loftblogging 3: liberation via customization by Victor D. '27
i <3 process
My dorm East Campus (EC) has a long tradition of radical room customization, including resident-constructed lofts, shelves, and miscellaneous furniture. Although I initially emailed the EC house manager to request additional bed posts, after several weeks of being ghosted, I decided to regain control of my space. I would build my own loft! Luckily, all the material I needed was free, as it came from the roller coaster and fort sites.
me at the EC fort site during build
Except, I’m not really a builder, so I asked my Course 401 Architecture friend Hanu for help. At first, I had an ambitious plan to build a king sized loft, before quickly realizing that my room is way too small and the loft would completely obstruct the window.
the initial state of my room (i have a mattress it was just outside)
After about roughly ~6 hours of my Saturday afternoon/evening when EC Makerspace leads hosted tutorial hours to help teach residents how to use the equipment and with loft construction, my loft was finally cut, assembled, and installed: the best decision I made for this room! Here are some process pictures…
Constructing my loft was actually a lot more rewarding than I anticipated. To go from disjoint construction material, a circular saw, and a handful of screws to a practical piece of furniture opened my space to all sorts of customization—it’s liberating! I was free to decide on the dimensions of my loft, opting for comfortable 68 inch posts to allow for flexible head space above and below. Free to make modifications to the structure, such as installing a railing, building a ladder, and attaching hooks to hang my hats. Free to let my friends write and doodle on the wood.
my high school friend jin (who was visiting from UC Berkeley for HackMIT) drew this! they also help me build the railing on my loft :D
It isn’t just the final result that mattered. Technically, I could’ve gotten an almost identical outcome with the dorm provided frames (raising my bed off the ground to have more space). But instead of a static piece of my room, it’s a living structure that will continue to grow and evolve with me as the year progresses.
My mind has opened to new possibilities for furniture and room modification! Even though it was as simple as following the construction instructions so graciously authored by Hanu (The Loft Doc), I feel a lot more capable to take on similar projects in the future. Because when I look at the planks strewn across my floor, it doesn’t feel as daunting anymore to imagine materializing a table or a bookshelf or a stool. Since I built my loft, I could deconstruct it later to maybe stain or paint it, then reassemble. I’m already planning to install some sort of upstairs shelf, as I enjoy reading before bed but my book, pencil, and sticky notes for annotations frequently do not end up in the same place I set them down by the time I wake up in the morning.
I was deterred by the time and labor commitment to build my own loft, and reasoned it’d be easier just to have one provided for me (especially as the semester started ramping up).02 stay tuned for classes im taking blog I now realize the value in self construction and am grateful to my friends who insisted I build, and helped me realize my dream loft :).
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