Attic Bedrooms
An attic bedroom tends to have a different feel from other bedrooms. It is usually the warmest place, as heat rises, and has a degree of privacy not possible in the rest of the house. It is rarely overlooked and often has an attractive bird’s eye view of the surrounding area.rea.
An attic bedroom must have a fixed staircase a folding ladder leading to a hatch will not do. But the stairs can be narrow and twisting, or even spiral, check your local planning regulations.
DECORATION
Choose a scheme which mch makes the attic bedroom look more spacious. In general, small patterns work best and light colours are more suitable than dark – unless you want a dramatic effect.
Whether you treat the sloping areas as walls or ceiling depends largely on what proportion of the room is pitched. A large expanse of flat ceiling can be treated separately from slopes and wall but if there is little true ceiling, bothareas are best handled as one. If there is a low area of flat wall below the slopes you could treat this as a dado and paint or paper it to accent the main pattern or colour.
If you want to carry the same wallpaper up one wall, across the ceiling and down the other side, choose a random or abstract pattern. If a design has a definite right way up on one side of the room it will turn disconcertingly upside down on the other and you may get a jarring effect where a flat end wall meets the ceiling. Instead, choose an allover design of flowerheads, a mini-print or a small geometric pattern.
CONVERSION
If you need an extra bedroodroom, a loft or attic may be ideal for conversion. Some types of roof construction easily lend themselves to conversion, others make the job more difficult or even impossible.
You may need planning permission and, in any case, you are subject to building regulations which set down minimum standards as to headroom, size of windows, access and so on.
Windows The most easily installed windows are those which follow the roof profile. These can take the form of flush windows let into the roof slope, often with a central pivot for opening. Or fit windows in the vertical gable ends casement, sash, pivot, round portholes or even triangles echoing the gable to suit the exterior style of the house.
Dormers have the advantage of giving you extra headroom but involve a little more structural work. They also need careful handling in order not to spoil the overall look of the house, One small dormer, roofed and gabled to sympathize with the existing structure can be a very attractive feature; a long dormer incorporating windows and flat areas of wall needs more thought to avoid giving the house a top-heavy appearance.
USING THE SPACE
Part of the the attraction of an attic bedroom is its irregular shape sloping ceilings, unusual windows and interesting nooks and crannies.
Often the usable area is long and rather narrow which offers several options. You may decide on two bedrooms, or one larger bedroom together with its own bathroom.
Another possibility is to have just one long bedroom incorporating a seating area or study.
You may find there are existing features which naturally split the room, perhaps a chimney stack or beams. Alternatively, you can use the windows to create a division; a window midway along one sloping wall could separate a seating area from a sleeping alcove.
Storage Because of their lor low, sloping ceilings, attics often have wasted space where there is not room to _ stand upright. But this space can make useful storage; cupboards built into the eaves have the advantage of being unobtrusive.
If you need taller hanging space than is possible with an eaves cupboard, you could build in cupboards along a window wall, with low cupboards under the windows and ceiling height wardrobes for the rest of the run.
WINDOW DRESSRESSING
One advantage of an attic bedroom is that it is rarely overlooked, so the window treatment can be purely decorative.
Dormers can be an attractive feature but, as they are often quite deeply recessed, some daylight is cut out of the room, Conventional curtains, even when drawn right back, still cover part of the window, cutting out even more light.
A roller blind is a practical choice but, used on its own, even a patterned blind looks quite severe and is best suited to tailored schemes. Frilly festoons, or roman blinds are softer looking. If there is space above to hang the blind, this will help make the window look taller.
Conventionally hung curtains and blinds are no good for sloping windows. Roller blinds on side runners are a neat solution, as are lengths of sheer fabric threaded on to curtain wire or rods, or curtains hung in the normal way at the top and held against the wall with a horizontal pole.