The Empty Nester Loft

" Hi! I'm Carol Schalla and this is the space we designed for Midwest Living Magazine. Our client profile was based on the majority of our readers at Midwest Living, the average age for them, and we decided on an empty nester couple where their age would be somewhere between the mid-40s to the mid-50s. And so we decided that that age demographic probably wouldn't appreciate a real hard space, a real industrial space as much as your younger, you know, demographic might. So I decided go a little bit softer with the interior design and even the choices in the building products. We were given a split-level space and basically, we had to design a floor plan using 2 different levels. Our total square footage, I believe, is around 1676. And because of the split, we designed it with 3 levels actually like a trilevel. There's a entry and master bedroom and bath on the 1st level. Then you can go up to another bedroom and bath. And then down to the main living area, the kitchen, and a half bath and back entry. I decided to go with something with what I call soft contemporary because I knew they wouldn't want something hard and I knew she might want to integrate some of her favorite pieces from their family home into this space. I tackled that by number 1, painting the walls and the trim lighter, using wood trim wherever I could. And then in the furnishings, choosing soft fabrics, natural linens, and frieze carpets, and silks on the beds. Minimal use of pattern. Little accents of pattern here and there and texture all over the place, but no busy pattern should distract the eye. A nice flow when you walk into the room, an open flow which makes the room feel larger. In order to get some storage into this space, you really have to be creative, but you really can do it in any space. And a loft isn't a huge space. But for instance, in the bathroom, we built a 12-inch deep cubes along the 1 wall in the bathroom, which provides a lot of storage for a lot of little bath items and towels. We did the same thing in the bedroom. There was a fireplace. There was an indentation on either side of the fireplace, so we built in 12-inch deep cabinets and drawers. This unit had an area in the back that could be used as a back entry. So we provided some additional cabinetry there. I think the biggest appeal of loft living is obviously being in the city, being so close by to all the cultural amenities and the events that go down here. There's a certain energy in the city. I think for this particular couple, it's a really good fit for their lifestyle at this time in their lives."