A little over five and half years ago, we moved into our house, which is what we now call, “home.” When we moved in, it was a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom with a loft; that same house is now a 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom with a new loft. As we continue to grow as a family, in size and with more needs, we are in need of more space. So what do you do if you just don’t have the room to grow?

Although this isn’t always the case, sometimes when you do a little thinking outside of the box, you can come up with areas around the house that you can use to expand the living space within your home. We have had two babies since we have lived here, and because so, we needed two more bedrooms. The moment that we started planning on having another child, we started pondering thoughts on how and where we can add another bedroom; the most logical area to turn into a bedroom was what was originally our loft.

With just a few trips to our local Home Depot, my father in law and husband converted this loft area into a bedroom all on their own. After adding a wall to separate the old loft from the rest of the house, they added a closet within the new bedroom and framed off an area for the bedroom door. Spending about a week on this project, we ended up with a fifth bedroom, and it looks as if it was built with the house, originally. It looks fantastic!!!

Shortly after my son’s first birthday, we decided to have another baby!!! Once again, we were faced with the bedroom dilemma. Knowing that it would cost quite a bit of money, we pulled the plug and decided to expand our second story over the rest of the house. Our entry way, as well as our dining-room had vaulted ceilings, this area is approximately 350 square feet. We took advantage of the vaulted ceilings and added a bedroom and another loft in this area. This addition was by far more extensive than the loft conversion so we hired an engineer and a contractor. We couldn’t have been more pleased with how it turned out. At this point, we now have a 6 bedroom, another loft and 4 bathrooms.

Visit https://prettytothet.com/emaries-baby-bedroom/ for the details on Emarie’s bedroom decor.

When we moved in, we lacked a pantry area; underneath the stairs, we converted this area into a pantry and a hang out area for the kiddos. They both turned out great. Check out https://prettytothet.com/pantry/ and https://prettytothet.com/our-harry-potter-closet/ for details on how these two projects turned out. It’s amazing with what you can do with free space.

Underneath the stairs, this space was used to convert into an area for the kids to get away & hang out

We also used half of the space under the stairs for an added Pantry area!!!

We are currently working on turning a closet into an office/crafts room, so far, it’s looking awesome!! I can’t wait until it’s done and I am able to share it with all of you’s. We also have several other plans and great ways to utilize space around our house. Not that it will happen tomorrow, but we are also thinking about making a large holiday storage unit on the side of our house, converting these annoying cubby holes that we have on the side of our fireplace into a couple of nice shelving units, AND…. a topic that we toss back and forth, converting our third car garage into another lounging area within our house. I would love to patch up that garage door, put a nice, large window in replacement and install some beautiful glass french between what is now our house leading into the new area. Sounds like a great idea, right?!?! I’m still trying to convince my husband that losing a garage for more space of the house is much more practical!!!

Aside from the other millions of things that we have added or changed around our house, conversions and additions are some of my favorites, because I feel as if we are fully utilizing all of what is or can be living space. Take a moment and just step back to look at your home, and ponder thoughts on areas of space that you could possibly be wasting, and see what you can do to make use of those areas; you’ll be surprised with what you may come up with!!!