Ideas for closing an archway

5 years ago

We have an open arch between a living room and a dining room which we would like to close off to create a separate bit of privacy.

I'm happy with blanking it off with plasterboard, but does anyone have any suggestions of something interesting to do with it instead? We've thought about a display alcove or possibly a bookcase, but anything else? It's a normal internal wall, so around 10 inches thick and the archway is around 4 feet wide.

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OnePlan

5 years ago

If the arch shape is a recurring theme throughout the house then I’d suggest keeping the arch shape but adding storage shelves - if this is the only arch - I’d suggest squaring it off and adding book shelves - or - of you want to add panelling to the walls and then have a hidden storage area for a safe or personal accounts/paperwork etc etc -this can be built into panelling with a good fitter. But it needs to be thought out and planned at an early stage, together with the rest of the study and study furniture, so that it will work efficiently. This is the sort of design project we work on with clients all the time - eeking out as much storage from a place as is possible etc.

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Comments (12)

Ellie
5 years ago
Can you show us a photo?
Daisy England
5 years ago
A door whether it's arched or squared off then it's easy to move from one room to the other.
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Ellie
5 years ago

Fulham Garden Flat · More Info
pocket doors, slide into the wall and can open right up the archway.

Lakeside Bluff Point · More Info
Simon Axon
Original Author
5 years ago
I can't post a photo at the moment, it's in a house we're in the process of buying. I've attached a rough plan - right is the lounge going up to the conservatory, left is the area we'd like to make a separate room.

We won't need a doorway in the arch, there's already a doorway at the other end of the smaller room, and so we want to close the archway off to create a snug/study area. Just wondering if there was something interesting I could do instead of creating a blank piece of wall.
PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Ohhhhh boy! ha-ha! We just demolished the wall between living and dining rooms and created the big arch and an open concept kitchen-dinning-living. So much visual space! Why for the God sake do you want to have small "private" rooms instead the one great open space?
Simon Axon
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
That drawing is only one corner of the house - we already have a large kitchen/dining room which we plan to extend out into the garden in the next couple of years. We also already have a large lounge which feeds into a conservatory almost as big again.

My wife works at home most days and needs a downstairs office - a separate space from the rest of the living areas of the house for when I'm at home as well. This area is perfect for that and it has a double door out to the garden.

To be honest, I've had plenty of open-plan living, and we have spaces in the rest of the house for that, it will also be nice to have it double up as a quiet, cozy snug in the winter.
Chris Goodchild
5 years ago
If the smaller room is going to be a snug/study then using the arch for shelving makes sense, you always need space to put things in a study.
Juliet Docherty
5 years ago
Open concept rooms are great, until you have children.
graceh32
5 years ago
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T Gray
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
What if you kept a door but hid it as a bookcase. That way it is both useful and a bit of fun? If you are determined to wall it off though, (as OnePlan suggests above) shelving in the arch itself is a nice feature especially if you keep them the same colour as the room then the shape is the feature not the shelves (if you see what I mean).
Simon Axon
Original Author
5 years ago
Yes, I think we'll probably go with shelving it. Possibly combining that with insetting a desk into the lower half as the main study/work area of the room. We're already planning a bookcase door / secret room in one of the upstairs eaves spaces :)

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Ideas for closing an archway

OnePlan

Comments (12)

Ellie

Daisy England

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Ideas for closing an archway

Comments (12)

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