I love this nook. I love the helmet/hat rack up near the rafters and the built in window seat. I have this image filed away in my 'Queenslander File' as a design solution to many 'sleep-out' renovations in our traditional Queenslander/colonial style homes here in Brisbane.
A 'sleep out', here in Queensland, refers to a room that is formed from an enclosed verandah. 'Sleep outs' come off the main house and usually have 2 or more entrances to them. You usually have to walk through another room to get into them! 'Sleep outs' were originally created for extra sleeping space (that theoretically was meant to be cooler than the main house) either in the initial construction of the home or after as an 'enclosed verandah afterthought'. Some argue that the 'sleep out' is definitely not separate to the house and is not an add-on. In some original Queensland homes they are a room which is part of the home's original design and hence forms part of the house under roof.
Real Estate Agents sometimes refer to them as bedrooms but our Tenancies Act states that a bedroom must be at least 7.5 sqm. I am visiting open homes at the moment where in some there is evidence of the 'sleep out' being part of the original design of the home... hence it is referred to as a bedroom.... yet in others, where the 'sleep out' has obviously been an 'afterthought of an enclosed verandah', they are referred to as a 'sleep out'... "2 bedrooms and a sleep out"... as the literature says.
Makes for interesting discussions at open homes!
As you can see in the brochure above, this 'ideal home' built in the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds as part of the 1918 Brisbane Town Planning Conference, has a 'sleep out' (sleep space) included in the original plan. It doesn't come off the hall as a separate bedroom.....you have to wander through bedrooms to get to it... and it has 2 entrances as mentioned earlier.
Image Via Google Images
In this home, you can see that a 'sleep out' has been enclosed on the left elevation after construction. You can see on the right a hint of the main bedroom under gable, possibly in a bay, with the verandah originally having been an L shaped open space at the top of the stairs.
Image Via Google Images
Had to throw this one in. Who of you (if you live here in Australia) haven't slept in a 'sleep out' room like this on your holidays as a child?
Image Via Google Images
Ah yes, the old 'kids in the sleep out' holiday of yesteryear.
Let's use these two images as the 'before shots' for our original 'nook' image. Can you see how the new 'nook' design (at the top) could define a space on entry to the sleep out and would allow for another living space to be delineated further along the verandah so it is not just one big obvious 'I once was a 'sleep out' space. The nook layout could be used at one end of the sleep out at the first entrance and could even be repeated in a mirror image fashion at the other end/entrance of the sleep out... now there's a thought!
Those of you living with a 'sleep out' in your original home design ... what have you done with yours? Is it a bedroom? an office? an ensuite? a playroom? ..... a walk in robe? (I see plenty of 'sleep out walk in robes' in my 'realestalking'). Would love to know!
Happy Monday! Off to the shed today. Boys will be armed with their ripsticks to while away the boredom of 'shed time'.
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