Hilary P's Profile

voodoo child - we can sit up in bed - we often read up there

MFlick - the London print is from a little map store I came across in Greenwich (just outside London) when I was living there in '95 - '96. Can't remember the exact location/name of the store for the life of me though - sorry. I like to collect prints of 17th Century maps when travelling - this was the first one I purchased (and the only one I've framed so far) - it's really cool - you can see the original St. Paul's before the Great Fire and a lot of detail in the other buildings including the Globe Theater.

Thanks! Our ceilings are a little over 10 feet and probably the minimum you'd want to have to do something similar - the loft platform is 6 feet which leaves a little over 4 feet above the loft & just enough space to sit up in bed/kneel.

There's another great recycled glass and concrete product called IceStone - it comes in a wide variety of colors and looks more like a standard solid surface countertop product.
http://www.icestone.biz/new/
They have distributor info on their website.

If anyone has specific questions about the loft (plans, diagrams, etc), feel free to e-mail me at hilaria7@hotmail.com
Also, we know a good millworker - you can contact him at ericratkowski@gmail.com. He also took the gorgeous photos for us.

Wow! Tony & I are really overwhelmed with all the great comments - thanks!

I'll try to answer some of your questions:

The loft is made from birch plywood - very strong & we liked showing as much of the end grain at the seams as possible. You can tell where it's broken into different pieces by where the seams are.

I was a little concerned about falling out of the bed at first, but tried to remember the last time I fell out of a regular bed -when I was probably 4 or 5 - it's really just getting over your fears - by the second night I was fine. Plus, there's about a foot of space between the edge of the mattress & edge of the platform - feels surprisingly secure once you're up there. The curtains (black-out so I can sleep if Tony stays up) also help make the bed feel cozy & secure.

Our cat climbs the ladders! It's really cute - she makes little mewing sounds to psych herself before going up & climbs down in a zigzag.

We're actually planning to keep going up with the cube bookshelves, so left the wall bare. We have some pieces cut & ready for assembly - just didn't finish before posting. My ideal would be to have them keep going to the ceiling. We love books & keep acquiring them.

The long print is a 17th century print of London - Globe theater, and all.

We did the plans ourselves & hired a furniture designer to build it. We'd be happy to sell plans. Our ceiling is a little over 10'. We spend right around $5,000 for materials and labor - this included getting some samples from the furniture maker, some design meetings with him & hiring movers.