Being in the land of Jefferson, we felt a certain obligation to at least give a nod to the old man when building our new house.  My favorite element of Monticello has always been his bed, which is built into a wall that divides his office from a sitting room.

We are big believers in great expansive common spaces for our homes, where the kitchen, dining and living areas all bleed together.  However, we thought a built-in day bed would be a great way to still separate the spaces while still maintaining interesting sight lines between the rooms.  

Of course, just a plain old day bed doesn’t really satisfy the inner kid in me.  So, we dropped the ceiling on the day bed and built a secret play loft above it for Eleanor, who checked it out for the first time this weekend.  There is also a trap door into the 2nd floor linen closet for quick getaways…