Brick in the Master Bedroom

The drawings said that there would be brick behind the wall, and said wall had a visible drywall seam that will need attention, so...

The closet is awkward, and the drywall seam is visible

So, the wrecker (me) investigates. Sure enough, brick. Not pretty brick--they didn't worry about keeping their courses perfectly level, for example, because they knew it would be hidden.

It looks like art

The right side is 1x boards, of the kind used for the house's sheathing, lining the closet. The brick steps wider below the opening, to accommodate the firebox on the other side. The as-built drawing illustrates.

The circle on the right is an abandoned furnace vent

So, what have we learned? Not much. The yellow walls are so boring, a flash of brick and old wood is delightful. Because the studs are 1/2" from the brick (I remember that note from the standard fireplace detail), we now have 1/2" wide gap delivering basement air into the bedroom.

Ikea Pax $290 as shown

I'd like to reconfigure the closet to be more useful. It will always be secondary to the main closet, which is more accessible. The wall I cut into should be the head of the bed, lining up on the morning view, which means the closet is even more remote. I don't like the bed that way for, among other reasons, a lack of night stand space. Maybe I can come up with some sort of wall-mounted, swing-out shelf?

The closet door is 41" and the bed wall is 73". The queen headboard is 66", so we have 48" to play with. Allow an 8" nightstand shelf on the door/bathroom side, and a 40" cabinet would fit where the closet is now. Something like this Ikea Pax, which is only 15" deep.

Between the fireplace and the wardrobe, custom shelves open to the room above the headboard.

Pax is 39 3/8" x 15" x 79 1/4" (my ceiling height is 93", btw).