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Collection by Kelsey Keith

Tips for Loft Living

Wide open living space is hugely appealing, at least until you have to figure where to store your stuff, and how to separate the bedroom from the kitchen. Here are nine tricks gleaned from the Dwell archives.

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Ornate concrete blocks screen a storage area in the kitchen while letting light through. The effect is “romantic—romantyczny,” says Nix.
Ornate concrete blocks screen a storage area in the kitchen while letting light through. The effect is “romantic—romantyczny,” says Nix.
In the tiny sleeping loft is a platform bed with two drawers beneath it. In place of wallpaper, Schönning enlarged a photograph he snapped in Rio de Janeiro. The inset spotlights and a small shelf at the end of the bed offer light and additional storage. Photo by Per Magnus Persson.
In the tiny sleeping loft is a platform bed with two drawers beneath it. In place of wallpaper, Schönning enlarged a photograph he snapped in Rio de Janeiro. The inset spotlights and a small shelf at the end of the bed offer light and additional storage. Photo by Per Magnus Persson.
Sleeping space is adventurously tucked away in an alcove above the kitchen, accessible by a track ladder that slides along a rail mounted above the counter.
Sleeping space is adventurously tucked away in an alcove above the kitchen, accessible by a track ladder that slides along a rail mounted above the counter.
Raising the bed above floor level, architect Kyu Sung Woo converted this tiny studio into an open and comfortable home for Wonbo Woo. Photos by: Adam Friedberg
Raising the bed above floor level, architect Kyu Sung Woo converted this tiny studio into an open and comfortable home for Wonbo Woo. Photos by: Adam Friedberg
California homeowners Lynda and Peter Benoit designed a functional wooden structure to store books, keepsakes, and clothes. Photo by: Drew Kelly
California homeowners Lynda and Peter Benoit designed a functional wooden structure to store books, keepsakes, and clothes. Photo by: Drew Kelly
When it’s time to eat or do homework, the adults lower the tabletop, revealing a dozen book cubbies.
When it’s time to eat or do homework, the adults lower the tabletop, revealing a dozen book cubbies.
A large OSB structure with skylights, a bathroom, an enclosed baby’s room, and a master sleeping alcove dominates Ryan and Showalter’s Brooklyn loft.
A large OSB structure with skylights, a bathroom, an enclosed baby’s room, and a master sleeping alcove dominates Ryan and Showalter’s Brooklyn loft.
In February of 2007, two San Francisco art and travel addicts purchased a 3,200-square-foot former Chinese laundry and tooth-powder factory with column-free interiors and a zigzagging sawtooth roof in lower Pacific Heights. They customized a pair of shipping containers to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions, and hired a local company to sandblast the interior to expose the board-formed concrete walls and replace the carpeted floors with Georgia hickory pecan planks to further lengthen the loft and make it look more like a warehouse.
In February of 2007, two San Francisco art and travel addicts purchased a 3,200-square-foot former Chinese laundry and tooth-powder factory with column-free interiors and a zigzagging sawtooth roof in lower Pacific Heights. They customized a pair of shipping containers to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions, and hired a local company to sandblast the interior to expose the board-formed concrete walls and replace the carpeted floors with Georgia hickory pecan planks to further lengthen the loft and make it look more like a warehouse.