Room of the Day: A Steel-and-Wood Bridge Spans a Great Room
An architect helps a San Francisco couple create an open living space that combines modern details with a reclaimed-wood catwalk focal point
Telling friends that you enjoy family meals “under a bridge” might raise some eyebrows. For this San Francisco couple, it’s just another day at home.
The living room, at one end of the great room, is where the kitchen had been. It has views of the backyard.
Windows: Integrity, Marvin Windows and Doors; sofa: EQ3; vintage oval side tables: Mixed Nuts; armchair: Jack in red, HD Buttercup
Windows: Integrity, Marvin Windows and Doors; sofa: EQ3; vintage oval side tables: Mixed Nuts; armchair: Jack in red, HD Buttercup
The kitchen sits at the other end of the great room. A relocated staircase behind the kitchen now connects this main level of the home with the floor above.
Skylights: Velux; custom steel railing on bridge: L Barnes Welding; kitchen cabinets: semicustom Shaker-style door, Knocknock; counters: White Shimmer, Caesarstone; range and hood: Viking Range Corporation; wall oven: Miele Appliance; sink: Kraus USA.
Skylights: Velux; custom steel railing on bridge: L Barnes Welding; kitchen cabinets: semicustom Shaker-style door, Knocknock; counters: White Shimmer, Caesarstone; range and hood: Viking Range Corporation; wall oven: Miele Appliance; sink: Kraus USA.
BEFORE: This photo shows what the unused and unfinished attic looked like before the renovation.
AFTER: This view of the loft above the great room shows how the new bridge connects the new bedrooms.
A local fabricator built the guardrails. McElroy wired the glass pendant lights to the side of the center ridge beam so that he wouldn’t have to run power through the wood. He also made the coffee table seen in this photo.
Pendant lights: Restoration Hardware
A local fabricator built the guardrails. McElroy wired the glass pendant lights to the side of the center ridge beam so that he wouldn’t have to run power through the wood. He also made the coffee table seen in this photo.
Pendant lights: Restoration Hardware
This photo shows the view of the great room from the bridge. “It gives you a chance to take in the great room from above the space, as opposed to a balcony that’s off to the side,” McElroy says. “It’s like a catwalk at a factory, giving you a bird’s-eye view.”
These before-and-after floor plans of the main level of the home show how removing walls and rethinking the location of spaces gave the homeowners the open and livable great room they wanted.
“By having such a light-filled room, we were able to create an experience like you’re almost outside, but you’re actually inside and sheltered,” says the homeowner.
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“By having such a light-filled room, we were able to create an experience like you’re almost outside, but you’re actually inside and sheltered,” says the homeowner.
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11 Things to Expect With Your Remodel
See more Rooms of the Day
Great Room at a Glance
Location: Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco
Who lives here: A couple and their 2½-year old-son
Size: About 525 square feet (48.8 square meters); 172 square feet for the kitchen, 144 square feet for the dining area and 209 square feet for the living area
Designer: Tom McElroy of McElroy Architecture
The 1885 Victorian came with lots of walls separating tiny rooms. To create a great room on the main level of the home, the homeowners tapped Tom McElroy to remove walls, relocate two bedrooms and a bathroom, and create an open kitchen, dining and living space.
An unused and unfinished attic once sat above this area. The homeowners originally thought they might remove the space and create a roof deck, but McElroy, knowing the couple wanted more living space, had something else in mind. With the couple’s approval, he removed the attic floor to create vaulted ceilings with skylights in the great room and built a master bedroom on one end of the former attic space and a bedroom for the couple’s son on the other, all connected by a bridge.
The latter creates a stunning focal point in the great room, as shown here. Two steel C-channel beams support a walkway made of reclaimed-wood framing salvaged from the former attic. “We wanted to have a prominent architectural feature, and the bridge is pleasing to look at and unique,” the homeowner says.
Wood dining table: homeowners’ own; dining chairs: vintage Eames Shell chairs, Mixed Nuts; pendant lights: Vintage Barn, Restoration Hardware; drop-leaf table: vintage