In order to move Ponito upstairs to his own room (and get him out of my sewing room), we have to convert the playroom to a bedroom. To do this we'll need to add a door to the opening in this room. I looked, but I don't have any pictures of this particular wall. Although I have one that shows a tiny portion (you can see the angled wall that's causing me trouble on the left.
For those who can read blueprints, the room that's causing me grief is labeled Family (the computer program I used had a limited number of label choices). It's in the lower left corner.There's a light dotted line that makes this room look rectangular, but that's just a flaw in the software. In reality it's one big opening. One side of the opening is the wall that ends at the corner of the bathroom (the bathroom "opening" shown is really a door) and the other wall makes a 45 degree angle into the hallway. About 18 inches down the hallway is the doorway into a bedroom.
What I need to do is find a way to span the 5' 4.5" opening from the corner of the bathroom to where the angled wall meets the hallway. Which means nothing is square! (In the picture that looks like it will make the hallway too narrow by the stairs, but I must have had a measurement off because there's plenty of room). The ceilings are 8 foot.
When I was a kid, my dad made a bedroom for me out of a breakfast nook, by bolting together some louvered closet doors across the span with two of the doors being openable. (This is not a picture of my room). My doors didn't go all the way to the ceiling (they were closet door height) and if you bent down you could look up the louvers to see in my bedroom (I was 16 that was really embarassing), but the point was it was probably relatively inexpensive and could be removed when we moved on the next year.
Of course MY point was that while it did keep my siblings from just walking into my room anytime they wanted, it did NOT keep them from lobbing marshmallows and assorted items over the top of my "wall" and of course you could see into it, which really wasn't cool.
I want something that feels fairly permanent, is cheap and easy to install, and gives him some privacy.
Edited to add: I do have a safety concern for Ponito too. Our kids don't have locks on their doors and we haven't had any issues with sexual abuse in this home, but I do feel he needs to have a door that at least makes noise if someone enters. People here are in the habit of knocking on closed doors, but see open doors (or just curtains?) as an open invitation. Plus Kitty sleepwalks and his room would be right next to the bathroom.
If it muffles sound (since it's right next to the bathroom) all the better.
These things like hotels use to divide big rooms into smaller rooms are cool, but probably way out of my price range.Suggestions?!
5 comments:
Would it be that expensive to frame out the opening and put in a door? That would obviously be more permanent (and could be expensive if you can't do it on your own) but it will definitely provide the most privacy. You could look at the IKEA track curtains. They are fabric panels and I think they are designed with room dividing in mind. Good luck! I love decorating/remodeling/moving rooms around!
I was thinking "hotel/banquet" divider door, too. One of my friend's in school had a bedroom door like that. My grandparent's basement bathroom had a door like that, too! Google "accordion style door" -- my search here turned up a bunch of options, starting around $25!
I do have a safety concern for Ponito too. Our kids don't have locks on their doors and we haven't had any issues with sexual abuse in this home, but I do feel he needs to have a door that at least makes noise if someone enters. People here are in the habit of knocking on closed doors, but see open doors (or just curtains?) as an open invitation. Plus Kitty sleepwalks and his room would be right next to the bathroom.
If it muffles sound (since it's right next to the bathroom) all the better
Johanna - I don't know if we want to do something permanent like frame out the opening and put in a real door. I think we have the skill set, but for one thing Hubby is deathly allergic to dry wall (as discovered when we added onto our home). For another, the house is already MUCH bigger than the neighborhood and adding another bedroom might actually detract from the value (versus a playroom).
Plus, we're really not going to be able to spend a lot on this since the stupid dishwasher died a couple of days ago and my car keeps coming up with new issues daily. Now I just need to find the $25 doors Schnizelbank mentioned....
Hi - I hope you found the doors you were looking for! Ponito might need to have a "hook and eye" latch on the inside, to keep it drawn closed for privacy. Of course, those latches are pretty flimsy, so it's not like it's going to keep anyone out, if someone really wanted to bust through. LOL.
But honestly, otherwise I don't think those "stay" shut without latching them closed. The accordion keeps on wanting to draw open, you know what I'm saying? They do make plenty of "noise" though when you open and close them, clacking on the track. It sounds like that would be a good thing.
Doing some research I discovered that I can get a prehung double door which is 60" wide for $115. Would still have to get doorknobs, trim, and some 2x4s to frame out the doorway, but that wouldn't be much more, and it would fit the space exactly. Add some trim and a piece of glass for a transom at the top and it could look built in.
I did price all the other options and most of them would be not much less, but would be much less sturdy and look more scrapped together. Now I just have to figure out where to get the money...
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