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August 20, 2007
Narrow Space Living
We (my bride to be and I) are in the process of purchasing and renovating a narrow (13 feet wide) townhouse in Clinton Hill. I have seen in the past much debate on the width of town homes, and I just wanted to get people’s opinions before my fiancée and I embark on our journey. I believe the house in question has had a couple appearances on this website over the past several months.
Here’s what we want to do…because we got the house at a significant discount to asking we can afford to live in it as a single family home. With our proposed renovations (including a rear extension), the house will be close to 2200 square feet. Not a small space, but because of the width of the dwelling, we will have to live vertically. My fiancée and I are both relatively young (late 20s), and don’t plan on starting a family for about 5 years or so...if God wills it…
My question is directed to those townhouse owners out there who currently live in similarly narrow spaces. How have you found your living environment? What are any notable inconveniences? What do you like most about your space?
I am all but certain that we are going to move forward on this purchase, but I just wanted to get a better sense of what were taking on.
Comments
Some of those places are soooooo cute. Are you in that stretch of little houses on Hall St (or is it St. James)? Nice. The hard thing is the elongated living room. I would think of chairs moreso than sofas, and small sofas, if at all. Round coffee table, or perhaps two teeny tables instead of one big one. Good place to shop for urban-sized furniture is Room and Board in Soho. Good luck.
Posted by: guest at August 20, 2007 3:31 PM
Oh, also: Does it have a center-hall stair, rather than the traditional configuration with stairs leading to the front door? The former makes for wider rooms upstairs.
Posted by: guest at August 20, 2007 3:34 PM
You can make it work. Narrow spaces are tougher to deal with than wider (duh) but not certainly impossible. Just have to be creative - and it's a good excuse for a flat panel TV or 3 ;-)
Apt. and also Boconcept have some interesting, cheap and small furniture if you dig modern. Good luck!
Posted by: Johnny at August 20, 2007 3:49 PM
Ive lived in a narrow home most of my life and its quite easy to get adjusted. If anything, narrow homes tend to have a layout that is more effcient b/c there isnt loads of space wasted on vestibules and hallways. The living space (areas of the house you spend most of your time in) tends to be similar in size. The only annoying thing is that furniture is now made for giant proportions so you have to be careful about scale.
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at August 20, 2007 4:32 PM
If your house is long (which it sounds like it will be with extension) I think putting a switchback staircase in the middle instead of having stairs along the side is a good idea with a narrow house.
Posted by: guest at August 20, 2007 4:34 PM
I love narrow houses! They're charming. Our house is not narrow, but it's short (2-story) and it's a one-family house. It's great having the privacy. I really dig going up and down those stairs, too. Great exercise. Funny how people complain about stairs, like oh why would you want to have to go up stairs to a 2nd floor bathroom all the time, and yet they'll religiously attend yoga classes! I actually have visible calf muscles now. I agree with the others about the small-scale furniture. Also try creating a small cozy conversation pit in any long narrow living room, instead of putting all the furniture against the walls like people often do. You can hang a chandelier over the center of a coversation pit in a long room, and that designates it as a space within a space. Have fun and good luck!
Posted by: traditionalmod at August 20, 2007 4:41 PM
Also, try this great site, tinyliving.com. The URL is
http://www.tinyliving.com/store/
Posted by: guest at August 21, 2007 3:45 PM
Cool, I had that idea before! To have a store in NYC that sold only compact furniture and space saving household items. That's great somebody did it. It's ridiculous how big and chunky the big chain furniture stores' items are. Where do they think New Yorkers are going to put that stuff?
Posted by: traditionalmod at August 21, 2007 3:51 PM
You can definitely live large in a narrow house! My husband grew up on a boat and I in a trailer; we were fated to buy a 12-foot-wide house in Gowanus.
Ours has the center, winding staircase which keeps both the living room and the master bedroom (directly above) normal in their proportions -- 12x16 but oriented the opposite direction of most houses. The central position of the stairs also helps avoid the railroady feel inherent to this kind of house. Even if your staircase runs lengthwise, you can use a floating stair (treads only, no risers) to create a perception of properly proportioned space in the first floor room -- my neighbors did this and it looks great, but they still have the railroadiness and narrowness problems in the second-floor bedrooms.
If you have a frame-construction house it's shockingly easy to add windows. We’ve been putting in huge windows throughout and skylights on the second floor, so the place feels spacious despite its narrowness. People are often shocked to hear, after seeing our house, that it's only 12 feet wide because it feels very light and airy. Narrowness is actually an advantage in this regard, because natural light can easily reach the center and sides of the room through even a single, small window. High ceilings also make a big difference -- we have ripped out layer after layer of heinous dropped ceilings -- all the way to the original fir beams in the first floor rooms where ceiling insulation isn’t necessary.
The biggest issue I have run into is closet space -- my house narrows to 9' around a lightwell setback for the rear 20' of its length -- so the closets are either improperly dimensioned/oriented or non-existent. I've actually been removing them altogether as I renovate room-by-room. Like you, I'm a few years away from sharing my house with the next generation, so at this point I favor using armoires and storage furniture so I can keep the space as flexible as possible and not limit future options for furniture placement and built-ins (who knows what my spoiled little brats might need!). I've had to stick to a disciplined regimen of donating things I don't use and rotating my clothes seasonally to basement storage space -- but it's well worth it for the gain in space and flexibility.
Good luck and enjoy the process! I would love to exchange photos and more ideas as you get into it.
Posted by: gowanusaurus at August 21, 2007 4:19 PM
We designed a gut renovation of a similarly tight site (15 feet, though I am guessing those 2 feet make all the difference), and you can take a look at the plans on our website:
www.pelloverton.com
goto Projects, and then 19th Street Residence.
One thing that worked for us was to run the kitchen along the wall at the center of the plan and treat the dining room/living room as one big space. This allowed as much through-light as possible.
The house wasn't as deep as what you are proposing, but my instinct as an architect is that you would still want to tuck the stair to one side to maximize the spaces upstairs. With some creative planning you can also run a corridor in this side zone, allowing the enclosed spaces (like bedrooms, baths) to be larger.
Feel free to email if we can be of further help, and good luck with the project!
Posted by: bp3 at August 21, 2007 5:46 PM
OP here - thanks for all the comments and ideas. I think the central staircase is the way to go. We are really looking forward to creating a unique living space with this project
Posted by: guest at August 21, 2007 5:54 PM
OP here again...just realized i didn't sign in. gowanusaurus it would be nice to exchange photos once we get the process started.
Posted by: clintonhillhoya at August 21, 2007 5:58 PM
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