Renovations that tap into your hidden space

HACKENSACK, N.J. When it comes to renovation projects, contractors say homeowners often don't (pardon the pun) think outside the box.

Want a closet? You can steal some space from a neighboring room. Want a room? You can re-purpose that little-used closet into something more practical. When your contractor takes a peek behind your walls, you might be surprised to find you have usable space you never knew existed.

A savvy contractor can often come up with an innovative solution for home design and construction problems.

"People sort of get tunnel vision," says Richard Graniere, owner of Wayne, N.J.-based Advantage Contracting. "They work in the existing space instead of working within the outside perimeters of the house. They get blinded by the walls."

One of the easiest ways to re-purpose space is to take down nonload-bearing walls, which are most walls in your home, Graniere says. Even a load-bearing wall can be removed, but it requires support beams to be erected in its place.

Dominic Mangiarelli recalls a woman who asked him about four years ago to renovate a bathroom, but also talked about how much she wanted more closet space for her five-bedroom colonial in Livingston, N.J.

Mangiarelli had to take down a wall between the bathroom and the hallway. In the middle, he discovered a cavity between a chimney and the hallway wall.

"It was small, only about 18 inches by 18 inches, but to her it was a gold mine," he says. Mangiarelli carved out the space for a linen closet in that cavity.

A custom door for such a small size would be very expensive, but Mangiarelli came up with a novel idea: He used one panel of a bi-fold door. A little paint and Spackle and a carpet remnant completed the job.

"She was just as excited about that closet as she was about the weeks of work I put into the bathroom," Mangiarelli says with a laugh.

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Renovations that tap into your hidden space