Before and After Renovations PT 2:A New Great Room

One side of the Garcia Gineres home we divided had an enormous great room of 50 M2 (538 sq ft), but we chose the other side, a 35 M2 (370sq ft) room, was ample for our lifestyle.  It had two large arched windows with attractive wrought iron bars, but the arches bothered me. These were not classic roman arches, rather a wider version popular in midcentury shopping centers.  

I felt they made the ceiling appear lower.  The central part of the arches opened into charming French doors, and I thought I might keep those and cement in the sides. That would have reduced the natural light, so I was inclined to insert narrow window either side of the French door.

That would have worked, but we ended up with a lot of arches, and you can get too much of a good thing. An arched window sat on either end of this original room. I planned to keep both arched windows relocating them to slightly different locations.

The Great room sits on the inside of the property, behind the bedrooms and kitchen.  We added a vestibule on the north east end to allow for an entrance that extended beyond the front terrazza. This new room measures 2.5 x 4.8 M (8 x 15.5ft). and is the only addition to our side of the house.  I moved the arche window to the end of this room and kept the door in the original arch form between the vestibule and living room.

And I added 3 narrow arched windows along one wall.

At the opposite end of the great room, I moved the Stained-glass window from the right side of the wall to the left side, converting it into a door leading to our den.

The other half of that wall is a double brick wall with four inches between the two walls. This divides the two homes and is soundproof.

The wall facing the two large windows had 3 doors.  The entrance to the kitchen, a closet door and a bedroom door.

I opened up the wall to the kitchen and added sliding doors that can slide closed when I run AC or if I have a messy kitchen.  The closet became a decorative niche, and I relocated the bedroom entrance to a short hallway from the vestibule. 

Once I saw the repeated openings between the kitchen and the living room, and leading from the kitchen to the side terraza, I decided to repeat the same forms in the living room where the wide arches previously left me in a quandary.

The finished room is light and bright, the arches add just enough Architectual interest, the large rectangular openings unify the kitchen with the great room and the 2.8mM (9ft) ceilings no longer feels oppressively low. The great room and vestibule need a few minor finishing touches but overall. I am pleased with my results.  If you like this, please click her to subscribe to get my next before and after post with photos. https://www.brookegazer.com/blog. thanks for reading.