Spotted! Sunken Spaces, Inside and Out
Open-plan living has its advantages, but sunken rooms and other spaces can add a little something extra
Joanna Tovia
25 May 2017
Houzz editorial team. Photojournalist specialising in design, travel and living well. Follow her photodocumentary about pets and the people who love them on Instagram @unfoldingtails
Houzz editorial team. Photojournalist specialising in design, travel and living well.... More
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes, and the same is true with our homes. Letting in the light, blurring the boundaries between inside and out, and creating communal areas to gather with family and friends are almost always at the top of homeowner priority lists when it comes to renovating. But adding a box-like open-plan living/dining/kitchen isn’t always the way to go. As you’ll see from the houses below, a sunken room can not only make for a far more interesting home, it can also bring people together. And sometimes it just makes the best design sense.
In-between rooms
Locating a sunken kitchen between two rectangular volumes achieved two aims in this house. Architect Marmol Radziner designed it to maximise available space, and to create additional opportunities for indoor-outdoor flow. Two offset rectangles sit at either end of the narrow site, and the kitchen serves as the bridge that unites the two. The design effectively splits the home into thirds.
Locating a sunken kitchen between two rectangular volumes achieved two aims in this house. Architect Marmol Radziner designed it to maximise available space, and to create additional opportunities for indoor-outdoor flow. Two offset rectangles sit at either end of the narrow site, and the kitchen serves as the bridge that unites the two. The design effectively splits the home into thirds.
The dining nook – on the same level as the kitchen – turns the zone into a spot for socialising. The home was designed for a young family and is located on a large landscaped site in Venice, California.
Sinking the kitchen also opened it up to views of the pool and garden beyond.
Browse more kitchen photos
Browse more kitchen photos
Space saver
Apartment dwelling is on the rise as cities encourage higher-density living over urban sprawl, but creativity is often needed to deliver the needs and wants of the homeowner within a confined footprint.
Split-level dwellings can make the most of the available space. In this London apartment on the ground floor, sinking the kitchen allowed for a mezzanine level overhead for extra living space.
Apartment dwelling is on the rise as cities encourage higher-density living over urban sprawl, but creativity is often needed to deliver the needs and wants of the homeowner within a confined footprint.
Split-level dwellings can make the most of the available space. In this London apartment on the ground floor, sinking the kitchen allowed for a mezzanine level overhead for extra living space.
The floor of the living area sits level with the kitchen benchtops. Sealing off the kitchen with a glass wall keeps things hygienic without isolating the two rooms from one another.
Designed for comfort
Sinking a living room ‘pit’ below floor level creates an inviting, ultra-comfortable place to hang out in this beach house on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, and doing so also provides bench seating much of the way around the room. Designed for architect Rachel Nolan (of Kennedy Nolan) and her young family, the pit edge is wide enough to house a futon – her favourite spot to take an afternoon nap in the winter sun.
Take the tour
Sinking a living room ‘pit’ below floor level creates an inviting, ultra-comfortable place to hang out in this beach house on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, and doing so also provides bench seating much of the way around the room. Designed for architect Rachel Nolan (of Kennedy Nolan) and her young family, the pit edge is wide enough to house a futon – her favourite spot to take an afternoon nap in the winter sun.
Take the tour
The sunken living area has been carpeted for extra cosiness, while the adjoining dining/kitchen area has polished concrete underfoot. Like the rest of the home, the living area is simple and sparsely furnished, designed for relaxed family weekends spent doing not much at all.
Feeling groovy
Conversation pits were all the rage in the ’70s, so the owners of this penthouse apartment above a cafe in Melbourne embraced the decor of the decade too, to go with their sunken space. They chose white leather and shag carpet for the conversation pit they’d requested as part of a wider renovation. Located in the parents’ retreat, it was designed to enable the couple to have their friends over without disturbing their twin babies.
Is your home ready for a 1970s revival?
Conversation pits were all the rage in the ’70s, so the owners of this penthouse apartment above a cafe in Melbourne embraced the decor of the decade too, to go with their sunken space. They chose white leather and shag carpet for the conversation pit they’d requested as part of a wider renovation. Located in the parents’ retreat, it was designed to enable the couple to have their friends over without disturbing their twin babies.
Is your home ready for a 1970s revival?
All lit up
Sunken spaces aren’t restricted to the indoors, of course. Sinking circular garden beds into the soil enables your backyard to become a work of art both day and night, with the help of lighting.
Sunken spaces aren’t restricted to the indoors, of course. Sinking circular garden beds into the soil enables your backyard to become a work of art both day and night, with the help of lighting.
Lighting has been used to great effect in this outdoor area too, and sinking it below floor level creates instant bench seating for a crowd. A smart move for a small backyard.
Split-level lounging
The three zones of this outdoor area have been divided into clearly defined spaces – an outdoor kitchen (complete with pizza oven), dining space, and lounge area. Dropping the lounge area down a level turns it into its own welcoming escape.
The three zones of this outdoor area have been divided into clearly defined spaces – an outdoor kitchen (complete with pizza oven), dining space, and lounge area. Dropping the lounge area down a level turns it into its own welcoming escape.
Cushioned hardwood bench seating surrounding a wood-burning fireplace makes the area entertaining-ready all year round, and there’s even a built-in icebox to keep chilled drinks within arm’s reach.
After more of a resort feel? A set-up like this delivers, with or without the seaside backdrop.
Your say
What do you think of sunken rooms? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
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Your say
What do you think of sunken rooms? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
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Browse more swimming pool photos
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Not sure I agree with this concept. Heading into advanced years has taught me the pitfalls of failing eyesight, hesitancy in tread and losing equilibrium as big reasons for avoiding too many steps & corners in general. Call me lacking in imagination...maybe? However, practicality and function comes first in my book.
Our house, built in 1986, has a sunken living room. It's just a step from the lobby into the living room and from the dining room into the living room. While the ceiling is higher in the living room, the corresponding space in the basement has a lower ceiling, but not terribly so, since the basement has a very good height ceiling overall.
When we built the house we thought it was a good idea and we liked it. We were also much younger. Even my parents didn't find it dangerous at the time, when they were in their mid 50s.
But now that we are in our mid 60s ourselves, we look at that step as a potential trap. My parents (who both passed away in the last 3 years, when in their mid 80's) were scared of that step the last few times they ever came to visit and now I really understand why. We'll need to eventually put a small bannister to have something to hold before stepping down before we get much older in this house, assuming we don't have other health or mobility issues by then that would force us to move. That may eventually happen anyway if we can no longer navigate the stairs going up and down in the house. They are already starting to look like trouble.
I love our sunken living room, but I can see the concerns for people aging in place. We have a vaulted ceiling, so if it ever becomes an issue, we could raise the floor if need be.
The Venice, CA sunken kitchen is stunning (that banquette is especially gorgeous) but if one has pets, a sunken kitchen could never work.