# Our Favourite Small London Homes Under 60sqm/646sqft ## Метаданные - **Канал:** NEVER TOO SMALL - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezOCbazZ0LY - **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/43584 ## Транскрипт ### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) [] The apartment is located in North London in an area called Bells Park. The client is a young professional who works and has been studying in London. The core concept for the apartment is the creation of a sleeping pod within a warm, light-filled open plan space. My name is John Proctor. I'm director of Proctor and Shore Architects. We're an architecture and design studio based in London. The location is very cosmopolitan. There's really nice green spaces nearby and the area is dotted with cafes, pubs, and restaurants. The apartment is on the first floor of a Victorian building on a lovely treeline street. It was built in the late 19th century as a handsome town home and it was since being converted, we think in the 1970s into four smaller residential units. It was important that the flat catered for work as well as living and had adequate social spaces for what is still a small apartment. One of the core parts of the brief that the client asked us to interpret was this term boho Japanese. That means clean lines, simple structure, a flexibility in the design whilst styling the space towards a younger sort of urban generation. When I first visited the apartment, there was a very awkward layout. It was divided into cellular rooms. The bedroom occupied the nice room with the bay window. The kitchen was at the back and it was really dark. The flat was completely ripped out back to bare brick. By taking all the walls down, the main social space was able to inhabit the lovely bay window. So there's fantastic light sort of pouring in. We felt that there was an opportunity to exploit the 3. 4 m that we have here. So a key concept in the design was the sleeping pod and underneath that we have placed a lot of key storage elements. As soon as you enter the apartment, you've got views through the bay window to the lovely tree that's outside the front of the building. The living room is very simply decorated and furnished. We didn't want to have to be forced into having a lot of fixed furniture which defined how someone might like to live in the space. There is some built-in cabinetry and some nice elegant shelving. Birch ply was chosen in conjunction with the predominant material of the space which is a clay works plaster. The natural patina brings a warmth to the home. The floor finish is lino. It's by a company called Forbo. There's one main space and therefore we needed one floor finish which unifies all of those spaces. As a core part of our intentions for the project, which was deliver a luxurious level of living, the kitchen is quite large for the size of the apartment. There is integrated washer dryer. It's got all of the cooking and storage facilities that you need, all integrated into simple birch plywood finished cabinetry. The kitchen countertop is quartzite which is extremely durable and very easy to maintain. The dining area occupies sort of middle of the plan between the living room and the kitchen. We felt that the dining offer had to be large and luxurious. It's a normal size dining table. We chose a floss string light pendant so that it kind of expressed the height of the space. The sleeping pod is enclosed with a series of polycarbonate screens which are framed in a nice thin aluminum. It was influenced by Japanese shouji screens which does define space but it's also openable in a very flexible way. The sliding doors open to reveal a space-saving staircase. It's called an alternative tread staircase. So that each tread is actually sort of two steps high. ### Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) [5:00] And when you're at the top of the stairs, you're on a small landing which gives you simple access into the king-size bed. There's also some small nooks. There's a nice lamp. There's a place to put your bedside book. What's lovely about system of screens is that the bed area can be very private and very cocoon-like, but when it's open, you do have views from the bed space out onto the street. At night with the screens closed and the lights on, it is a lantern which creates a really lovely warm glow, nice sort of cozy feel for the rest of the apartment to enjoy. Underneath the king-size bed in the sleeping pod is a walk-in wardrobe. It's also used as a spill utility space. There is actually a second freezer concealed in there behind the birch ply cabinet door. The bathroom occupies the same location as the original bathroom. The bathroom has a walk-in shower. There is no shower tray. We used a micro cement concrete. There's a floor to ceiling shower screen in glass. The sanitary wear is finished in stainless steel. We used the space which is usually wasted above the system to the toilet. We designed a custom built-in cabinetry and it's finished in the same micro cement finish as the rest of the wall. So it's very discreet in the space. Again, we exploited the height of the space. We put a structural deck on the top of the bathroom in order to create a loft style storage area. It's also where some of the main services are kept. As a practice, we're interested in researching exploring what micro living means. In the UK, that's particularly pertinent because we do have a housing crisis. We would like to think that this project starts a conversation about how space might be reviewed or understood in a qualitative way. Even though this apartment is small, the quality of the architecture and the experience of living here is extremely high. The UK has a huge amount of existing housing stock ripe for renovation and retrofit. The answer may not necessarily lie and shouldn't lie in just knocking these neighborhoods down and building taller buildings. I think there are other avenues which could be explored. We've experimented a lot with small space living and that sense of wonder when you come in. This idea of how you can really change a space with a very simple elements. Suddenly it feels very transformed and different. I'm Nina Tonstro um part of Studio Mama and — I'm Jack Mama. — Okay. — The other half of Studio Mama. — Our idea was to explore how to create a transformative space where you can subdivide that with sliding door elements that could create different zones within the space. So the flat is located in Islington. It's the north part of London. It's a very central location. Very beautiful streets lined with big trees, you know, which gives that kind of near here a suburbia feel or not being that central in London as you actually are. This is a lower ground floor flat in a terrace Victorian house. I went to see the flat and it was really a maze of walls and really run down. So the challenge was basically how do we make this feel light and open? So it's a lot to try and squeeze in to a fairly small space and then also feel that it's actually spacious. When I first entered the flat, there was one living room that had a narrow kitchen and then there was a master bedroom that took basically the best ### Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) [10:00] view to the garden. The new floor plan that we created was very much about opening up the space so we could connect the front of the flat to the back of the flat because that's where we had the window. converted what was two bedrooms that was in the front of the flat towards the garden to being topped at the entrance and then we moved the kitchen on the other side. So the kitchen obviously has to choose a different location. We got a separate entrance where you come in and you walk down the stairs and a little court. So in that way you are kind of feeling that it's really your own little space here. So when you enter, the first thing you have is a bench to take your shoes on and off. There's loads of storage space for your over coats and shoes. We did a lot of work with that. You know, how much space do we need for it to feel generous? And then the first thing when you turn in is this really big bookshelf. It feels really generous when you enter the space. The bookshelf was built around an old fireplace and then we used the opportunity to put in a big mirror. We work a lot with mirror in small spaces as in the evening. It can also give this very sculptural feel to the space. — The mirror actually helps to bounce the light and also help amplify the sense of space upon entering the main area. When you come in, we thought about the layout of the study a lot so that it connects to the sofa space. The desk is facing outwards to the garden so you feel connected to the outside. We also incorporated the standing working possibility that you can switch easily between sitting and standing. the study space, neat and storage, all built in Douglas fur that gives that kind of a whole different sensibility and warmth when you sit in that space. When you get through to the garden side of the flat, we wanted to create both living room space and the dining space. There's not that many square meters to get all that squeezed in. on the sofa is designed to visually take up as little space as possible but obviously maximize the seating. So one of the things we did was to make it as floating as possible. So that's canly win the sofa. We gain that extra visual sense of space. We designed the coffee table because again it's the space is not so big. The armrest also serves as a side table asot so you can leave your book or a cup of tea. The ceiling in the study and the living area is lower than the rest of the flat. We actually used it as an feature because there's something really quite cozy. You get the feel that the space opens up in front of you. And then you see the garden and the light. You have this garden that comes with the lower ground floor flat here which I think is a massive cloth for the flat. This is a beautiful mature garden um where we have big trees that you would see on the tree also makes the space really green when you look through. So we had this challenge with the kitchen that we have a big structural column that we have to work around. We created these two areas around the column. We wanted to create this kind of a graphic feel to the kitchen. So the kitchen comprise fridge, freezer, dishwasher, oven. We had to find a way to have drawers for knives and forks and all of that. And uh that we put in the curb in. So that was the only space left. So we managed to kind of squeeze it in and make it a feature for the kitchen. The light for the kitchen is integrated LED lights onto the cabinet. that is motion sensors. The material that we have used for the workshop and the splashback material made with offcut wood. It was important that we also had a material that work both for the workshop and the splashback. That kind of a continuous line always gives more openness. We really like to have some open shelving, but it's also makes access very easy and give that openness. The dining table was within a narrow confine. So we came up with this idea of this more diamond shaped table that takes up much less footprint so that you could easily have the chairs tucked in and be able to pass through to the other side of it. It had a recess so that we could integrate a bench into it. ### Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) [15:00] — We found these Swiss designed dining chairs by Bruno Ray. This shape is nice because you're facing each other, which I think is quite nice and more convivial. For the first sleeping pot, in the front of the pot, we had to integrate some stairs for accessing the pot. The first part has sliding doors, and it also gives a sense of privacy. It's quite cozy when you're in there. And on the top of the pot, we integrated a glass box that gives light from the front of the flats. There is also some shelving that can be used for books and etc. In the front of the pot, there's pullout storage. One thing that I was quite conscious about is having two sleeping pots up against each other. So they're separated by a big sliding door which um gives that kind of a movement in the space. Just gives that sense of you have a space that can be divided off and it creates privacy between the two pods. — So the second pod was at a lower level. There's a sliding door to close it off for privacy. The other side of the pod a sliding door element. So there's an opportunity to play with the openness of the space. What's not visible to people is that the top part is in two halves. So you have storage from the outside, but also from the inside of the pod. We managed to integrate some storage under the bed. We have quite vivid colors inside the wardrobe. Quite bright yellow. The other wardrobe is quite bright blue. We like to have a colors, but we also it's that balance of that the colors really has to fit in and not take over the space. — We wanted to keep the sight line of the front and the back of the space very open. So, the bathroom is quite narrow, kind of glass above. that has this nice light intake. We've used this idea of framing things very much in this project. — We used a micro cement and one can customize the colors. The bathroom is in a light blue. We have the same material on the floor and the walls. It also makes the space feel bigger because it's less boundary visually. I think that's something that's very nice about this space that we've created here. And it's difficult to put into words, but is the feel of it when you walk in. Maybe it's to do with the combination of of natural materials and colors that we've used and the way that we've worked with the layout and so on. — The thing that we often work with smaller spaces is that aha when you come from quite a confined entrance and you get into a space that opens off. Want to win this lamp? The lamp to bureau is a masterclass in simple, purposeful design. Originally designed in the 1930s by French designer, engineer, and architect John Puet to light student desks in France. Made from bent powdercoated steel, its downward shape does one thing very well. It throws light exactly where you need it, glarefree. Nearly a century later, its minimal and elegant silhouette still feels right at home on a modern desk. Today, Vitra continues the tradition, producing the lamp in colors drawn from the original palette. A small piece of design history perfectly suited to your modern home. Subscribe to the Never Too Small magazine before the 1st of April for your chance to win one of three of these timeless classics. This is a home for two well-known Londonbased artists. The owners have local studio spaces for their own art making practice with a lot of vibrant use of color. So their home in contrast to that was to be relaxing and tonally muted. One material was used throughout to create a coordinated light surface tone. Another way of providing that continuity was to create multiple zones with movable elements which are reconfigurable within one studio apartment space. My name is Anna Parker. I'm an architect and founder of Intervention Architecture based in Birmingham in the UK. This apartment is located in Charter ### Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) [20:00] House Square in central London. The building was constructed between 1935 and 1937 and has a striking curved facade inlaid with critter windows. And it's an iconic art deco building which is featured as the fictional home and office setting for Agatha Christiey's character Puo. The building was always residential with the ground floor originally including a public restaurant, cocktail bar, and club in the basement. The existing studio layout space was very similar in plan to now as we had to retain the existing structure due to the listed status of the building. The apartment is 24 m. They wanted the apartment to be inventive whilst also maximizing storage. During the works, we had to retain all the structural walls. New joinery was added to the main space to include wardrobes, a Murphy bed, and a desk. In order to enable an oven and full-size hob within the kitchen space, we had to reorient the layout and provide a smaller sink zone for the bathroom. And separately for the kitchen doorways, we introduced bfolding plywood doors. Upon entering the apartment, the vestibial area has open shelving to store shoes and keys. Also in this area is enough space for a cloak room which also conceals a consumer electrical unit and the frontages are floor to ceiling in mirror to help make this small space feel bigger. In approaching the design of the main space, we had the existing parameter of the beautiful main window arrangement which has custom byfolding plywood shutters and existing heating underneath. To complement this, we place the desk area closest to the window with the library shelving connected to this. There's also a pullout seat and stool on wheels in the workstation zone. The workstation has a drawing board which can pivot up for use and it's also got drawers integrated within it for paperwork storage. The library storage shelving has round arch panel features to reference the three curves to the front entrance facade of the art deco building. The plywood is waxed on end to give color differentiation. The joinery within the main space is multi-functional. It takes from a Japandi style with art deco referencing and provides a holistic layout for storage. I'm taking inspiration from flatpack furniture. The joinery uses CNC routing technology and is drawn to precision in advance to cutting, minimizing waste and time in the production process to enable the studio space to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. The bed is integrated within the main joinery wall. It's a Murphy bed foldable system and it's on a special piston so that it's very easy to pull down and has a soft open and close. The movable sofa is used at the foot of the bed to help support it. You can also use the flatback stools to support it to enable the sofa to then be used as a sofa bed. Behind the bed is an adjustable headboard zone with bookshelving behind and a zone to hide away the duvet. Within that main joinery, there's also cutouts for bedside lamps, light switch, sockets, and there's also spot lamps for reading in bed. A key objective within the studio space was to reduce the visual aspect of clutter through considered storage. Within the main space, there's floor to ceiling storage as well as wardrobes framing around the entrance doorway. At high level, we've included marmolum inserts to reference that art deco arch. And there was also varying types of ad hoc shelving which required a curation to feel more considered and integrated. The dining table is a flat pack approach in a simple cross X shape mechanism and ### Segment 6 (25:00 - 30:00) [25:00] that means that the client can then entertain and have friends around. Underneath the sofa there are flatp pack stools and that is also a very kind of easy way of providing extra seating. You could easily fit around six people around the dining table when it's put into place. The legs can be fully taken off and stored away into the joinery wall itself. The wall opposite the library is floor to ceiling wardrobe and clothes. There is an area of shampford shelving to connect back to the door entryway and also provide additional storage. The doorway to the kitchen was previously a curtain and now has a biffolding plywood door. From entering into this space, you're saturated with this blue finish. This provides a surprise from the lighter main space to provide a fun pop of color. We've integrated a dishwasher, fridge, freezer, full size oven, and hob, as well as a skinnier sink and tap location. The exhaust fan is also self circulating. Due to building management issues, we couldn't create any changes to the exterior walls. The fabricator also came up with a brilliant idea to include a corner bin within a dead use zone of the countertop. To complement the black appliances, we proposed a coran countertop which was black but had these speckles of gold and different flexcks of interest. Below the sink is cabinetry storage and spice rack. Overall, we gained much more storage and the client is able to enjoy cooking with many more integrated appliances. For the bathroom, due to the art deco plumbing, which we couldn't change, all of the existing positioning of sanitary wear had to be retained. All of which were replaced except for the towel rail, which is an original feature. The new bathtub is a Japanese style tub, so it's much deeper. And the bath frontage we actually tiled in the same finish as the floor and walls. To the bath itself, there's a biffolding screen so that when it's not in use, it can be folded back against the wall. The overall look and feel of that space is meant to evoke art deco ship cabin. It's functional but then also has this romantic blush pink. Fortunately, within the main building amenity space, a laundry zone is provided. So that meant that we didn't have to integrate any utility appliances. We approach small spaces as though we're solving a puzzle. How to maximize the floor area and to get as much concealed storage within that. Taking on a smaller space and refurbishing it, making it your own. It's really important, I think, to have that element of fun and you can still create stylish, functional homes that have a real lasting legacy. I've always liked materials that have a lot of patter, especially historic materials. Really, my interest goes back to me growing up near shipyards and being surrounded by brick and steel buildings. This is my family home for my son and I and it is most importantly his childhood home and I want him to remember it and this is why I was inspired to become an architect living and seeing incredible properties as a child. So the building was built in the art deco style by Wallace Gilbert and partners who also built the Hoover building. It is in the heart of the historical industrial area near Riverteames. This apartment block was originally the offices for the factory behind and then was converted into apartments in the '90s. I wanted a place where I could totally relax and have a slower pace and just be in a ### Segment 7 (30:00 - 35:00) [30:00] calm space in the city center. Weather here in London is very gray. So the idea was always to have rich materials. I wanted it to be warm and cozy, especially on those dark gray winter months. And also the idea behind the texture is it makes the space feel much larger. So the existing layout was a bit awkward originally. The double height space was completely ignored and it seemed a missed opportunity to me. So on the ground floor we added a door to the kitchen, a door to theair storage and built-in cabinets in the dining area. On the first floor I totally renovated the bathroom. In the bedroom, I added storage units and privacy doors. Just wanted some extra privacy as it was very light and it helped to sleep better. Once inside, to make the entrance feel more important, I added a landing step. I added two wall mounted IKEA timber cabinets with a circular mirror, which creates a vanity unit. So I positioned the sitting area away from the window to give a very private area and the seating is in an L shape so it divides the uses. The ceiling is quite low at 2 m. So I painted it in a dark brown chocolate color and the idea behind this is that dark colors recede to the eye so it doesn't feel as noticeable so it gives it height. I have a terra cotta velvet coppler sofa from Sankal which is set high on legs so it allows the light through underneath. There is also a white shelving system with base cabinets which I use for my son's books and toys and also my uh CD player. my favorite spot in this apartment. It's probably where I'm sat right now under the lanterns because actually it's super relaxing. Even when the windows aren't open, the lanterns are just floating very gently around and it just has a very calming effect. The custom dining table has a painted MDF top. The dining room has a 4 m tall ceiling with large concrete beams that span across. So, I chose to hide these with a large mesh ceiling screen. And it also creates a base for the spotlights. I also have one pendant light for the dining room table, which I picked up on my travels to Indonesia. The chairs are vintage chrome Magnus Olison Xline chairs, and these can be stacked and also moved out the way. Uh the table can also be folded up and moved so the space can be used in a totally different way. Along the window wall, I designed a birch plywood unit with cabinets for storing shoes and also to hide the original radiator. The kitchen is very small at just over two square meters, so I had to plan the layout to the millimeter. And the kitchen doors are all birch plywood with no handles. And the ceiling is again painted chocolate brown, so it gives the feeling of height. I managed to get all the appliances in, a dishwasher, a washerdryer, a fridge, freezer, oven, and even a combi microwave. For additional storage, I have a pegboard with all the items I need at hand so I can cook happily without searching for things. There is also a small wall shelf with everyday items. So, everything is just there ready to go. The landing is oak to match the main floor. I also added a David Gropy shade wall light. And it's not only a light, but it's a mirror I can use to check my lipstick before I leave. Every nook and cranny is useful here. staircase is folded perforated metal which doesn't sit against the wall so it gives it a floating look. The stair is also perfect to light up at night and enhance this floating feeling. And then the bedroom itself is accessed with two sliding doors which fit around one of the original concrete beams. The metanine floor is the original simple pine boards which are oiled and the ceiling is painted in a concrete color which matches the living area. To ### Segment 8 (35:00 - 40:00) [35:00] this I added built-in storage, a wardrobe and cabinets all in birch plywood. I added a woven hanging to the head of my bed to define the area. It's made from grass and it is made in Spain by espadril makers and it just gives some texture to the room as a lot of the walls are smooth. The metanine has a simple glass ballastrade with a rich wooden handrail and behind this is a large folding door which was installed for privacy from the main space. I share the bedroom with my toddler son and he has a small toddler bed and I have a low height queen-siz bed because the height in the bedroom is quite short. Under my bed there are four pull out drawers for extra clothes storage. On the stair landing I added two deep shelving units in birch ply each with two doors to save space when open. In the bathroom was completely redone, adding lots of storage. The main shower head is Fifth Avenue by Weston Bathrooms and it looks a little bit industrial so it fits in very well. The basin style was picked because it was in a very simple shape, a little bit art deco. And above there is a wall-mounted rosecoled hanging bar for hooks and shelves which come in orange for storage and it's part of a modular system by EXT. At the bathroom mentions, there is a large concrete beam which runs along the top and you have to duck to get into the bathroom. It's just one of those quirks of converted buildings. I think it's important when you design small spaces to think big. Don't believe that you can't get everything you want. You just have to think of it and solve it in a different way. City dwellings often have constraints. Really, you don't have to add space to make a place feel bigger. You just have to manipulate materials and colors to have the same effect. The property is located in the city of London in an area called Camden Town. Originally the house was conceived as a family home. 10 years ago it was subdivided in three separate flats. This is a loft space which is in the top floor of the property. The brief of the project was to have a open plan space but at the same time have different spaces with privacy. The building is occupied mainly by young professionals as the area is quite vibrant. It's one of the most touristic areas of London. It's full of bars, restaurants, nightclubs. Amy Winehouse used to live literally around the corner. The original area of the apartment were 40 square m and then with the project we included a new medicine which added 14 square m. So at the end we ended up with 54 square m of area. When we found the flat, it had a small kitchenet and bathroom. The first thing that we did was just to scale up the volume in the middle in order to create different private spaces, but everything within the same open space. The first space that you discover once you come up from the entrance is the open plan kitchen and dining. Immediately in front of you, you have a long unit where all the appliances that doesn't require any height are located. You have the dishwasher, oven, cooker, and the wash basin as well. We also decided to have some open shelves for the kitchen. It's nice to see some of the elements when you are cooking without opening cabinet. Immediately to the right of the kitchen is where the opportunity was to allocate ### Segment 9 (40:00 - 45:00) [40:00] those higher appliances like the fridge freezer unit. also some storage. And most importantly, you have what we used to call the coffee temple, which is this niche with a coffee machine, which we really loved. The living room is one of our favorite places of the design. When you are sitting in the living room, what you see is just a big gallery. And then when you actually see into detail, you find a staircase that lead you to the sleeping area. We also have a small balcony together with a big window facing to a very green area of the property. The sleeping area is located in the central part of the apartment on top of the volume. The bed sits flat on the floor. It's a Japanese style bed. And the idea is for it to be hidden by the parapets that surround a central volume, so you don't see a bed popping out. It also has a working space area with a foldable desk to create more space when it's required. The great thing about this messen is that you can actually visualize the whole space from this platform. As we are sitting in a loft space, the heat tends to go all the way up. So these skylights allow the air to come out. The bathroom is located within the central cube. It is the only place of the flat where we decide that a bright shade of color was required because it's contained. It doesn't have any natural light coming through. The cabinetry of the bathroom is also very simple and is completely covered with a mirror to make the space feel bigger. I think designing small spaces is quite challenging. We need to create flexible usable spaces which will allow you to use the space in a very clever way. Using single and minimalistic lines is always help make the spaces feel a little bit bigger. London has grown from 7 million habitants to 8 million habitants in the last 10 years. That means that we require more flexible and dynamic spaces in order to accommodate this growing population. Properties that used to be a single family home like the one we're sitting in right now can very easily be splitted in separate units and you can in a very small footprint achieve the same that you used to achieve before. What does a magazine look like when you jam it full of intoxicating Greekness, dreamlike logic, Compei's convertible creations, roboty sculptures, Himeir Hyon's contagious creative compulsions, intimate home portraits from Japan, and Enzo Mari inspired creatures. Well, it looks like this and this, this, and this. And it includes sexy as hell small apartments from Amsterdam, Athens, and Milan, too, as well as a spectacular archive of stickers and labels telling stories of design histories. And it also features the 100% definitive and scientifically proven principles of timeless design. — Disclaimer, not 100% definitive or scientifically proven. — Wait, there's more. There is a salami factory turned art museum, and there are very uncitcheny kitchens, legacies, mythology, and some seriously hot pots. Oh my. Get your copy now. The idea for this flat was to create different areas where the client could feel cozy, making the spaces look larger and full of a storage. When we initially started working on the project, the color was not the main idea. It's not a space where we can put many elements. So it was actually with the color we found this coziness. So it's not that they came and they say I want a colorful house but trying to making the space look like what they're trying to achieve. Color was the solution. We wanted to use Victorian period materials and details such as the metro green tiles and copper finish of the ### Segment 10 (45:00 - 50:00) [45:00] kitchen counter. By mixing colors with the historical features of the flat, we can create a modern flat while still maintaining its historical past. This flat is located in King's Cross in central London. King's Cross was originally an industrial hub and has since evolved into one of London's most dynamic neighborhoods. The building was constructed in 1912 by the Central London Building Company and has become quite an iconic building in the area. The flat is 40 square meters. The owners are young professionals that work nearby. When I first saw the flat, it was old and dark and lacked to store it. It's a onebedroom, a separate kitchen and bathroom, and a living room. In terms of the layout, we only changed the floor plan in the bathroom, moving the toilet and the sink to the rear wall to allow for more space and to have the full-size bathtub. The rest of the renovation was more about optimizing the storage and functions in each of the rooms. The colors start at the front door, which we repainted in red. The owners had renovated the corridor before we worked on the project. It's a small corridor surrounded by a dado rail on the walls that separates the painting section from the wallpaper. The owners love to cook and entertain. So, the kitchen was really important and the first step in our renovations. We worked with them to choose the rich green metro tiles from Solo Ceramics for the splashback and different shades of green paint for the cabinetry and walls. Using the same color broadens the visual perception of the room, making it appear a bit larger than it is. We heat all the appliances behind cabinet doors and added more storage by including wall cabinets and a tall full height cabinet at the end of the kitchen. For the countertop, we chose copper for its warmth tones. The copper patinas of the time will use which is something the client loves. The kitchen has fluted windows facing the external kyard. It lets in a lot of light during the day, but maintains privacy without requiring curtains or blinds. There are two large structural columns that is split the kitchen into two parts. We left the space behind one of the beams to be used to put items behind. The front with the stove and fridge and the back with a sink, washing machine, and boiler. Under the upper storage cabinets, we added LED lights to illuminate the counter and act as accent lighting in the evenings. For the floors, we decided on black and white floor tiles by Matonella Margarita. They introduce a playful fabric-like pattern. The living room was designed to serve as a comfortable sitting room, an office, and a guest bedroom. We wanted to keep a chest of drawers which were cherry in color, so we chose red in the living room to match these drawers. We added fiberboard shelves just below the ceiling and painting them in the same red as the ceiling and trim. They give a perception of height and seem to dissolve when viewed from certain angles. The custom sofa is red to match the walls. It's a generous size sofa that doubles as a guest bed. While the white provides a neutral setting for the art that they've collected during the travels, we decided to keep the original fireplace in the corner of the living room and painted it in red to blend in with the rest of the apartment. The main light in the room is one from LA. It has these rotten pieces that create a mobile and looks like an art piece. The idea of having wall lights is to have secondary lighting that is more cozy than the ceiling light. They are plugged into a socket. No need for an electrician. The owners were using the camping table as their coffee table. When it came time to choose a new table, they wanted something that could still retain the flexibility. The new table can be opened and made bigger, turning into a dining table that ### Segment 11 (50:00 - 55:00) [50:00] can seat up to six people. The height adjustment is great for having dinners in front of the TV. We all do it, so it might as well be comfortable. An L-shaped bench creates seating for visitors while providing a storage for the record collections below. It also conceals the room's radiator. When using the extendable coffee table, the bench area transforms into a dining knock. In the evenings, we custom build shelving on the corner of the living room for drinks and glasses. There is a drink cart that can easily be moved around the room. Next to the door of the living room, we added a desk. Fixing the desk to the wall means it didn't take up valuable floor space so items can be stored underneath and comfortable desk chair can be used. The top of the desk was also tapered inward to allow for easier movement around the space. The bedroom was the last place we worked on. Our aim was to create as much storage as we could. Everything had to be functional and help with the storage problem we had. It originally had some wall shelves and wardrobe by the door which we extended all the way up to the ceiling and added another wardrobe on the adjacent wall. We added paneling with wallpaper from Roma to the wardrobs, walls and ceiling to give the impression of having windows with the nature behind them. The new queen-siz bed from Picolin also has a storage space underneath for seasonal items. Just like in the living room, we added a high shelf around the room for extra storage. The custom bedside tables are attached to the walls. They are curved and angle around the corners of the room to maximize the available space. We used the same method to create a new dressing table by the entrance. It was something we added later on in the design process, but turn out to be handy space to get ready in the mornings or as a temporary desk when both are working from home. In the bathroom, the focus was on maximizing light and storage. We changed the layout to make more space around the toilet and sink. This gave us room to add a larger storage unit on the three walls, which provides a lot of storage while reflecting the space to make the room feel bigger. There was an old fireplace in the bathroom, which now serves as extra storage. A bathtub was one of the non-negotiables the owners had in the brief. We found a narrow model that doesn't block the entrance. The yellow tiles are handmade in Morocco and the glossy texture serves as a reflection. Gray concrete tiles were chosen for the rest of the walls. The owners install a translucent yellow curtain. Being able to see through the curtain helps to keep the space feeling open. Above the sink, we added a wire shell for extra linen. When I work on a project, I believe every part of the house and every object that is there, it has to meet a function. We usually design a large part of the pieces in our interior design project to measure. My approach begins with planning the layout before focusing on the style or decoration. This ensures the rooms flows well, makes the most storage and creates distinct zones for different experiences. The house is located in East London. This building was a carpenter workshop and as we have our house down the road, I knew the carpenter very well. And when he retired, I got the opportunity to buy the workshop. Townhouse here is 40 square mters. Uh it has a footprint of 20 square m. It was always two floors, but we've lifted the roof half a meter. So we could get a mezanin in. One of the things when you have a very small space is height. You know, if you can create some height, it doesn't feel small. ### Segment 12 (55:00 - 59:00) [55:00] Uh so you have that much more generous feel of space because you have a good um height up here. Instead of making a bedroom with walls and doors was that I make this built-in uh bed pots. When you go to bed you are kind of enclosed so it feels like a treehouse or another little house inside the house. It's not really designed with a amount of people in mind. I think two people would live here comfortably with a maybe with a kid. I mean could be I mean it's small but I mean definitely two people could comfortably be here. I like to use colors but in kind of um more interventions like colorful chairs or I mean we have Joe Neima's um pictures on the wall here and downstairs very graphical but also quite kind of primary colors. The bathroom is bright yellow. Uh, yellow is kind of I find a very happy color like the sunflower and you know it's the sunshine and I like that kind of it's a bit of a surprise when you walk in that is that very strong one color at the same time. The house is quite calm with its white walls and wood but still some playfulness with some different accent of colors. I furnished the house with um chairs and also tables that is upcycled from um old chairs and tips that I picked up in the street or in junk shops. This is frames that I have stripped. I made up the seats and the backs and do the upholsteries. And similar with the table, the kitchen table is an old school table that I um just put a marble top on and had you know powder coated in white. They're quite cartoonish and fun, you know, in their shapes and a bit exaggerated shapes. It gives the space more personality. I generally always have very narrow tables. Most of my uh interior design tend to get quite narrow tables. I kind of like that idea. When you sit at the table, you you're quite close together. And I tend to have then more space at the end of the tables for dishes and things you would leave on the table. The lamps are designed for um this house here. It's designed in a square wooden section in oak. To maximize the light uh in the space, we have put in a big um skylight which is south facing uh which we then also um transfer down to the lower ground floor with a big glass panel in the floor. is something that I'm always very keen on to get a maximum amount of daylight or create uh the illusion of daylight because uh that is um a very I mean I think essential thing in a small in any space but particularly in a small space. I often use uh one material. So I have these kind of like continuous surfaces when it's possible like downstairs where you see the floor goes into the kitchen as one surface. Yeah. one material to avoid sharp corners. Like in any small spaces, you have to find places where you can put your storage, kind of hide it away. So here we have storage under the bed. You got storage under the stairs. In the kitchen, we have um obviously like a dishwasher and a washing machine and um appliances that are needed. We got a hot boiling tap, so we don't need to have a kettle there. In small spaces, every little square inch matters. This is more like designing a boat or a caravan. How do you create comfortable bedding? enough storage and comfortable seating that doesn't take up space you haven't got? And I think the compromise is that if it's welld designigned, it doesn't feel smaller.