Evanston Mansion Renovation Episode 22: Primary Bedroom
Evanston Mansion Renovation – Primary Bedroom and Closet
Work continues on the primary bedroom and closet in a 100+-year-old historic luxury home in Evanston, Illinois. Architect Amy Berka shares her design strategies for cleaning up the ceiling lines and making new storage in an ample primary closet.
Follow along!
- Episode 1 – Exterior and Foyer
- Episode 2 – Library and Family Room
- Episode 3 – Dining Room and Porch
- Episode 4 – Kitchen and Pantry
- Episode 5 – Stairwell and Landing
- Episode 6 – Primary Bedroom and Bathroom
- Episode 7 – Porch and Third Floor
- Episode 8 – Lower Level
- Episode 9 – Laundry and Guest Bath
- Episode 10 – Kitchen and Pantry After Demo
- Episode 11 – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo
- Episode 12 – Laundry and Guest Bath After Demo
- Episode 13 – Third Floor After Demo
- Episode 14 – Temporary Primary Bedroom
- Episode 15 – Entry Hall & Library
- Episode 16 – Primary Bath
- Episode 17 – Exterior Sconces
- Episode 18 – Powder Room
- Episode 19 – Kitchen
- Episode 20 – Butler’s Pantry
- Episode 21 – Dining Room
- Episode 22 – Primary Bedroom and Closet
- Episode 23 – Laundry and Guest Bath
- Episode 24 – Living Room
- Episode 25 – Guest Bath
Transcript
Welcome back to the Evanston Mansion series. I’m Amy Berka from Scott Simpson Design + Build. We’ve been really, really busy, so let’s go inside.
So, I am standing in the primary bedroom. You might remember from previous videos that we had all kinds of crazy soffits in here, and thankfully this owner trusted us, and so now we have a completely level ceiling. We brought the ceiling down about a foot.
What it’s also allowing us to do is to install new crown molding, and, like the molding on the first floor, this is also going to be painted. The original base trim that’s here and the doors that are stained oak are going to stay stained.
So, welcome to the primary closet. We started in this room just demolishing everything that was here. There were some sort of strange closets and weird walls, and we just said, “Let’s take it down to the studs, see what we see, and then develop storage back in.”
So, to my right, we have a deep storage closet that we’ve made.
We also have a little closet over here that we weren’t sure what we were going to be able to have happen there because we have the roof that’s sloping in. As it turns out, it’s the perfect space for the owner to park their hamper.
To my left, we have two closets that are new that we’ve built. They’re both going to have a pair of doors on them. On the outside, we’re going to have mirrors.
As you can see, we have a lot of space between here and here. We’re going to have a center island or packing table that’s going to be in the middle of the room, super beautiful chandelier hanging above. That’s going to give us 12 drawers.
On this wall over here from the floor to the ceiling, five feet wide, we’re going to do essentially what’s going to look like a bookcase, but it’s going to be all open shelving.
And because when you’re getting dressed, at least for me, I like to be able to sit down, put my shoes on, think about things, we’re going to be building a window seat here on this wall.
Go back and watch from the beginning if you’ve missed any episodes of this incredible journey.