Most master bedroom remodels are about adding more space and increasing square footage, but that was not so with Tara Merola and her husband, Mike, who wanted to downsize their sleeping quarters in Potomac, Md.

“The room was much larger before,” Merola said. “When I became pregnant with our fifth child, I decided we really needed a laundry room upstairs. So we cut out part of the existing bedroom to create one.”