I'm in the early planning stages of designing a small vacation home, and trying to optimize space as best I can - difficult when you're also worrying about accessibility. There's just nothing I can do to avoid having a large bathroom!

Anyway, I've been pondering the idea of building custom storage walls to separate all the rooms in a long narrow home. Has anyone tried anything like this? I could easily build in whatever structural components an interior wall would usually have, right? It'd solve some of my storage issues, would easily accommodate automatic pocket doors, would buy me a little precious space, and could easily be designed to work as a handrail along the sides of each room.

I should probably say that I'm NOT knowledgeable about construction at all past building some shelving and a treehouse...

I'm not following the handrail reference. Are you talking about building a 12" thick interior wall that could contain a bookshelf, accessible from one or either side as opposed to putting a 12" bookshelf in front of a 4-1/2" thick standard interior wall? What would interest me in such a wall would be the possibility of using the top portion as a utility chase, as long as none of the built-ins went all the way to the ceiling. Doors or other pass-throughs in such a wall are going to waste about 3X as much space as in a standard wall.

As for a handrail, a sturdy non-movable shelf at the right level would give him more than enough support for navigating along the sides of a room with his cane.



I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but I'm talking about having a 12'x60' building with zero 'normal' interior walls. Instead, I'd like to have ~9' long floor to ceiling built in storage separating each room and serving as structural supports. The last three feet will be the 'closed' portion of a pocket door, with the 'hidden' portion of the pocket door being tucked into the center of the first three feet of the storage. Each 'wall' can be from 12" ( 6" on each side) to however deep I want - I'm thinking 24" max when I want it to serve as an 18" closet on one side and a 6" bookshelf on the other.



I threw together the world's crappiest sketchup draft here:


The storage unit on the left would be huge - 30" deep - and the one on the right would be 18" deep. Those were just the first two designs I sketched after randomly tossing in bathroom stuff. The design of each unit would be based on the purpose that side of the wall is serving. I really like the one on the right, since the kitchen stuff would be along the back wall of the common room next door. I'd have to think on the one that would be the wall between the bathroom and bedroom. All these would be open - no cabinet doors, few drawers -

Anyway, the more I think on it, I'm asking the wrong stupid question. Obviously it's technically feasible, as long as the storage design is built around any necessary structural components and the pocket door unit. I'm wondering if it's a better solution than having normal interior walls and handling storage and handrails differently. Cost is only a secondary issue in this situation, accessibility and usability are primary. Aesthetics don't matter much, if at all.

You are going to hear right through such walls assuming a single layer barrier between both sides of the storage units such as a 3\4" sheet of plywood. On the other hand, pocket doors won't block much noise either.

Electrical would need to be run down through conduit or something.

The shelving would need support to avoid tipping, etc along the depth dimension since there won't be a wall behind (on the width dimension) to support it.

nnuts - you are going to have to give a bit more info. Why the long and narrow? Where and why are you building? If anything is normal about this house, you would normally put trusses on for the roof in the shortest direction. Than no interior walls would be structural.

Posted By sharter on 12 Mar 2013 06:17 PM
You are going to hear right through such walls assuming a single layer barrier between both sides of the storage units such as a 3\4" sheet of plywood. On the other hand, pocket doors won't block much noise either.

So far, that is the single biggest downside I've come up against. Who wants their toilet sharing a not-wall with their couch? Sigh... Long and narrow was just based on the fact that we already have an area leveled we could use - but it's not a necessity by any stretch. Unfortunately, accessibility and small don't really go together very well, especially when you're trying to make things easy on cane AND wheelchair users. In the end, my only real goal is to have two accessible master suites and an accessible common area on the first floor, and a pair of loft bedrooms on the second. I want it to be reasonably efficient and as small as possible while accommodating wheelchair access everywhere on the first floor. However I can manage that is fine by me.

I think you are on the right track with this, but I don't understand begrudging the wall space. If your 600 sf space had even 5 of those walls, you are only talking about losing 5 X 4-1/2" X 11' or a total of 20 square feet and a portion of that is dedicated to portals.

You're building a shotgun house, so named because you can a fire a shotgun through it and not hit anything if the doors are open. You'll find modern versions here along with some ideas about storage. http://www.houzz.com/shotgun-house Dunno where you are building but Frank Lloyd Wright took the basic principle, added an el in one direction, used plantings to screen the enclosed area as a courtyard, and had lots of windows in the house opening into it. Wright used this technique to build small houses on small irregular lots and make them seem bigger and more private. Google "usonian design" for some examples. If you aren't worried about privacy, a deck on the side with the best view with give you the same sense of bringing the outside in. BTW, the number one complaint of people who live in Usonian houses: no storage. The Container Store or Crate and Barrel can give you some tips on maximizing small spaces. Our pantry is 2x5 but pretty functional with lazy susans and wall hung baskets.

OK, this is a favorite subject: Built-in furniture is a natural in a small house because there aren't many options to rearrange it anyway. We have a built-in sectional with a trundle bed under one leg and lift-up access to bedding under the other. A built-in china cabinet separates the dining area from the living area. The kitchen is an area that's roughly 13 feet by 8 feet wide with a 3x7 island completing the box and seating six along the outside. Our downstairs is 18x57 with a 5x12 bath and 12x12 den side by side on one end. The rest is an 18x47 open area with lots of glass, both of which are key to a small house that lives big. The garage has cabinets and shelves on all three walls. A pair of design elements, a 5x5 "chimney" and a 5x12 stairwell break up the long walls on each sides and put shoulders on a design that would otherwise look like a long skinny house. Two books helped me a lot: "The Not So Big House" and "Wright-Sized House." Spend some time on it. A small house is a big challenge.

toddm thanks for the links. Just put in an order at amazon for those two books. Always a fan of FLW. Having a smaller home is also good for avoiding too high of an appraisal, as most appraisals are simple and\or done first by square feet. That is if you want to live in your house and for a long time and minimize taxes. I've read books that take minimizing property value to an extreme -- like removing baseboard before your appraiser comes, or putting in a graveyard lol. Of course a smaller home should also be cheaper to build, maintain, heat, cool, etc.

A small house is a big challenge.

Built-ins are wonderful, particularly if you build em yourself, but there's not much else that boosts your price per square foot more.

Just me and my 1957 ShopSmith greenie.