Separated from the formal area of your home above the places you want to keep organized and tidy but still be part of the open plan design is the loft.
From the loft, there is a separated space that still benefits from the floor-to-ceiling windows present in many log and timber home. The loft offers sweeping views of the great room with a birds-eye view of upper windows and an openness that includes it in the open floor plan’s hub of downstairs activity.
Versatility
Once a builder’s technique to give the appearance of additional space in tight urban apartments and a way to provide for a sleeping-quarters that wasn’t in the main living room, the loft has grown to be a favorite transitional space, family room, office area, library, game room, workout room, guest/sleepover nook and a place to change purposes as families grow and grow up.
Aesthetics
Architecturally, Log Home lovers quickly incorporated the idea of a loft in a range of ways. The Loft provides a break to the soaring ceilings and allows part of an open floor space ground level home to have a lower and cozier ceiling.
Functionality
Frequently, a loft breaks the great room space from the kitchen or dining area. It provides more intimacy in those areas but leaves them open to the great room and keeps the line of sight to the features of the great room that may include covered porches, floor to ceiling windows and decks.
Privacy
Loft lovers quickly find that the prospects of a retreat from the main section of the home lures you to the upstairs area. For young families, it almost always becomes a play area in which toys don’t have to be put away every day and children can use their imaginations to spread out in a space that is easily monitored by the adults.
Recreation
As children grow up, the loft transitions to a homework area, teen hangout, video game space, tv and recreational space. Teens remake the loft into a cozy area to be with friends while still in earshot of parents. And while teens tend to disappear for a few years of wanting that privacy, the loft keeps them integrated into the general swing of the family.
Hospitality
Lofts are perfect multi-purpose spaces for guests. While the room can serve any number of everyday needs, it is an area of the home that can quickly welcome visitors for the night. While part of the home, a loft also has the potential to provide a private sleeping quarters for the people who come with suitcases.
Transitions
For empty-nesters, a loft offers the option for a Library area, home office or area to do all those crafts that have been tucked into every drawer and closet. With or without the TV, Xbox or pool table, lofts offer a quiet space for adult work and play without taking space in the main living space of the home.
Tranquility
And for those who have always wanted that perfect Zen spot for Yoga, a treadmill, weights and workout smart walls, lofts offer a perfect spot to exercise without the equipment dominating the living space of the home.
Whatever the period of growing up and growing out your family may be experiencing, consider a Loft as a way to create the perfect way to build out your space. Your sales representative or dealer will work with Honest Abe’s in-house design team to best utilize the loft in your new home.
Exclusive to Honest Abe Living, this article was written by Amy Green, partner at CSllc Consulting.
A very spacious loft (above) in the two-story, traditional log cabin separates a guest room from a children’s room. There’s a full bath to serve the area, which includes space for sitting and using the computer. With so much floor space, the area is easily converted for other uses during sepecial events and extended family visits.
The homeowners of this Honest Abe timber frame created an office space in their loft for their small business.
More of a passageway than a loft overlooking the great room, this wide catwalk terminates in a large loft that is a craft, sewing and activity room.
Custom designed, the loft in this eclectic log cabin has a sitting room outside the guest bedroom that overlooks the great room. The balustrade is crafted from locally sourced red cedar and dried privet bush branches.
A massive chimney that rises two stories through the center of Crossville’s Honest Abe Log Home’s Cambridge model home has a gas insert in the loft fireplace to warm a very cozy reading nook.
The loft in the lakeside home enables the homeowners to see the lake though the great room windows and also have a separate space for watching television, playing games, using computer or reading.
