Shall we open this up completely or make it a cupboard?

[MrsDarcy4092]

Hello

We have a half landing which is 1.6m by 1.6 m with a big window so we are creating a study in this area. We've discovered that to the left of the area behind a wall is quite a large open space ( 2.5 m by 1.6m) but with half head height for one foot then dropping into the eaves. My husband wants to create a cupboard out of this area to put shelving to hide all our books and printer etc but I think it could be better opening up completely to make the floor area bigger.

What's your opinion?

You're not gaining usable floor area with the ceiling that low though. I'd almost definitely make it into a cupboard.

Stick up a photo though to feed my storage envy.

Cupboard : areas look bigger with decent storage.

These are all I have on my phone but will take more later. Thanks for your help!

Cupboard. I love a good bit of storage

Cupboard.

Did you just randomly knock a hole in your wall?!

I'd go for storage too. Is the second picture what you are seeing when you look through the hole you've created in the first picture?

Love seeing DIY projects and getting ideas!

Sorry. I'm really struggling to picture what's behind the wall. I probably should have ☕️☕️ before asking these questions as it might be perfectly obvious, but it's not to me right now 😖

What do you mean by 'half head hight for a foot'? Do you mean it's waist high? As high as your ears? Do both directions drop off to eaves?

Does the length go towards the big window?

Can you put a sky light above the space?

I'd also chop the top end of the handrail off so it lines up with the window frame, stopping before crossing the small window.

Id be so excited to find a secret space in my house!

Looks massive so I can see what you mean about keeping it open, but if you don't have full head height then it would just be dead space.

Think of all of the crap you could hide in a cupboard like that! Much more accessible than loft space.

Actually, looking again, is the big window on the gable end?

This appears to go into the eaves, I would use it as cupboard space, not sure about the structural element/building regs of making it into the normal room space, if that makes sense. May sound a bit OTT but it resembles a cupboard on my second floor that is just used for access to the lighting of the bathroom below and would need extra work to strengthen it for acceptable floor space.

Ok. Maybe I need a trip to the opticians, or can I just blame the small screen 😁

I can see now that the 'small' window is downstairs, not a small 'foot window' as I first thought.

Which end is the gable end?

MyLocal. That was my thought too. My loft space has 3 parts. The largest part was made into an (illegal) bedroom (we only use it for storage) and the floor is really solid, thick wood over the full length rafters. One of the other two pieces are the same and used to house the cold water tank so I'd happily use that for storage. The third piece is over the kitchen/bathroom and I used to walk on that too, until the bathroom fitter/builder was here and we realised that the rafters don't go across there, it's basically an open square that someone nailed (yes nailed) a wood frame into, to support a ceiling over the kitchen/bathroom 😳 I'm bloody lucky I never ended up going through it!

I will upload better photos when I go home. We've had it looked at by a structural engineer whose said its fine to open up and we e got builders booked to do it all properly. We one day couldn't account for what the space was behind the wall so knocked a hole it in and were surprised by how enormous it was.

It seems cupboards are winning over opening it up though. So good to get opinions, thank you.

Putting a cupboard in will be much cheaper too.

I maybe wasn't very clear - apologies. We're going to open up the space but the option is whether to put doors on it so it's a walk in storage area or leave it open and then have built in units like shelving to store things.

Here are two more photos . First one shows the 1.6X1.6 half landing which is going to be our new study area. To the left you can see a whole in the wall - we can take that wall down and it opens up into a 1.6xroughly 2.5 space but not full head height as its in the eaves (pic 2). It's just a question on whether having q door put it in is a good idea so uts a walk in storage area or open with shelving and cupboards but will be open onto the study area.

I'm going to buck the trend and say open it up (with eaves cupboards when the ceiling slope drops to about 75 cm height). The additional 'visual' floor space you'll gain will make a big difference to that area and change it from being an office squeezed into a half-landing to a proper usuable home office. I definitely think opening it up would add more value than creating what will be a huge storage area.

Horray!! Someone agrees with me 😀

Open it up

Oh that looks totally different. I wouldn't like a walk in storage area (you're just gonna throw crap on the floor) if that's the case.

I don't know why but I thought it was teenier even though you did give measurements and everything.

bedroom for young sorcerer

I'd open it up as it will make the space look and feel bigger but I would build in good bookshelves or whatever so that it's easy to keep tidy.

I would open it up actually.

Another vote for opening up.

Definitely leave it open, it'll feel so much bigger. Good deep shelves on all the walls and a strict 'no crap on the floor' rule.

Open it up with storage built into the back/low height bits