Adding a Room over a 2-Story Foyer

Remember how I said in an earlier post that most of the things we did in the past, we hired out? About 5 years ago, in our old house, we desperately needed more space. We decided to look into putting a room on the second-story, closing up our two-story foyer. Well, this was a BIG undertaking and was definitely above our paygrade, so hiring out we did! 🙂

I wanted to share this on here just in case this is something you have ever considered doing. It is possible and it was an incredible transformation that gave us an additional ~200 square feet! Since we didn’t do the work and don’t know all the ins-and-outs, I’ll mostly show you pictures so you can see the progress.

This was the before. You would come in the front door of the house and see this:

This was the view looking down:

And this was the view from the top looking straight ahead! (notice how high up that window is)

A 2-story foyer definitely gives a very large, open feeling to a home. But, if you think about it… it’s so much wasted space! We were thrilled to know we had the option of closing it up and putting a room where there was just air before. 😉

Here are pictures of the stages of construction:

Framing-

Dry Wall-

This is the view from standing by the front door, looking up.
The stairs are on the other side of this wall.
That window doesn’t look so high anymore, huh? (Kind of crazy to think how high up this new room really is!)

Paint and Finishings-

The grand finale!

This room bought us 3 additional years in a house we were already outgrowing. It also helped add square footage for when we sold the house! This is a house-changing adventure that I would highly recommend looking into if you have a 2-story foyer and would rather have living space!

brookekh
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13 responses to “Adding a Room over a 2-Story Foyer”

  1. Stephen Avatar
    Stephen

    This project turned out so well! This is exactly what I want to have done. I’m very curious to know how much this cost.

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    1. brookekh Avatar
      brookekh

      Thank you!! It made a huge difference in our house. I believe it cost around $10,000 for everything (5 years ago). Good luck if you decide to do it, and let me know if you have any questions along the way!

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  2. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    How much did it cost roughly? How long did it take?

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    1. brookekh Avatar
      brookekh

      Hey there! It cost about $10,000 for us… granted, that was about 5 years ago, but hopefully that gives you a rough idea. It took about 9 full days of work in total. It was such a game changer for our house! Let me know if you have any other questions.

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  3. Carson Avatar
    Carson

    Hi! We’re thinking of doing this. The step by step pictures are super nice to see how it progressed! Thanks for sharing! One question, did you get a permit to do this? Our GC wants to do it unpermited.

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    1. brookekh Avatar
      brookekh

      I’m so glad this was helpful to you! I wish I knew more of the details that they did each step of the way, but hopefully the pictures can give an idea. We did get it permitted by our county. That held it up a few extra days, but it did give me some peace of mind that it was inspected. Good luck to you, and let me know if you have any questions along the way!

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  4. Carley Spisak Avatar
    Carley Spisak

    Did you hire a general contractor for everything or did you also have to get someone to draw up plans, someone else to do electrical, someone else to do the duct work for the HVAC, etc?

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    1. brookekh Avatar
      brookekh

      Hi there! Yes, we hired a general contractor who had his go-to electrician and HVAC company. He did the framing, sheetrock, painting and carpet install. Let me know if you have any other questions! 😊

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      1. Carley Spisak Avatar
        Carley Spisak

        I do have questions, thank you! We were quoted $50k to do this project and add in a closet over the garage. I can’t believe that it would cost this much especially seeing the cost of your home- our first floor is a very similar layout and size. Did they have to put in floor joists or do anything crazy structurally? It looks like simple framing to me, but I’m being told the floors will sag without joists. How is this room holding up six years later? We can email back and forth if that is helpful!

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      2. Carley Spisak Avatar
        Carley Spisak

        Also did they have to cut in to the front of the house to be able to get all the materials inside? Not sure if that makes sense or not. And did they have to demo any existing walls to put in electric or HVAC?

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  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you for posting. We are in a similar situation. I never thought I would find and article that show how this done. Now we know it would be worth it.

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    1. brookekh Avatar
      brookekh

      I’m so glad this was helpful to you. I wish I knew more of the details the contractors actually did, but I mainly wanted to let people out there know it can be done!! Good luck if you decide to go for it!

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  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    This is exactly what we’re planning to do! Wondering how may you feel now that you’ve had it for a while. I’m mainly worried about the downstairs losing that natural light and feeling too much like a cave. But man I would love to get our baby out of our closet! 😂

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