or how about this? [kitchen design revisited]
Remember those sketchup images that we posted last week? The ones we were all excited about? Well, they are officially old news…put them in your virtual recycling bin because Kyle has busted out some mad sketchup skills on this revised design.
This week we started thinking more about lighting, which led to thinking more about the ceiling, which led to vaulting the ceiling. It’s an idea we’ve tossed around for a while. Originally, our plan was to vault the living room space and do a loft over the back half of the house. Concerns about loft head height and acoustical separation from the bedroom below eventually nixed that idea. But because we will be creating a long and narrow kitchen/dining/living space, we also wanted to avoid the “bowling alley” effect. Here’s what we’re thinking:
We’ll vault the ceiling over the kitchen and dining area. Not only should this do wonders for general volume of the space, but it also allows us to add some skylights. This is our south-facing wall and in Seattle, we’ll take all the light we can get. The vertical window at the dining area is actually an extra window that’s sitting in our basement. We’d been thinking about a way to try to use it and we like the playfulness of the window-to-skylight composition. The skylight “wells” around the glass will be splayed out in an effort to bounce more light into the space. Ideally, with this setup we’ll be able to avoid turning on lights during the day.
The skylight in the kitchen will frame the view of the large Douglas Fir tree in our neighbor’s yard. The metal picture rail at the back splash is for spices and we’ll extend it (visually) to the dining room wall as a place for art, candles, whatever. We’re still working on the lighting design. We like what we have, but we’re just not sure it’s in the budget. But it’s also important to get it right. We know all too well the effects of really bad lighting.
The steel members at the vaulted area are tie rods, which not only look cool (well, to architects at least) but they are necessary to tie the roof structure together since we’ll be removing all the joists in this area. [Similar to what we did at the front porch.] For the vaulted ceiling, we’re thinking about some type of tongue and groove paneling painted white.
This view is standing in the kitchen looking back towards the dining and living area with a glimpse of the bedroom to the right. [The dark wall behind the translucent man is a peek into what will be the 2nd bedroom.] The built-in bench to the left of the table will have extra storage space under the seat.
A similar view with the sliding doors in their closed position.
And there’s the linen drum pendant we saw in the West Elm catalog! The shelf to the left will double as a guard rail for the stairs down to the basement and a shelving/storage unit. [In a small house, every inch counts!]
And here we are standing at the front door. In the living room, our ceiling joists run north-south so the plan is to first install plywood or some type of subfloor in the attic, then tear out the lath and plaster and leave the joists exposed. We think this will be an interesting expression of the old house and will add a bit of extra height to the space. The piece of furniture between the dining and living area will serve as a room divider and storage space. (The yellow panel will slide over to hide the TV.) The unit will also be on casters so we can push it out of the way if we need to accommodate more people at the table. [Unfortunately, we don't actually own any of the furniture in this model (except for the table).] Here’s hoping we find an Eames chair on the side of the road with a “free” sign on it!
So that’s where we’re at. The design is bound to change some more and we still have lots of finishes and materials to finalize, but we really like the direction things are heading.
Looks great…although your “east-west” running ceiling joists are running north-south.
How do you attach those tie rods?
Looks amazing!
i really like the smaller details that you all are putting into this design – extending the spice rack into the dining area, and the bookshelf/railing for the stairs. i think the idea of the skylights would do some amazing things to the space, hopefully you are able to find a way to make that work with the budget!
ps – i really just need to give in and put my house in sketchup too…
Ryan, The tension rods will be 5/8″ o.d. galvanized electrical conduit that fit as a sleeve over a piece of all thread (like the tie rod at entry porch) The all Thread is screwed into metal plate with female end that is attached to the ceiling rafters in the attic. It’s a somewhat tricky detail but very achievable, might have to have a custom plate fabricated for the connection. It also needs to be adjustable to allow for initial movement in tensioning and setting.
Looks wonderful – what a good idea to make the most of a small space
so… these rods… are these secondary to collar ties that are higher on the rafters in the attic space? or are they acting as the collar ties alone?? Amy and I go back and forth about vaulting our living/dining/kitchen ceilings for this very same issue. does the all thread deflect or anything? depending on the heat and what not?and if so, do you just allow it some wiggle room where it breaks the ceiling plane?? just curious, and figured I would pick your brain, instead of it rattling around in mine for so long…
Wow, I love it! It makes the space seem so much bigger. The added vertical window and extended spice rack are great touches too. I’m no architect but I’d love to see a conduit covered tie rod too.
One question: What kind of insulation do you have in your attic or what are you planning to put up there? We have a vaulted ceiling in our dining room and it is much cooler partially because of the lack of insulation above it. You’re in Seattle right? Looking in my trusty ASHRAE 90.1 (yeah I know I’m a nerd) it says you need an R-38 or higher for residential homes in your area. As you probably already know that is just the base case every LEED building is modeled against (if they go for EA cr1). So I would highly suggest investing in some top of the line spray insulation because there is no way you could fit anything near R-38 in that area otherwise. Or you could lower the ceiling slightly to allow for more insulation and just have extra deep skylight jambs.
Just a suggestion.
Hi Robin,
Good observation on the insulation! Right now we’re planning on furring down the rafters on the south side and filling the bays with multiple layers of rigid insulation (for an r-value of about 5 per inch) in order to meet energy requirements. For the opposite side, the framing will be open to the rest of the attic so we’ll rely on loose fill insulation. There is already loose insulation up there, but we’ll eventually add more to minimize heat loss. We’d love to do spray insulation but I don’t think it’s in the budget. Fortunately we have a pretty temperate climate here in Seattle so it’s not as critical to super-insulate the envelope.
yey for mech engineers and energy efficiency! Washington state energy code (WSEC) is in fact R-38 for zone 1 (west of the mountains) but there is exception for single rafter vaulted ceilings less than 12 inches in depth that allow a 1 inch venting space as long as it’s not more than 500 sf of ceiling area. We’re furring down with 2×8′s which are 7.25″ actual depth. After subtracting for the 1 inch air space below the roof sheathing you wind up with 6.25″ for insulation. Using friction fit Rigid insulation of R-5 per inch gives us exactly R-30 with 6 inches of insulation. Maybe we should consider adding a few inches of insulation for good measure. On the attic side I think R-38 batts would do a better job of holding on the slope as opposed to loose fill insulation which could slide over time.
Ha, if we had collar ties in the attic. Right now the only thing keeping the south wall of the house from splaying out is the tension force provided by the existing ceiling joists. Since we will be removing those to vault the ceiling, we need to provide a tension element to hold it all together otherwise the south wall of the house would want to be tipped out by the force exerted by the roof rafters. The metal rods are of course good in tension but provide no real compression. The other option would be to add wood collar ties in the attic that would run from the apex of the new vaulted ceiling across to the other side of the roof. These would not be visible to view but wouldn’t be as efficient as the tension rods and of course the tension rods look cool, maybe even have a turnbuckle in the middle! I still have yet to design the connection detail.