I'd toy with ceilings instead. I've lived with a step-down situation. It looks dramatic, but can be a (literal) *pain* to live with. Why build a hazard into your home? Ours was a hazard, not only for guests, but we LIVED there and we still tripped!

I agree with chisue. While they can look dramatic, step-ups and step-downs can be VERY dangerous unless very carefully planned.

I was in a neighbor's home the other evening and she has a "sunken living room" with her kitchen off to one side and a wide L-shaped walkway around the sunken area. One 20 foot long leg leads past her kitchen bar to the back patio. The other 30 ft long leg leads past her foyer to a hall going toward her master bedroom. My neighbor was was having a party and most guests wound up hanging out in the kitchen or out on the patio or on that walkway area in between the two. As it started to get crowded, I kept thinking that at any minute, someone was going to step back to give someone else room to slide by and fall down that step! Being the clumsy sort myself, I made sure that whenever I was in a conversation in the walkway area, I kept my back to a solid wall! I didn't want to forget that step was there, get turned around so it was behind me, and then take that fatal step backwards.

All that said, I now have to admit that my own library is one step up from my great room. And, while I could be prejudiced, I think MINE works well.

Because DH and I entertain large crowds quite often, I wanted the library and great room to be open to each other but to be visually separate so that neither room felt quite so big when we didn't have crowds in the house. I also wanted to use solid hardwood flooring in the library but we're on a slab foundation and solid hardwoods don't work well against concrete. You have to use engineered flooring and I've had that before and didn't particularly like it.

So, I decided that the thing to do would be to raise the libary up exactly one step but to use a railing (just like I have my staircase) along most of the stepped-up opening between the two rooms to keep anyone from ever falling. I left only a 4 ft wide passage between two box newels open. My staircase also begins to the immediate left of the step-up into the libary so, effectively, the entire libary is like a very large staircase landing. When one is coming downstairs, there is no "break" in one's stride at all.

And, what with the change in flooring and box newels and railings, I don't think anyone could possibly miss seeing that step and fall.

We've had a half dozen parties with well over 50 people here each time and, so far, no issues at all.

The single step with a railing also makes it very easy for people to stand on either side of the railing and carry on a conversation across it. (My best friend, who is pretty short, actually likes to hang out on the libary side of the railing because she can then have conversations with tall people who are standing on the great room side of the railing without getting a crick in her neck! LOL!)

Here is a quick sketch of the layout (not to scale) but it'll help explain how I did it. ...

Not a good idea...

Thanks for showing the layout, Bevangel. That helps! Yea, we did read about the disadvantages of this but still at an exploring stage to see if we want to incorporate this. Where we are thinking about doing this will be similar to your plan Bevangel, with a step up to a playroom at the side corner of our plan. How much approximately did it cost to raise your library and how big was that area? Thanks!

Goodness, I have no idea what it cost because the framing cost was included in the framing cost of our house and I bought the hardwood flooring along with hardwood flooring for my entire upstairs. If I hadn't done the raised floor, I'd have either tiled that area or purchased enough engineered hardwood to do that section.

The library area is about 14' x 16',

They basically just turned 2x6s on edge on top of our slab to create "joists" then covered those over with a couple of layers of plywood subfloor, added a layer of 15 lb tar paper as a vapor barrier, and put our 3/4" hardwood flooring on top of that. We wanted the step up to the library to be right at 7.30 inches (to match the other steps on our staircase). So the thicknesses of the two layers of plywood were chosen so that the finished flooring level would wind up at slightly more than 7.6 inches above the slab. Then, once our 1/4" thick tile was laid on the great room floor, the step up from the tile flooring to the wood flooring was at the right height.

Takes a little math to figure out, but the actual work wasn't particularly complicated.

The big extra cost was the extra 2 box newels (I split one to put against the wall), about 20 extra spindles and an extra handrail.

But, the overall effect is really really nice. I wouldn't say it was "dramatic" but I really wasn't going for drama. I told DH I wanted to build an "AHHHH house" not a "WOW! house." But, looking at my library and staircase from the great room IS one of my favorite views in my house. The whole thing has such a nice textured look. I love it!

Plus, it is a whole lot safer than the sunken living room you see about three pictures down in the website linked below. This is very much like the layout of my neighbor's house (although her house doesn't have the dramatic glass walls and views!) I keep picturing someone falling off that corner between the two sets of steps down into the sunken living room and seeing red red blood splashed all over that beautiful white terrazzo floor. It is a gorgeous looking room tho...

Here is a link that might be useful: dramatic white terrazzo tiled sunken living room

Yea I would think it will be dangerous to have a "sunken living room"! Did you keep the ceiling height of your library the same as the rest of your main level?
If you have a picture of the view of your library from your living room that you can share, that will be great!

We kept the ceiling heights the same. In the rest of the downstairs the ceiling height is 10 ft so in the library it is 9ft 5inches. Here is a picture I snapped this morning for you.

BTW, That one tall support column was SUPPOSED to have been another box newel but my builder undersized the ceiling joist that runs along the line between library and great room and it started sagging. (I fired the builder midway thru the build for this and about a thousand other things!) To fix the sagging joist, we had to reduce the span - hence the support column which is composed of something like six 2x4s. I WAS not a happy camper and was not at all sure how we were ever going to make look okay! Fortunately, my trim carpenter was able to "skin" and trim the raw support column so that it now blends in with the box newels.

One other thing...a future buyer may write off your house because of the hazard.

DH and I liked everything about a ranch we looked at except the 'ups and downs'. You entered a foyer at normal height, then went down two 10-foot wide shallow steps to the LR, then up two matching steps to the DR. The Kitchen was 'up' (same level as the DR), but a library off the kitchen was another step-down affair. This was not a case of adding-on; the house was built this way. Because the steps were wide, there was nothing to hold on to.

Years ago, when multi-level homes were all the rage, friends invited us to dinner at their new house. The entry and LR were on one level. The DR and kitchen were raised about four steps with a railing between DR and LR. As we dined, my DH whispered to me, asking when the floor show would start (in the LR below).

One more vote to explore raising the ceiling instead of lowering the floor. In addition to lowering your home's value and making it a "definite no" to a lot of future buyers, you would make your house more dangerous to young children, older visitors and completely off-limits to anyone with accessibility issues.

I live with brain injury I sustained at age 32 caused by tripping. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but it ended my career, as well as any potential to do anything else. It wouldn't take much for a guest to trip and crack their head. Would you be able to live with that if they sustained the damage I did? Could you afford the lawsuit that might be leveled against you? The increase in your homeowner's insurance if they knew you had that danger in your house?

PLEASE don't do this.

I apologize for the strong response. I just can't stand the thought of someone living with the headaches, vertigo, nausea, blurry vision, memory loss, etc. etc. I face every day. Especially if it can so easily be avoided.

Re: resale...I will chime in and say that step-downs were an automatic deal breaker for my husband when we were househunting. They reminded him of his parents' den from the 70's before they remodeled and he associated all step-downs with 70's houses...no matter how nicely they had been updated. I found two great houses that he vetoed right off the bat because of that one thing. For numerous reasons, now we're building.... :) My realtor (and friend) said lots of home buyers feel very strongly about elevation changes. It's something you might want to consider.

I cannot even count how many 'sunken' rooms I have raised the floors in over the past 20 years.

I am surprised at the strong reactions against this mainly because I guess I never thought about it. The house I grew up in where my dad still lives (going on 28 years) has a family room that is one step down. No one has ever fallen and I have never even thought about or really noticed the step in the trillions of times I have gone in and out of the family room.

I LOVED my sunken living room. We have never fallen either but I guess it is possible to fall down the front stairs too. Really any unfortunate event can happen at any time so I would not let the experience of others deter me. I think the sunken playroom would be a better choice than a DR.

Bevangel - your trim carpenter did a good job of making that column blend in with the newels. It looks great and I didn't even notice that column until you pointed it out! It looks like it was planned.

While I agree that accidents can happen to anyone at anytime--I always felt stupid when I tell people I broke my brain slipping on some ice, especially after growing up in Minnesota!--take that out of the argument, and consider that between the economy, the trend toward building forever homes and the sad fact that most of us will face some sort of accessibility issue at some point, what is the strong argument FOR building a sunken room of the house that would be a deal breaker for many people (if you are thinking of re-selling at some point) or could make at least one room of your house inaccessible to yourself or others at some point? (This is actually an honest question, what draws you to idea?)

I totally get falling in love with a look or a concept, but for me, practicality is important, too. I grew up with a sunken living room (in two different houses). Danger aside, it just seems like a dated look to me. Of course, it's been 20 some years. Maybe they're coming back :-)