docilana All I can see is someone backing up, falling and breaking a leg. Sorry,must be a reason they went out of fashion

moresparkly I grew up with a sunken living room and I just loved it. Ours feels very formal in comparison.

bubblyjock I like them - it makes one feel like one's making a bit of an entrance, sashaying down the stairs...or is that just me?

l21430 I'm in a 1967 MCM with a two-step down sunken living room and a glass curtain wall at one end. It's fantastic for entertaining.

Where the dining room table is located, there is about a 1-foot drop between the rooms, with no railing. I put in a line of low bookcases along that wall to keep the views open but assure that even the most enthusiastic wine taster wouldn't go over the edge. So far so good.

scarbowcow i forgot that they had to go down one step from the entrance (but not the kitchen/dining room) to get to the living room in the Dick Van Dyke Show. Another correspondence to the Mary Tyler Moore Show that wasn't on my list. (I realize I'm probably the only fan of both shows who keeps seeing similarities decades after the shows went off the air.)

megaelarsen I think it works best if it is a reflection of the terrain outside

marcia6700 I am delighted to hear that my sunken living room is coming back in style. My house was built in 1969 and we've lived here for 17 years. I have always loved it from a decorating stand point because it is dramatic and intimate at the same time. We have had one person fall on the step and fortunately she was not hurt but I am very aware of it when I entertain and call attention to it as people come in. With open floor plans becoming more and more popular I like the idea of using different levels to define space.

simps214 I'm too clumsy for this design and too impressed with the photos to care!

wolnekram The sunken room is definitely for the younger able bodied crowd. Falls are the number one cause of injury at home. It is not an architectural feature with which one can age gracefully.

Mitchell Parker Good catch, scarbowcow!

Mitchell Parker Also, thanks so much for sharing, marcia6700! Looks like a wonderful space!

solraven We have a step down living a simple 6" step down around three sides. The previous owners did a great job of putting in ivory tiles in the living room area, but the rest of the social areas are a light beige. It's just enough contrast, to look like one floor, but notice a difference.

Sigrid They look nice, but what a nightmare for anyone with toddlers or people with mobility issues. We have different levels in our house and when my daughter broke her leg on vacation, I delayed our trip home because even on the first floor of our house, she couldn't get anywhere, living room, kitchen, bathroom took a few stairs up or down. Not easy in a cast from hip to toe.

Iyare I My first condo had a sunken living room and I loved it. The dinning area was up and then you stepped down into the living room. When it was time to sell, I was made to install railings as a condition of sale by the bank because the sunken living room was deemed unsafe.

midmodfan While my love for midcentury architecture is evident, I was never fond of conversation pits. Many of the examples shown are also, in my opinion, no 'real' sunken living rooms in their primary meaning - a sunken area within a room, with a raised perimeter, see photos 2 and 3 -, but rather a change of levels between two rooms.

That being said, if I found a home like #2, 3 or 7, I'd gladly deal with the conversation pit. They are gorgeous. And, of course, a change of levels, either between rooms or within a room, is a perfect opportunity to add a contrasting floor. It can also be a necessary measure, because without a different floor, the sunken part can really be a hazard. One of my favorite homes with such a hazardous drop is Paul Rudolph's Cohen House in Sarasota.

cyqi It is considered as bad fengshui. Risk of falling and flooding (accumulating water, damp) might be the reason behind it.

mcgilla Coolest conversation pit ever...Jeannie's bottle!

wantsideas I find them rather charming but one or two steps is best. I wouldn't put them in a new house but I'd certainly work with them in an older house.

Michele Lister I love sunken rooms. Two of our houses had variants when I was a kid and it just helped to define and add interest to the spaces.

sqrlzrus We have one and so does my Mother-in-law - who just broke a hip and arm 2 weeks ago tripping over one of the stairs at her place. She is 93 and has lived there since 71. I have had guests almost face plant into our living room many times.... not to mention my own almost the first time we looked at our house!

So please heed those warnings about it not being a great design to age gracefully.

I have places small rugs here and there to try and better define the drops. But now we are scrambling to add railings and safety bars at Mom's - hoping she can move back there after she stays with us for a bit - and staying with us means we moved our dining room table out of the dining room because that is the only room where we can place a hospital bed that has access to bathroom with a walk-in shower with no steps. Meanwhile we are doing work on her house as well to make it safe.

I will upload some picts later!

ygray Have lived in 3 homes with sunken living rooms and family rooms/ dens. Love the design and the character it provides. My fondest memory is my preschooler daughter and her best friend jumping from the fireplace ledge and pretend to jump into the "pool" that was the carpeted living room. Never had a problem with safety in my 30+ years of living with this design element.

scarbowcow Mcgilla - Jeannie's bottle - of course! When I was a child I secretly wanted my bedroom to be just like the inside of Jeannie's bottle. I was watching in black and white, but I knew it would be all in purples and pink and brocade and black velvet bits and - just totally awesome with all those pillows. I'd forgotten all about that... Makes me want to lie down on the floor and watch some TV (in my jammies).

blossomangel Very much agree with the comments about not being disability or age friendly. Our very busy church has a sunken area in the foyer, and whilst it is a lovely area for chatting and fellowship, many people have missed the steps and fallen.

Jean Corey To sqrlzrus - I had a friend who didn't like her step down living room,after having built her house, so she had underpinnings and a new raised floor built which eliminated the step down.

Hope your Mom gets better soon!

tsudhonimh I have a small "conversation pit" and I HATE the stupid traffic pattern blocker, furniture arrangement restrictor, not to mention the physical hazard that an unwalled step-down presents to guests.

These may be trendy, but they are not practical, and they are the antithesis of "accessible design".

Our neighbor had one, but a few mixers of cement later, his floor was flat.

appytrails I lived in a boring ranch home until nearing retirement, and realizing I would be spending more time home, decided to add an addition where I would finally feel "at home" in my home. We wanted to add space, but also some interest onto our single level space, and decided on a 48 x 14 step down addition. Oh, boy, do we love it. Not only did it change and open up the whole feeling of the former living room, it also added three feet (that is the distance of the three steps into the new addition) onto the dining area side. In effect, it changed the entire public space of the house. I feel we got a great bang for the limited buck!

pursue I absolutely agree that the steps are hard for some older people. I have found railings to be so helpful to hold onto even when there are just a few steps. This is true for inside or outside steps. However, the rooms do have a great look to them. I remember the trend--all the "fancy" houses had step down rooms.

embracegrace While pretty, I can't see making such an investment in a trend that would render a full room difficult, at best, to enter should a family member break a leg, and impossible for anyone with mobility issues. In addition, this feature would be a resale deal-breaker for many buyers.

bo409 We have a sunken dinning room!

epeemom In our 'new' home (less than a year here), we have a sunken living room. Since we plan on being here another 10 years, we are currently trying to decide what to do about the sunken living room. It is a hazard for everyone- option one is to add visual clues to the step such as book cases, room dividers, etc. Option two is to fill the sucker in. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Oh, and worry not-all those shrimp colored walls are now gray. This is how the place looked when we bought it.

tina4 I am also in an MCM house with a lovely sunken livingroom. A practical feature of it is that when crowds get bigger (we enjoy entertaining) we can use the "wall" for sitting as it is seat height. I also naturally makes for more roomy ceiling heights and extra long windows.... so not as impractical as one might seem. I still love it.

Glen Etzkorn Bruce Goff Castle

pursue epeemom, Your space is lovely and the dark floors are nice. I think I would add a short railing on the higher level and then a short handrail to hold on to when making the step. This would make it clear to people that there was a step. I always heard that most accidents are when there is only one step because you don't realize it is there. The other landing would be trickier due to the curve, but you could do the same thing there. I would say the railing part might only be a couple of feet. You could try a handrail on the wall, but I am not sure that would make the fact there is a step as clear. Nothing worse than seeing someone fall on a step. Maybe another option would be furniture placement so if you started to fall you could catch yourself on a chair or something!

patricia beharry The pit trend Ain't coming back.

solraven epeemom, I think you're home is beautiful. Strangely, I even think the darker salmon is kind of pretty. I love your simple step down, but my guess is that because it's one step down at each entrance into the room, as opposed to be open, with a step down, that's where the problem comes in. I would consider changing the floor color to few shades lighter, or at least changing the risers to a lighter color. The visual cue doesn't usually need to be caution tape, just something that the brain will register subtly.

cender Great article on the infamous "sunken living room". Definitely at 60s, mid-century modern concept. Is anyone familiar with the International Building Code? If you live in a state that utilizes the IBC (mostly western states, so far) you will be required to have a hand rail for any more than one step. I built a home in Colorado, with a 2 step sunken great room, dining room, and kitchen. It had an iron railing. The flooring went from stone to hardwood. It was lovely and no falls in 6 years. But I currently live in a home in South Carolina (NO BUILDING CODE) with one step into a VERY large great room, and everyone falls into the room. The step down is only 6 feet from the front door. People start talking as they come through the door and.....SPLAT. I think I may put some police tape on the floor as a warning. HaHa. I definitely did not design this home, and would not do a step-down in the future. I always think about re-sale when I design and build, and with Baby Boomers getting even older, and still holding the purse strings for the U.S., I think this concept is risky.

epeemom Pursue and Solraven- there is the third option, which is to extend the landing to make a walkway around "the pit of despair", then add bookcases or railing or a shelving screen for the visual clue. We nearly killed ourselves several times the first month we lived there.
Now we're pretty used to it but it is by no means ingrained yet.

We are moving the television out of the living room into the office/den upstairs as well.

In truth, we bought a house with great bones in a fantastic, but everything needs to be remodeled or replaced.

I'll be asking for advice on Houzz soon! Stay tuned!

wantsideas I have no issues with a sunken living room if you mean it is a few steps, but I agree the "pit" seems outdated and a little nightclubish.

sikuvitall My cousin installed a sunken living room with a 2" step, and the continuous marble floor insured that the drop off was completely invisible. We never attended a party (and there were quite a few) that didn't include non-stop cries of, "WATCH THE STEP!!!" and guests stumbling and sometimes falling.

pursue epeemom, seems like the walkway with a railing would make the room seem too long and narrow. Maybe if you removed part of the lower floor and installed a walkway of marble or travertine and added a handrail to the wall at each entry would work. Seems like if you went even with the wall where the rounded step is and went all the way to the other step, that would look okay.

appytrails We've had a three step addition for 9 years now, and there never has been an issue with anyone even coming close to not noticing, or slipping, or falling. There is a railing on one side of the steps, that no one feels inclined to use. Perhaps because it is not near the entry, and is obvious that it is a step down, the issues others have mentioned are not at all an issue for us or any of our guests or family.

Michele Imagine how much a step down or into a living room would completely exclude a friend or family member with mobilty problems. As in an aged relative. Or a sister who develops MS and uses a walker. Or the young veteran I met last year who had both legs severed in Iraq and used a wheelchair. He said something like this, "When I walked around in my uniform I was treated like a hero. Now I am sometimes treated like the enemy for just wanting to get in the door." The point being, why resurrect a design trend that excludes people?

l21430 I had no idea this was a controversial topic. Cool.

Universal design is fantastic (and I love the multiple ideabooks I've seen on the topic). Visitability is increasingly a big deal, especially with an aging population. If we're measuring sunken living rooms against those, then sunken living or dining rooms are clear losers.

Is that the basis of the comparison? Or are some people saying that two or three steps are more dangerous than 13? Or maybe that older construction should be replaced with new? Or that they just don't like them?

I appreciate hearing people talk about whether or not they've had good or not-so-good experiences with all kinds of designs, including sunken living rooms. This is a design website and those are design issues--perfect! Do people have more info about what makes a sunken living room part of a successful design?
- Does the sunken area leave adequate natural pathways around it?
- Is there a minimum size?
- What kind of visual clues are provided?
- What rise and run proportions make the stairs good for both easy navigation and occasional party seating?
- When are railings needed and what designs work well?

Good discussion. Thanks!

Bonnie Ross I too have a sunken L.R. and I have a love/hate relationship with it. Limited furniture arrangement and my grandkids jumping off the steps or falling. Can't open my dining room table large enough to accommodate everyone and it seems all we ever do is walk up and down constantly along with all the other 4 level split steps we have (built in 1985) but hey, it looks good right? Arggg!

farmily and host ltd The designs are just wonderful

cender 121430 - If you are asking questions about what rise and run feels and looks best and if a rail is required or not based on design.....you are probably not into construction. I always like to remind myself and others, form and function must come first for beauty and good design to follow. We have a Building Code. If you are lucky, your community follows the IBC. It states the dimensions of the rise and run and the necessity of a rail.

l21430 Thanks, cender, for the follow up.

I thought a large number of the earlier comments were observing bad design, and blaming the steps. So I thought the point should be made that universal design has a place, as do steps. In either case, god is in the details--nearly anything fails (but especially steps) when poorly designed.

I second your call out for good building codes. I taught design and construction for a long time, and the people in our permitting office are some of our best resources. But even a good building code won't turn a bad design into a good one.

So I tried to turn the conversation to good design. We can see how well that worked out. :o/

I'll shut up now and let people continue to gasp and hyperventilate and blame the inanimate objects.

CAROLE MEYER I don't want one myself, but there is something cozy about stepping down into a sunken living room.

lauraoffice I don't care for them, although the one is in photo 7 is striking.

The Unique, circular tile stairs would cause me to warn guests in my home "be careful". . . . who wants to give a safety warning when guests arrive? If you have to do that, there is something basically wrong with the design. I agree with cyqi - bad feng shui.

patricia beharry The circular ones are very dangerous. Before visiting my cousins house, withe circular steps from the dining room to the kitchen, I always warn my husband to be careful.

Studio NOO Design Very nice, it has been a long time since we've seen those !

sixbees In '94 I designed our house with a "step down" in to the great room. I wanted it to define the space and give a feeling of relaxation. With the wood flooring it was easy for my hubby to stain the step a darker color to alert people that the step was there. Will upload picts soon.
Hey...didn't the Brady's have a step down in their living room AND a step down into Mr.Brady's office??

princessfirefly We recently remodeled our 1983 home and after much debate, we kept the sunken living room.

colorarq Very interesting article. I have designed 2 and 3 step sunken living rooms for beach and country houses. The purpose of this in an open plan was to get an uninterrupted view from the dining room. It works well and the difference of level may be used for sitting (45cm+ a cushion) is comfortable.

Rosemary Freitas I just bought a quad level home that sat on the market for nearly 2 years. Yes, I am aware of the problems. the real estate agent was trying to be tricky by never mentioning or showing the stairs from the kitchen down to the LR or up to the bedrooms. The reward, a great lakefront home. I will be posting questions and suggestions later. Maybe even do an artilce for Houzz.

ikwewe Nice article, beautiful pix. In my 1964 colonial, we have a sunken family room which opens to a further sunken 4 season room. The 4 season room has two levels. All level changes are just one step. We love the look, and when we bought the house, it was no problem.

Since then, everybody is 20+ years older and some family members have a lot of difficulty navigating these level drops. We find it helpful to have something next to the step area for the person to hang onto. From dining level to family level, there is a nice railing that came with the house. From entry to family level, there is a highback heavy chair on the lower level we place just right for grabbing and hanging onto the back for balance. At one point, we had a settee centered on the level change in the 4 season room, but the back was too low to reach from the upper level, so now we just have the elders stay on the upper level.

lockhart3vacation Rennovation in progress, mahogany treads with slate risers planned for this entryway to the living room

jahilton My dad lived to 95 in a California house with a one-step down sunken living room. He never fell, nor has anyone else ever fallen down the step, although as we get older we sometimes (actually, rarely) forget to lift our knee high enough to make the step up, and therefore trip. Especially when in a hurry. The step is not forgotten or ignored, because there is a decidedly different flooring in the two levels. Hard to miss the brown shag in the living room! But I am leaving the shag for now, because it is a soft place for the grandkids to play. There is also a railing which must be gone around or used between the two levels.
And in our Florida home we added a sunken family room in 1984, 2 steps down on the back of the house. It was necessarily sunken because of the little sand dune we live atop. It, too, has a different flooring, but so far no railing. Since the steps and the lower floor are wood, we may decide to add a railing when we get into our 80s. One advantage was that we trained our dogs not to go down the steps, and thus had one pet-free zone.
I'm glad they are "making a comeback" in case we decide to sell one of these homes in the future. Personally, I enjoy the 'specialness' of the defined areas. They are the tranquil environments away from the 'working' spaces of the house.

sochi Goodness, I agree with l21430. People seem a little overwrought. Sunken living rooms aren't for everyone or every family, obviously. Neither are two storey homes or homes with basements (they might flood, they have stairs, gasp). Design a sunken living room well and it needn't be a hazard for the vast majority of people. But not for everyone clearly. Kind of like faux Tuscan design.

ikwewe Mind you, I love my sunken family room! Physical abilities and eyesight do change over time though. Also, we have to consider light. For evening parties, balancing light so people can see level changes versus a nice party atmosphere can be tricky.

RE: Making the step(s) obvious. I think one step is the most problematic as the levels don't "look" different. With more than one step it is more clear you have to go up or down. In my house all the changes are one step.

The worst place is coming in from the entry. The floors are dark slate in the entry, walnut hardwood in the family room, with an archway separating the two. Many people, as someone mentioned above, come in all excited and talking and even when warned about the step, oops, down they go. We added a high back chair on the lower level we can put right in the archway which can be used for balance and warns of level change. So far so good, they see the chair and pause to assess the situation. We only put it there when company is coming. Adding lots of light helps, too, though it isn't the best ambience for parties.

The Four Season room is tiled with terra cotta tiles including the step. Everyone tripped over that, including me, all the time. I had an inch wide strip cut out on the edge of the upper level step down and filled in with contrasting tile. Problem solved for the most part, and it looks great. I had a settee set right in the middle on the lower level, but that got to be a problem because it narrowed the access too much for walkers and was too low to comfortably grab from the upper level.

I twice had hip surgery and was pretty immobilized but managed to navigate pretty well after a few days home (Including getting up the 16 steps to my bedroom, just to show you it is possible). The walker was the best support and it was only one step level changes. Multiple steps with no railing would have been much more difficult.

solraven ikwewe, I have just the one step and for the most part, we haven't haven't had an issue. The two people that did "fall" into the living room, started walking across the room to great someone. It's that whole excitement when you haven't seen someone in a while and we're all so eager to catch up.

That being said, I have no plans on changing the elevation of the room. The room is able to stay wide open, yet feel like you're like you are in a well defined space. I like your idea of moving your chair when company comes over. I thought of moving the furniture arrangement back (just a foot or two) but just didn't like it there, but moving just the one chair, is something I could do as I'm answering the door, since it's a light weigh wicker club chair. :)

ikwewe @Solraven, I don't have plans to change it either. We just have to remember the people who have fallen or might fall into the living room or off the step to make sure they don't fall again. Besides, the fixes I mentioned above have also helped. You are lucky not to have had any problems. We have developed both mobility and vision issues in our family as people age, and it is worse with cognitive issues mixed in. Aging or illness, not fun.

I would love to see this look become very popular because then our houses will have a special resale incentive. :)

solraven Ikwewe, we've been in this home for just over a year and ironically, the people we thought would fall, haven't even come close. Both times it was someone not usually accident prone and always... just after entering the door, and the first time in the house.

Another benefit is that the step down is treated as a wall in the design. There are outlets in all sides of the step down. As for resale, there are a bunch of homes here in S. FL that have very similar layouts, so in this neighborhood, it's harder to find one that doesn't have a step down. Of course, that has only made me more curious to find out information on the developer/builder.

colorarq It ia much better to have 2 or 3 steps, so these are visible from a distance. When it is only one step, it is important to make the levels clearly visible i.e. by a change of color or material.

taylor home center national building code would dictate handrails but no rails give it that fresh clean look

colorarq Good point. Recently a client who has 14 grandchildren asked me for an idea for a handrail for descending two steps from dining room to living room, We decided to place it close on the wall. where children naturally lean for going down,...The handrail works as a signal in this case.

jnatale I am so happy you are discussing sunken living rooms. I have been completely stuck in how to decorate. My living room is 28x21.The 6 inch sunken part is 20x17 (center) leaving 4 ft around 3 sides for passing thru. The fourth side is wall with an 8ft sliding door. There is a 3ft railing around the perimeter with a 6ft opening from the foyer. It looks like a big playpen. My children saw it as a wrestling arena. The area is too big for me to figure out how to decorate but my biggest dilemma is whether to raise the floor (making the room even bigger), put in a new modern railing or get a half wall. There is no wall space as it is now. The rest of the house is open concept. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Bonnie Ross It would be interesting to hear from people who have bit the bullet and just filled it in. Anyone!?

colorarq First it would be good to figure out the whole space:does it have a nice view?, do you need walls? could you do with just curtains or draperies, or sculptures?
6 inchies is not enough, and it can be dangerous to trip.. It would be much easier if it was all in the same level. Is the present floor treatment good? The sunken area could raised with a different pattern than the rest of the floor or maybe...covered with rugs, A large space could be started by choosing nice rugs, that could be exciting.

jnatale Thank you. I love the idea of raising it but having a different floor/rug

solraven When we bought our house, we always thought the corner, would be the spot where people would fall off, but the two times that company "fell into" the room, it was always right past the entrance. So I'm wondering...if I placed some type of entryway shelf/divider right at that spot, would it give friends a chance to assess the situation, or would they just walk past it, and fall off, in the first, open location, along the drop?

jahilton solraven, that is where the railing is on our one-step down. It is right at the end of the short wall at the entrance. It is wrought iron, and no one overlooks it.

solraven jahilton, did they fall into the room before you put up the railing?

jahilton solraven, the railing was original to the house. No one has fallen into either of our sunken rooms--neither the one step with railing nor the 2-step without. The few trips have always been not lifting one's knee high enough exiting. As far as I know, it has always been a resident in a hurry.

Robert Burns I bought a house with a sunken room....little did I know I could've had a "conversation pit" ......I'll have to rethink its use!

pattimay I have a step down family room. Hate it.