A first-time visitor might be surprised to discover where the fifth bedroom is in the recently renovated and redesigned Victorian four-square in Chevy Chase Heights.
The master suite and two bedrooms on the second level are easy to find. So is the new basement guest suite where the dirt-filled crawl space used to be before the folks at Wiedemann Architects in Bethesda opted to excavate it.
The fifth bedroom, however, is hidden away in the attic, invisible to the untrained eye in an office suite built for the new owners of this 1910 home in Northwest Washington. But pull the secret drawer and you have an instant bedroom, with a trundle bed hidden within what looks like a deceptively simple built-in shelving and dresser unit.
“Call it a Wiedemann bed,” said Greg Wiedemann, the firm’s principal and design chief.
Reviving this home presented a design challenge beyond the fact that property had deteriorated to the point that plaster was falling off the walls. The new owners — a developer and an urban planner — wanted more space to raise their infant daughter but they also wanted to maintain the profile of the 1910 home and respect its design integrity in a District neighborhood where tear-downs are a rarity. There was little room on either side of the close-set home or space to push out back against the alley.
So Wiedemann and project architect Felix Gonzalez decided to build up and down, using the attic and basement space. Their interior design work was cited for a recent award by the American Institute of Architects’ D.C. Chapter for expanding the living space without sacrificing the character of the historic home.
“I like to say that we doubled the useable space without expanding the footprint,” said Wiedemann, who grew up in Chevy Chase.
Actually, there is a new small breakfast room addition off the kitchen and new dormers in the attic. But the rest of the expansion was done using found space. Excavating the basement enabled the team to make space for a guest suite including a full bath and living space as well as a mudroom inside a new basement entry beneath the breakfast room addition.
Another mudroom space was added to the entry foyer.
“That gives the foyer a dual purpose, serving as both the formal place to greet guests and an informal entry,” Wiedemann said.
But the most novel use of space was in the attic, where a basic storage room was converted to an office and bedroom space with a full bath. Unlike most attic conversions that simply add drywall to complete the ceiling and walls, this one is full of custom-design elements, including recessed lighting, a refinished pine floor and grooved walls and ceiling.
“The grooved walls give a nice nautical element to the room,” Wiedemann said.
Besides the storage unit and the hidden “Wiedemann bed,” there are also two built-in desks with drawers and wall shelving.
And the two window dormers do more than flood the space with light. One provides a space for a window seat and the other created a nook to add the bathroom, with a pedestal sink, toilet and stall shower.
“We used every square inch,” Wiedemann said.
