Their new bedroom is an "executive suite"

Sunset, April, 1989

Hotels aren't the only places embracing the idea of the "executive suite," where spacious bedrooms double as living rooms. Homeowners are doing it, too remaking master bedrooms into master suites.

In this typical 1950s ranch-style house in Lafayette, California, the original master bedroom wasn't much bigger than either of the two other bedrooms. With only one window, it felt dark and confining. San Francisco architect Bernard Stein converted the room into a bathing and dressing area, then added a 14- by 26-foot sleeping-sitting area on its north side. The addition projects from the back of the house, opening onto (and helping define) an adjacent patio and pool area.

Stein designed the new room to resemble a comfortable living room more than a bedroom. A new fireplace, flanked with built-in cabinets above a wide raised hearth, dominates one wall. On the west wall, the bed fits into a shallow alcove flanked by closets.

Skylights, windows, artificially lit cutouts, and a lofty 13-foot ceiling add to the spacious, light-filled look. The ceiling, covered with closely set 1-by-2s nailed to spacers and following the shallow pitch of the roof, accentuates the room's length.