or San Francisco!

It probably would. It might also feel drafty, noisy and dusty, say loft dwellers and interior designers who have furnished model lofts in several cities.

As Tampa Bay area developers and builders create more residential lofts and loft-style projects, here's advice about living in and furnishing these unusual dwellings.

"You definitely have to understand loft living to live in those spaces," said Joanne Siciliano of the Riha Design Group in Chicago, which has designed lofts for several builders there.

"The whole beauty of loft living is not to have restrictions, to have all open spaces," said Jill Vantosh, who heads her own design firm in Atlanta. "With that beauty come obstacles that people have had to learn to live with. They're not used to having their whole kitchen exposed or their whole bedroom open to another room."

Start with those vast spaces. You may find that your furniture is dwarfed by towering ceilings and lost in uninterrupted square footage, and you'll have to invest in oversized pieces.

You'll also have to find a way to break up the space according to how you'll use it: living area, dining, office, reading or music room. "I use area rugs a lot," said Kelly Wallman, owner of San Francisco Design in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, who recently designed loft models in a former chocolate factory in Salt Lake City. The rugs divide areas by use and also help to muffle sound (more about that in a minute).

She recommends "airy and open" pieces to separate one area from another, such as screens, open-sided bookcases and room dividers. Freestanding furniture pieces must be finished on both sides so unsightly raw wood is not on view. Wallman uses potted trees to separate spaces and to provide something vertical to fill in all that space between floor and ceiling.

Noise control is an unanticipated problem in loft living. "You're always going to hear what's going on in the next room. It's the same room," Vantosh said. Those hard edges -- wood or concrete floors, high ceilings, exposed metal ductwork, huge windows -- are going to toss the sound around. If your loft has no walls to separate rooms, you may be engaging in dueling sound systems or sharing very public phone conversations with the people you live with.

Claudia Banks, 39, lives in the Paper Place Loftominium south of the Loop in Chicago, a onetime paper manufacturing plant and warehouse. The loft has 15-foot ceilings; her bedroom has 9-foot walls; she has TVs in her bedroom and in the living room. She once had a guest staying there for several months, "and it was the battle of the TVs," she recalled. "When we were both trying to watch, it was, "Can you turn that down a little?' "

Designers recommend using rugs, draperies, upholstered furniture, pillows and throws to absorb some of the sound. They warm up and soften big spaces that can feel cold and industrial. So can bright colors and well-chosen accessories. "Think about having things out on a kitchen counter that are a little bit homey. That doesn't mean country, just personal touches," Wallman said.

If you're already accustomed to a great-room floor plan, with the kitchen open to the family area, loft living may be an easy transition for you. "Your kitchen is basically part of your living room and dining room space" in a loft, Siciliano of Chicago said. That means your unwashed dishes and food preparation mess may be in full view.

Siciliano likes to use cabinetry panels to disguise a refrigerator and suggests double-stacking cabinets for more storage. (You've got all that vertical space; you might as well use it.) Other designers recommend upgrading the quality of the kitchen cabinetry, since it will be on full view.

With their vast cubic footage, lofts may develop their own microclimates; warm air rises, and vast expanses of glass expose the occupants to summer's heat and winter's cold. It's hard to have zoned air-conditioning in what is essentially one huge room. Some loft occupants in colder parts of the country have complained that the downstairs is chilly while upstairs sleeping lofts are too hot.

Huge expanses of glass are one of loft living's big selling points, but look closely. Which way do they face? Will you be overwhelmed by eastern light every morning? Can you add blinds or draperies for light control? At night those same windows can seem like black holes. You may feel less exposed if you have some kind of window covering for the times you're not admiring the view (and when you don't want to be the view for your neighbors).

Some lofts have first-floor interior bedrooms without windows but with walls that don't rise to the ceiling (they're called "soft lofts" in Chicago) to allow some light to enter. Look closely at how dark or bright these areas are: "You want to avoid the cave look," Siciliano said.

Look closely, too, at closet space, which is often not abundant in lofts. You may want to use closet organizers to maximize those you do have and add armoires or other storage pieces.

That raises the issue of the neatness factor. When your entire home is visible at a glance, items that are out of place can make the whole space look untidy. If your home office looks like a paper avalanche, or if you want to spread out a work or craft project and leave it there for days at a stretch, ask yourself if you can live with that without a door you can close on it. This may be the place for folding screens or room dividers on wheels.

"Living in a loft made me become a lot neater because occasionally people drop by without calling, and you don't want to be caught with a messy apartment," Banks said.

"We end up being more clean and tidy than we were in a traditional house where you could hide things," said Kim Markham, who lives with her husband and teenage daughter in a loft in Tampa's Channel district, a former truck-repair garage. "If you do drop a sock in the middle of the room, the sock stands out."

Markham said keeping a loft clean "is way easier" than keeping house in a traditional home. Her loft has polished concrete floors and "steel, concrete and glass," and is "the cleanest home I've ever had."

But at Baldwin's loft in Chicago, where the window wall is made of exposed brick, "It's a daily hassle trying to keep the place dust-free." The exposed ductwork that is a loft hallmark requires "a ladder to get you up there, and we're talking a ladder at least 10 feet tall." The other "must-have is one of those extended poles" so she can wipe away the inevitable dust bunnies and spiderwebs.

Finally, don't forget about location, location, location. Loft conversions are likely to be in warehouse or industrial neighborhoods that are essentially empty once the workday ends. Who else lives there? How early does noisy work begin at the factory across the alley? Will you feel comfortable coming home alone after dark? If you have children, are there other kids for them to play with, and areas away from heavy truck traffic and loading docks where they can play or ride their bikes? Are the neighborhood features you want already there, or are you willing to wait for them to arrive: a coffee shop, newsstand, hardware store, grocery store? When the initial thrill wears off, will this be a place that feels like home?