Maplewood, New Jersey, has a room named after it: the Maplewood room. Known across the USA as simply "a sunroom", it is lovingly referred to by Maplewood residential architects, homeowners, and realtors as The Maplewood Room. (The home on the left has two!)
As is the case for many surrounding towns, the majority of single-family homes here are prewar center or side-hall colonials, and the majority of these feature a narrow 3-season sunroom- the Maplewood room - generally adjacent to the living room. In most cases, the wall separating the living room and sunroom includes a large fireplace with doors on either side.
Homeowners in Maplewood have either grown to love and use these rooms (as sunrooms, narrow TV rooms or dens) or have chosen to remodel the space to suit their needs. For this blog, I wanted to share 5 first first room remodels CBH Architects have completed in Maplewood and surrounding towns.
Maplewood Room: Repurposed
We have a couple of examples where we have simply repurposed the room for different or additional uses.
In this first example the long, narrow room was broken up into two rooms: An office in front and a mudroom including a new entrance from the back-yard/driveway. The relocation of the entry opened up the back-yard patio to have more dining space and also put the entry closer to the driveway.
The mudroom right off the back entry was the perfect location for a busy family. MACS Construction, Bloomfield,NJ. InHouse Photography, Cranford, NJ.
In this second example, the room was remodeled with a full (albeit small) bathroom, providing a much needed 1st floor bathroom and the added advantage of staying on one floor vs. climbing stairs to get to a bathroom. GPRO Corp. Construction.
Maplewood Room: Take-over
In this example, the long and narrow "all-season" room went from being a children's romper room to the focal point of this grand home.
The living room and kitchen essentially took over the space. Murphy General Contractors, South Orange, NJ; InHouse Photography,
Maplewood Room: Expanded
In this next example, the sunroom was already a well-used and liked space (essentially a first-floor man-cave) but the entry from the back to the kitchen (sliding doors from the rear yard, through the sunroom, living room and back-hall) was awkward and provided no mudroom space.
The design closed off the sunroom with a new powder room and continued the exterior "line" of the sunroom into a new back entry, mudroom, and rear deck. B&C Renovations, West Orange, NJ; DRP Interiors, Franklin Lakes, NJ. InHouse Photography,
In this last example, the sunroom was a den that was just not quite big enough for an adequate TV room. Unlike the other projects shown so far, this home was a side-hall colonial. The resulting remodel/addition was a large project; the entire home was widened to create a center hall colonial. The first floor sunroom became wide enough for a den/guest-bedroom complete with a full bath. JMOC Construction, Morristown, NJ. Peter Rymwid Photography (after photo). The before photo on the left shows the sunroom to the right of the main entry; the photo at the right shows the house expanded with the wider side portion.
Do you have a Maplewood room in your home? www.maplewoodroom.com
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