Bedroom Snoring Wrap-Up
If you have not read the previous blog posting on this subject, you might want to first read that so this posting can be put more in context. In brief, I am talking about the creative process that you might go through to solve an architectural dilemma. In this case, the challenge is to try to see if employing some new, untried idea could create a bedroom that could be easily separated into two private sleeping areas, with VERY little effort, so as to allow sleep to continue even after one spouse starts snoring, or reading with the lights on, or watching television.
I explored the various ways that a bed may be automated to move apart and allow privacy. I explored several ways to potentially have walls or curtains come down and separate the bed so that one spouse has peace and quiet while the other “carries-on” his or her “business”.
Remember, this is, so far, just a mental exercise and one that is now far enough along to try and design and build a room to accommodate this new methodology. The only practical way I have imagined to do the separation of beds (recall that we are starting with 2, twin/single beds, that are positioned with just about 2 or 3 inches between them) is to have (about) an 8 foot sound insulated, lightweight, (for lack of a better word) “door” which would slide out of the headboard wall and separate the two beds. To make this happen and not look like some awkward contraption is a big part of this puzzle. If the room looks odd when the privacy door is not being used, the design would not succeed. The room MUST look somewhat normal when the doors are not being used.
To start, that means you must first have a home design that has a logical, usable wall that would accept the 8 foot door to be pushed inside of it. This is really just a very wide traditional pocket (sliding) door. Making the ceiling track for the door, and the wall “pocket” edge where the door’s edge will be seen when not being used, is tricky. I want to mask these, so folks don’t see an unusual ceiling track and a door’s edge on the headboard wall. I put on my designer’s hat and found a nice way to design a semi-traditional wood (built-in) headboard and a simple wood beamed ceiling that would hide the track enough so that a visitor’s eyes would not see anything unusual unless they were looking for it.
In use, lets say, your spouse is reading with his/her bedside light turned on. This light can now be easily blocked by just reaching over your head and sliding the 8 foot pocket door partially out , say 3 to 4 feet. This is just enough to block the light. When the reading spouse finally does turn-off the reading light, he/she could just slide the door back into the wall, with little ffort. Moving the door panel , with little efort is the key.
Now let’s say, one spouse starts snoring loudly. The awoken spouse could now pull the door all the way to the foot of the bed. But wait, the 8 foot door panel does not entirely go across , and separate the entire 12 foot wide room. If only closing-off 2/3rds of the room does enough to muffle the sound to a tolerable volume, great. If the snoring is still just too loud, the awoken spouse may choose to get up and slide another (that’s a second door for those who are counting) 4 foot hidden pocket door form the foot side wall of the bedroom to meet up to the edge of the 8 foot sliding door panel. This now effectively, separates the entire room in half. If one spouse awakes and wants to get to the other side of the bedroom, they can just use the 4 foot panel sliding door as you would any other sliding door.
As for the times when one spouse wants to watch television and the other is sleeping, the solution would be to have a pivoting television bracket which would be mounted on one side of the doorway separation line. and could be pivoted to be on the other side of the sliding door track. If you like, another solution would be to simply have 2 televisions, one on each side of the sliding door track line. This means each spouse could theoretically watch different programs at the same time and not interfere with the other programs if the doors were slided closed.
If you have any other ideas about creating your perfect solution for the split master bedroom privacy method, please let me know.
I was out late tonight discussing a potential new home project with yet another nice couple who wants to build a Miracle Dream 2500 in Milwaukee. Before our dinner meeting, we met at a most gracious couple’s home who had built with us about 2 years ago. It was just a lovely evening altogether and I hope the road leads to us being able to satisfy this client’s housing needs.
Join me next time for more WILD ideas in creative home design where we delve into the concept of fun and water, and I tell you what is the new “hot” color for 2010? Any guesses?
It is always nice to hear your comments. Until next time….
Blessings,
Tom Hignite
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:50 am
Regarding your interesting bed ideas….how about using the railroad sleeper car as inspiration. Instead of a divider between the 2 beds, have 2 little “pocket rooms” on the headboard wall of the bed. Then, whoever needs quiet and sleep can push a button and the foot part of the bed swings around and tucks them into their own little pocket room! I know, sounds “out there”, but I like that you are an out-of-the-box thinker! We met you at the 2009 Parade of Homes and are still considering having you build our next home. We LOVE the little big house! Keep up the good work! God Bless!
March 4th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Hi Noelle,
I am glad you added your ideas to the mix for the snore-less bedroom. I do think your idea has merit. I have googled the sleeper car idea and will give it a brainstorm to see if that idea would/ could work OR lead to another off-shoot idea. Concealing the bed alcoves and making them soundproof would be the immediate challenge as would be the technical end of how to pivot the bed up inot the alcove. Once I find the mechanical needs, I think we could find a decorative or artistic way to overcome the hiding of the wall alcoves.
One of my staffers suggested having a side -room to have the awoken spouse move to when the snoring gets too loud. The issue with this is that if it takes too much effort to move to another room, the idea is probably doomed to eventually fail. It has to be a simple, little-effort idea. It also needs to be cost effective to become mainstream. Also, the additional room , as I mentioned in the aritcle ,is going the wrong way in adding square footage when we are trying to reduce the home’s volume. Your alcove idea could take up little space so it sounds like a good start.
Thank you very much for the seed of an idea. Keep reading the blog.
Blessings,
Tom
March 11th, 2010 at 5:00 am
Tom,
I think you are on the right track with the two twin beds separated by a pocket door/device. In order to address the ‘mechanism’ needed, assume that you will provide all the hardware for the solution in your design, and the customer would then have the ability to set their choice of twin size box spring and mattress in your bedframe hardware. That way you can ensure a ‘mechanism’ that closes up when not in use and remains comfortable as the separator of the two twin mattresses. When not in use, a bedspread is put over the mattresses and the separator to retain a normal look. I think you can creatively design the room with placement of closets to 1) conceal the pocket doors (8ft headboard, 4ft footboard end) and 2) when closed, ensure a pathway for the enclosed side to navigate the room. The selling point, the cost of any hardware is cheaper than the extra room you just saved. I am speaking from experience, we use separate rooms. You are very creative, I appreciate your ideas and passion. Best Wishes.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Hello Dave,
Thank you for your comment. Hearing that you now are sleeping in two bedrooms and that this idea appeals to you, does give me good reassurance that I am perhaps on the right track. I have thought more about this since I wrote this blog entry many days ago. With further consideration, I still have not found a second solution which makes any more sense than this one, so I have seta few sketches to design my first home with this situation. I have placed the bathroom behind the bed headboard wall with each occupant having their own private toilet mini-room and one big shared 9 foot wide shower which enters off both toilet areas. This area could, as you suggested, be closets instead of a bath area.
At night, my wife does not like me rendering our one master toilet off -limits until SHE gets to use it first. I run into this quite a bit so I thought that since having this twin sink idea in a bathroom is so hip, why not having two toilets? This way, both spouses have a toilet equally convenient to their side of the bed. The bigger 8 foot door is concealed inside the walling separating the two toilet areas.
As for the foot board 4 foot door, I have built a wall divider into an exterior wall protrusion. On each side of this protrusion, there is a twin window. From the outside of the home, I have two other such walls which seemingly are there to hold up an extended 5 foot roof overhang. This way, these rear wall protrusions do not look out of place, but rather functional(which they are).
I was glad to put this idea out there so readers would have a chance to comment. I did recieve comments both public and some verbal private ones too.
Any feed-back on the lay-down shower concept?
Blessings,
Tom
Note: I am so new to blogging that I do not know how to spell-check these responses. Please forgive my mis-spells.