Moving Walls Changes Lives

In Madama Butterfly, rice paper walls slide open and closed and in a wink rooms are reconfigured for the next scene. A bedroom becomes a living room becomes a veranda. Life is as fluid as an aria.

I don’t live in an opera, so when I want to enlarge a kitchen I have to swing a sledge hammer and hope the wall isn’t the load bearing kind.

Fortunately, most interior walls have no structural significance. They don't hold the ceilings up or keep the foundation from caving in. All they do is divide broad empty spaces into smaller spaces: spaces for eating, sleeping, recreation, and storage. These non-load bearing walls are the conscience of our homes, telling us what to do, when to do it, and how many people we can do it with.

taking down a wall to make our kitchen bigger

Image by RyanIsHungry via Flickr

When Pat and I purchased our Victorian apartment building, it had lots of walls. The bathroom was a dark, closeted space that would accommodate only one person at a time. The bedrooms were too small for a queen-sized bed. This was an apartment that disapproved of sex.

To make matters worse, a previous landlord had added hasty partitions. He gave his tenants closets and an extra bedroom, but took away space and light.

"We don't need so many walls," I told Pat.

I imagined transforming the stuffy rental apartment into a grand open space, liberated from rigid ideas on how to live. By eating, sleeping, and recreating in one large room, the occupant would become self-actualized, integrated, and spiritually whole.

Pat agreed: "We'll turn this apartment into a showplace."

I began to draw floor plans that resembled comic-book mazes. I erased old walls and drew new ones a few inches east or west. In my sketches, the claustrophobic bathroom extended into the hall. The stairway became a closet, and a closet became a state-of-the-art media room. Pat added a few strokes to enlarge the kitchen. She eliminated a narrow, windowless pantry.

Invigorated and inspired, we set two young men with hammers loose. "Go for it!" Then we held our breaths.

Lights flickered and timbers shook. The ancient plaster lifted from the lath. A fine white power clouded around me.

Then, as we watched the old walls collapsing, our spirits sank. "Will tenants really want to eat and sleep in the same room?" Pat asked. "And, where will they hang their pictures?"

My mouth filled with the chalky taste of crumbling values. It's a serious business, moving walls. Even when they aren't load-bearing, they hold something important up.

On the Web:

The Fall of Temporary Apartment Walls

Moving Walls Transform Apartment

Removing Interior Walls

8 Secrets for More Storage

Work Around: Closets as Offices

Open Closets in Small Spaces

Which Room Should Be the Living Room?