Has anybody figured a decent floorplan for eliminating railroad style bedrooms
Have a 3 family brownstone and it’s the typical layout.. with a couple of rooms on each floor that are walkthru and of course no windows, and kitchen is on the far back right hand side of each apt. I am looking to hire an architect to come up with some ideas but if anyone has figured out a tried and true method to make it more useful or at least feng-shui, please advise. thanks
slamons
in About Brooklyn 11 years ago
4
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4 replies
slamons | 10 years and 11 months ago
This is great idea, thanks for the input!!
brokelin | 11 years ago
Had a coop in one of these – the larger, deeper (3 bdrm+study+dining room) kind built originally as apartments, not single family. The original kitchens were all in the narrow room in the back. In renovations, the kitchens had all been moved. Mine was moved to the small bedroom area behind the staircase – originally had a window to the building’s airshaft, but that had been closed off in the renovation (which was fine with me, as it didn’t get much light on my floor anyway.) Didn’t like the kitchen there without natural light. It looked fine, but I found I didn’t like to spend much time in it because of no natural light. Would have much preferred it in the room directly behind the living room (the original dining room) so that it could access natural light and views from the living room windows. When I fantasized about renovating, that was where I’d place the kitchen, putting a second bathroom and laundry room where the kitchen was. Second favorite layout (I had this in a rental that was a converted floor of a one-bedroom) had the kitchen in the narrow room in the front next to the living room. I loved being in that narrow galley kitchen because it was so sunny. Both layouts were nice because both back rooms were bedrooms, overlooking the gardens, which is where I much prefer to sleep than in the front. In general, use the middle area of the floor for bathrooms, laundry rooms, closets, storage and dressing areas.
chemosphere | 11 years ago
We discussed this here: http://brownstoner.staging.wpengine.com/forums/topic/2-family-layout/ There is an additional option, which is to keep the kitchen location, but open it up to the adjacent room. Then the street-facing side of the house has two side-by-side bedrooms, one very large and one very small. However, this means that both bedrooms are on the street, so if it’s noisy that isn’t a great option. I’ve also seen some configurations where the kitchen was in the middle, behind the stairs, with no windows. Check this one out: http://streeteasy.com/sale/1079625-townhouse-51-dahill-rd-kensington-brooklyn
landlord | 11 years ago
I have railroad apartments in my brownstone as well. I have seen how neighboring buildings have converted their 1 bedroom railroad apartments into 2 bedroom apartments. At the entrance to the apartment there is a small room (about 7×9) and to the left of it is the kitchen with windows (at the end of the apartment). They have moved the kitchen into the small 7×9 room and converted the kitchen into a bedroom. So now the kitchen is in the middle of the apartment as opposed to the end. I have decided not to change the layout for several reasons: 1\. Having a full separate kitchen is a big selling point. Most new developments have the kitchen as part of the living room and those kitchens tend to be small. 2\. If you move the kitchen to the middle of the room, the smell from the kitchen will be all over the apartment. 3\. You will have to move plumbing around and that is a major expense. 4\. Everyone has been doing this….so your apartments will look very unique and appealing. 5\. you don’t get more feng-shui then the original layout. Those apartments have have been butchered up look very distasteful in my opinion. That said, I would much rather rent a large 1 bedroom with a full kitchen then a 2 bedroom with a kitchenette (that happens to have the sq footage of a 1 bedroom). Additionally, 2 of my last tenants asked specifically if the apartments had full kitchens. I would keep the layout and invest in making them the best looking railroad apartments available.