New second story looks as if it's always been there - new master bedroom remodeling

Sunset, July, 1988

New second story looks as if it's always been there Seamlessly blend a new master bedroom with the rest of the 1920s house--that was the challenge Polly and Charlie Frizzell handed Oakland architect Alan Dreyfuss when they asked him to design a second-floor addition for their compact two-bedroom bungalow.

Dreyfuss' solution was to repeat the form of the house's existing front gables on the new set-back second floor, complete with soffited eaves and small-paned corner windows. From the street, the addition looks as if it has always been there.

Inside, Dreyfuss opened up the front of the house. He replaced a wall between living room and former front bedroom with the stairway. A landing separates the two spaces without cutting them off from one another, creating a feeling of spaciousness by opening sight lines across the house. The former bedroom, now somewhat smaller, is a library alcove.

Built into the bottom of the stairway are a seat and a storage area. Simple, vertical-slat wood railings and banisters extend the craftsman feeling found elsewhere in the house. Clerestory windows over the stairway bring extra daylight down into the living room.

Upstairs, Dreyfuss took the ornamental woodwork of the Frizzells' bed as his cue, designing a built-in chest and bedside bookcases to match it. (The downstairs cabinet next to the stairs also matches). A small, brightly lit office off the master bedroom--recalling the sun porches often found in older houses--contains two built-in desks. "Now whenever I go upstairs," says Mrs. Frizzell, "I feel I've entered my own private world. It's an extension of the rest of the house and totally apart at the same time."