When Carie Davis, a former industrial designer and now investor in the circular economy, bought this 1920 bungalow in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood, it had its share of problems. The foundation was in bad shape and needed to be shored up. At some point, the home had suffered both a fire and water damage, so the roof was wrecked.

But after Carie consulted her friend from college, architect Adam Ruffin, the wart became a win. “The genesis of the design started with the replacement of the roof,” says Ruffin, who’s a partner at the New York City– and Virginia-based Architecturefirm.

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

Before: Front Porch

After: Front Porch

Rebuilding a roof is expensive, but since it needed to be done to make the home livable, the pair started brainstorming how they could take advantage of the situation. “Her initial response was, ‘All right, maybe we can change the roof line,” recalls Ruffin.

The home’s location in a historic district, however, meant no substantial alterations were allowed to be visible from the street. Says Ruffin, “So then [the question] became, ‘If you don’t expand the floor plan or the roof volume, what can we do within that envelope?’”

Before: Living and Dining Room

The bungalow had a standard layout: It was essentially split down the middle with living spaces on one side of the home, and three bedrooms and two baths on the other. The design solution was to retain that layout, but give it a twist by vaulting the ceiling and creating a loft space above the bedroom core.

Non-load-bearing walls were then removed between the living spaces to open things up even more. Now, 10 skylights flood the loft and living spaces with natural light, and Carie has even more living space in what was formerly an unused attic.

After: Living and Dining Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Once the shell was structurally sound, Carie completed much of the finish work herself, from tiling the bathrooms to building the loft ladder. The pair kept the existing floors, repairing and patching them, and pulled off the cladding on the fireplace, which was unstable and had to be removed, to reveal the original brick. Its presence is a nod to the home’s past.

Similarly, while the palette was kept simple—white walls and trim, for the most part—Ruffin’s design specified sections of the new ceiling framework to be exposed. “It was an interesting thing to express some of what had been done, so you didn’t come into this plastic white space,” says Ruffin, noting how the beams create texture.

Before: Main Suite

After: Main Suite

After: Bedroom

After: Hall Bathroom

After: Loft

After: Rear Exterior

It’s a transformation belied by the house’s traditional exterior. “These Craftsman bungalows are everywhere in Atlanta,” says Ruffin. “So to have this complete reimagining of the interiors is really surprising. It’s bright and big, which is not how most of those houses ever feel.”

More Before & After:

An Architect and His Friend Tackle a DIY Remodel of a Lakeside Cottage

A Surfer’s San Francisco Home Helps Keep an Eye on the Waves

Project Credits:

Architecture: Architecturefirm / @architecturefirm

Builder: Greenehead Construction

Structural Engineering: Erudite Engineering

Metalwork: Fred Martin Welding

Marble Counters: Associated Imports

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Before & After: An Airy Loft Opens Up a 1920 Bungalow in Atlanta