Bedroom and family room in one big space … it even reaches into the garden

Sunset, April, 1991

Bed and breakfast take on new meaning in this economic remodel. Owner-architect Gary Crosman and his wife, Madeline, wanted to enlarge their two-bedroom 1940s tract house in San Carlos, California, but it wasn't feasible to add both a master bedroom and an entertainment area family room, so they combined both functions in a single multipurpose space. The 600-square-foot rectangular addition on a concrete slab extends into the garden beside an existing patio off the living room, transforming the house into an L-shape. To encourage indoor-outdoor living and to take advantage of sunlight,

Crosman designed the room to be as open as possible to the patio on the south side. Three 10-inch-diameter pressure-treated peeled poles support a beam along the patio side of the room, letting Crosman treat this wall as a series of large, 7-foot square multipaned wood windows. These windows slide open along a brass track set into an oak threshold, creating the feeling of an outdoor room. Inside, Crosman designed the addition as a single, lofty space. A freestanding closet divides the multipurpose area from the bathroom, while the open ceiling rises to the height of the roof. At night, a futon folds out to form a bed, then folds up in the morning for convenient seating. .