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Roundup: Living in a Rowhouse

With all the historic neighborhoods, rowhouses are easy to find in the DC area. Typically narrow in width, rowhouses present unique design and decor challenges. The U Street rowhouse shown here, and featured in The Washington Post, was renovated to include thick wall shelves and maple cabinets along the walls to hold stereo equipments, art and ceramics. Click below for a roundup of decor ideas and inspiration for rowhouse living...

 
 

Rowhouses shown here:
Living in a Rowhouse slide show from The Washington Post
Hot or Not? Patriotic Row House Exteriors; Old Town Alexandria, Virginia
Look!: Inside a "Painted Lady" Baltimore Rowhouse
Look! Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual
• the kitchen from Baltimore Rowhouse, a member of the Apartment Therapy DC flickr pool. Note the wall-mounted television in the top left corner.

More Rowhouse Resources from Apartment Therapy and Beyond:
Rowhouse Redux: Washington Architects Renew City Living a past exhibition at The National Building Museum
Look! Painted Ladies Row Houses
Renovated London Row House
Queens Rowhouse
Preserving Local Traditions: Cleaning Marble Stoops

Do you live in a rowhouse? Post photos to the Apartment Therapy DC flickr pool and you could see your home featured on Apartment Therapy DC!

(Images: Darko Zagar; Rachael Grad, Karl Merton Ferron, the Philadelphia Rowhouse ManualBaltimore Rowhouse)

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Roundup, inspiration, rowhouse, The Washington Post

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Comments (6)

A book to recommend: "Bricks and Brownstone: The New York Townhouse 1783-1929" by Charles Lockwood. My definition of a townhouse would be a rowhouse with aspirations.
For everyone who complains about climbing stairs, you can find others who'll admit that it's the only workout they get... running up and down stairs morning and night.
Thanks for the posting... I'm going to take my time and go through it all.

posted by DeborahMcP on July 31st 2009 at 8:18pm
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Why does everyone make this so challenging? My teen years we lived in a townhome (same as a row house) that was only 11 feet wide and we managed without needing design posts after design posts making it seem like hell.

posted by ChrisGal on August 1st 2009 at 6:04am
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Thanks for posting this! I love seeing the inside of other rowhomes. I live in a rowhome but in jersey, otherwise I'd post pics to your flickr group.

http://brickcitylove.com

posted by floatingapples on August 1st 2009 at 7:02am
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i love rowhouses. Ive lived in quite a few over the years and just recently bought my first one (needing total rehab). row houses do require some creativity since most of the rooms are railroaded and traffic patterns have to be very well thought out if you are going to arrange furniture in anyway other than pushed up against the walls, but they are really fun to live in, and climbing up the stairs keeps my gams looking good.

posted by austin Charles Benton on August 1st 2009 at 11:31pm
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I lived in a narrow raw open space loft in LA that was 72' long (front to back of building) and 16' wide with 12' ceilings. I took inspiration from the shotgun shack style houses in New Orleans where one room opens onto another onto another all in a row. It was also like the "railroad apartments" in NYC. I loved it!
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

posted by fishgirl on August 2nd 2009 at 1:09pm
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Maybe you were just so atuned to living there, Chrisgal, that the solution to everything was obvious to you. But I swear, when people have fixed ideas about layout and room use, no solution is obvious!

We're in the northern pair of a semi-detached house with some of the benefits of rowhouse living (built-in security, warmth in winter, shade in summer...), plus a side drive.
Even though it's nominally narrow at 17', the flow is just too good to rush into changing things... young vistors can race around the ground floor in a loop: living, dining, kitchen, hall, living... etc. Hysterics all around.

The only thing I'd change is the 4 doorways into the kitchen: one each from the hall, the dinining room, the back entrance and the basement (tucked in snugly beside the fridge.) And the kitchen's only 13' x 7'. Design dilemma! Wouldn't it be grand to knock out the rear wall, and bump out the rear entrance and basement access stairs? http://www.flickr.com/photos/deborahmcp/3381454155/in/set-72157610704158729/

posted by DeborahMcP on August 9th 2009 at 7:38pm
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