The BHG Loft

" Hi, I'm Joe Baum and this is the space we designed for Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. Better Homes and Gardens has always been a family friendly magazine, and of course we're family oriented. Our designed philosophy has always been to make a family as basically as comfortable as they could possibly be within their space and teach them how to live in their spaces more efficiently. Our space here was designed for a single mom and her 5- to 7-year-old child. So, we incorporated that idea when we start working with the space. This is approximately 1600 sq ft. I basically worked with the architect from scratch, and it was a raw space. I walked in and there was nothing but cement, and I knew from the very beginning that I didn't want it to look like an apartment, and I wanted it to have that sweeping vista of the river and the capitol hill through the windows. The color scheme is warm and inviting. It's meant to stimulate the family, we think of them as being very energetic and young. We kept the space fairly open as opposed to closing it all off into separate rooms. We thought that a lot of space in itself was ideal for an inner-city family. The living has 2 toy chests as opposed to a cocktail table, so a lot of stuff can be stored. On either side of the media wall, there is a built-in storage for video tapes and catalogues and magazines, whatever the family might acquire. The dining room modeling consists of the island, but there is a cantilevered bar that hangs off of the island, and it's used for serving, crock pots could be set up, and children can serve themselves breakfast. The dining room chairs, although they look like luxurious suede are actually a synthetic fabric that, you know, you could take macaroni and cheese, and drop on it, and then clean it right up. The children's bedroom has, the top of their bed is upholstered in vinyl so if something gets knocked over, [unk] the sheets in the washing machine. The bed itself is incredibly fun. It's a storage bed underneath for additional games and toys. I think the benefit of loft living is the idea of openness and a lot of space, something that you're not trapped to a series of small confined rooms. The idea if behind the loft is that it is open, it's wide, it's bright, it's airy. I think that's one of the things that I've really would enjoy about living in a loft. "