Designing attic spaces can feel a bit overwhelming — I totally get it. Today, I’m sharing the design journey of our attic study, which came with its fair share of challenges thanks to its walkthrough layout and multifunctional needs. If you’re dealing with a tricky loft setup, this one’s definitely worth a read!

A wood cladded attic living room with white sofa, square wooden coffee table and two leather chairs — Image credit: Staying Cosy

The General Idea

We finally got the chance to start working on our attic space. It happened after three long years of relocating items and boxes in and out of this area, which seemed to go on forever. And here we are now. Parts of the room have been completed, and since I started documenting the entire process earlier already, I'm going to split it into a few different posts. This one shows the room's original rough state as well as the proposed final design.

Warm and cosy

I’ve always been imagining the attic as a warm, cosy, wood cladded work-space with a snug sofa, flooded with the morning sunlight throughout the day, and then transforming into the coolest home cinema at night. All along the angled walls there would be loads of cleverly disguised storage hidden behind wood-cladded cabinet doors, with the most perfect wood structure pattern.

Multifunctional

As much as I’d want my husband to have his own private little man cave there, our house is not huge and I needed to carve out a little space for my work desk, too. Therefore the room needed to accommodate two desks, a tv lounge area, stairs railing and adequate storage for all those office necessities - the printers, the files, and also seasonal household items.

“The primary purpose of our room is a cosy home office for two, doubling as a secondary lounge and main tv room with plenty of storage. All this, while accommodating main access route via stairs to another attic storage room - possibly a future bedroom, who knows?”

When coming up with the basics of attic design, consider:

What is going to be the main purpose of the attic room? Is it a bedroom? A playroom? Or perhaps sloped ceiling bathroom?
Will it serve multiple functions that alternate during day/night, like ours?
Does it have a roof window?

An attic room under reconstruction with dry walled sloped ceiling and wooden construction pillars — Both beautiful and troublesome. Doesn’t it resemble a Chinese gate? :-)
Image credit: Staying Cosy

The Unique Attic Features

Gable roof angles and dormer windows are what define most attic rooms — they’re their most distinct features, offering both unique charm and design challenges.

One of the advantages in our case was that the attic stretches across the full width of the house, giving us beautifully proportioned gable beams. With a floor area of 5.6 x 5 meters (18'4" x 16'4"), the space feels open and generous.

Challenging staircase

The real challenge, however, was the staircase — awkwardly placed just off-centre, cutting through the room. It was one of those unavoidable compromises in our architectural layout and needed a thoughtful solution. We went with a custom railing that both hides the messy desk area and lets natural light flow through.

Weird features like this are always the ones you have to tackle first. I get it — no one wants to deal with the tricky stuff right away (me included), but sometimes you just have to dive in.

The key design elements

Once you’ve dealt with the oddities, you can start focusing on the other key elements in terms of design — here’s what I recommend prioritising:

The ceiling — shaped by the roof’s angle and height — is the number one feature in any attic room. You can either highlight it as a focal point or let it quietly fade into the background.
Uneven shapes, alcoves, dormers, pillars, sharp angles — especially when there are several at once — all need to be carefully considered. Each one calls for its own unique approach.
And then there are the little quirks: a smaller-than-usual main door, a tucked-away storage nook, an extra step or level change... These are golden opportunities to add character and charm. Embrace them! They’re what make the space truly one-of-a-kind.

Natural Light

The final key thing to consider when designing a loft space is natural light — and in attic rooms, it’s essential. It can make a smaller space feel bigger and more open, boost your mood and productivity, and help cut down on energy costs by reducing the need for artificial lighting during the day.

Keep in mind that skylights provide up to three times more light than traditional windows and offer a more even distribution of daylight.

To get a clear picture of your attic's lighting potential, ask yourself:

Which direction is the light coming from?
How many natural light sources are there, and how big are they?
Are they dormers, gable windows, roof windows — or a mix?
Are there any obstructions outside, like nearby buildings or tall trees?

Brighten it up

In our case, we only had one gable window to work with — not particularly large, but thanks to its southeast orientation and the lack of obstructions, it lets in a surprisingly generous amount of light. That one well-placed window gave me the confidence to brighten the entire space and go for a light and airy design.

Lean into the moody

If your attic is darker and adding roof windows isn’t an option, embrace the mood. Lean into it with rich tones, layered textures, and warm lighting to create a cosy, den-like atmosphere. After all, isn’t that the very definition of comfort?

Key Priorities

Once you’ve thought through all the aspects above, it’s time to define your key priorities. Write them down — they’ll become your roadmap to a well-designed, functional space.

Here’s what I focused on for our attic study:

Maximise natural light with bright colours and mirrors
Hide the (often messy) desks and have them face into the room
Wood, wood, and more wood — we just love the warmth it brings
Add a soft, wool, thick-pile wall-to-wall carpet for comfort
Discreetly hide the window-door leading to the uninsulated attic
Use angled walls for built-in storage cabinets
Install a sleek modern railing that also includes shelving

How I Tackled The Challenges

Once my priority list was set, I knew I had to start with the railing. Since it essentially divides the room into two main areas (plus a small extra space), I decided a U-shaped railing would be the best solution.

3D visualisation of wooden stairs railing with shelving on one side, white carpet and an oblong mirror at the back — Image credit: Staying Cosy

Sleek modern railing with shelving

A stairway with a railing on all three sides could easily feel too enclosed. So to soften this, I added a bookshelf to one side, accessible from both the stairwell and the desk area. This not only provides extra storage and functionality but also grounds the railing, giving it the presence of an actual wall. Plus, it adds a stylish design quirk!

Desk and storage cabinets

Since the storage cabinets stretch the full length of the angled walls, we had to carefully place the larger, more permanent furniture. Rather than positioning the workstations against the wall, we chose to have them face the room — with a possibility of a window view. The back area, with its two vertical beams, turned out to be the perfect spot for them.

3D visualisation of two home office desks with blue office chairs in a wood cladded attic room — Image credit: Staying Cosy

Natural light and hidden door

As I mentioned before, the room has just one window, which provides a rather good amount of natural light. However, as I decided to brighten the space up — I added two mirrors on the middle of the back wall, between the desks, to help reflect any extra light.

The larger mirror also cleverly hides a window-door that leads to the uninsulated part of the attic. Because, yes! - there has to be a secret hidden room in the house, right? The neutral white paint on the ceiling and wooden beams bounces light around the room, brightening the space even further.

3D visualisation of white carpeted and wood cladded attic work-living space with white construction beams and a grey sideboard — Image credit: Staying Cosy

Wood and wool combo

A warm, thick-pile wool carpet and oak-clad walls will anchor the design, softening the neutral colours. The wall heating pipes will be discreetly hidden behind one of the gable wall claddings.

The rest of the room will maintain a calm, relaxing atmosphere.

It’s going to be a space to work, unwind, and also serve as an extra spot for socializing later in the day. We decided to skip the projector idea and instead move the TV from the kids’ playroom into this zone. It will be tucked away in a large grey cabinet opposite the sofa. I’m not a fan of black screens—they feel too cold and stare at me like two sad eyes. So, behind the cabinet door it goes. :-)

3D visualisation of a wood cladded attic living room with a white sofa, square wooden table and two leather chairs — Image credit: Staying Cosy

The work progress

For now, I’ll reveal that the dry-walling is complete, and I’ve painted the sloping ceiling and wooden beams in a soft white shade called Paper by Tikkurila. In my next post, I’ll share the layout and showcase the beautiful wooden cladding and cabinetry. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on my design, I’d love to hear them!

The Attic Study Design