An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a sky parlor or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's top floor and its slanted roof, attics are known for being awkwardly-shaped spaces with difficult-to-reach corners and often exposed rafters.
Attic bedroom in Skógar, Iceland
The Poor Poet, by Carl Spitzweg, 1839 (Neue Pinakothek)
Attic in Berlin, Germany
Lockable storage compartments with fence-like wooden walls in the attic of a German apartment house from the 1950s; there is one such space for each of the ten apartments
A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof, or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder. A loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial. Adding to the confusion, some converted lofts themselves include upper open loft areas.
A former warehouse for printing presses converted to a loft apartment on Chicago's Near West Side
A US-style loft; the additional story covers only a few rooms, leaving one or more sides open to the lower floor
Warehouses converted into loft apartments in Hoxton, London, England
An organ loft in Germany
