Ebbe Studio participated in a small competition for the renovation of a family’s 84m² apartment in Maida Vale, London. Moving in with two young children they were hoping to redesign the apartment to better accommodate them as well as plan for a future where they might need more space. Also the fact that both parents were now working from home means they were hoping to create a small study area.

For Option A we followed the client’s brief as tightly as possible. The objective was to create maximum impact whilst adding contemporary character to the spaces at minimum cost.

• Living room: ash-wood joinery pieces were added to create a support for the television above the fireplace and a window seat in the front bay. A pocket door opening was added to connect the living room more immediately to the rest of the house making the corridor feel less restricted.
• Master bedroom: the entrance was shifted to allow for a full width wardrobe.
  
• WC: a small WC with a shower was introduced in to the hallway with a curved wall that also forms a shower enclosure. A clerestory light at high level allows natural light into the WC from above.
  
• Children’s Bedroom: a playful joinery unit that combines a bunk-bed and wardrobe is proposed to enclose one side of the room
  
• Bathroom: the boiler was retained (due to the cost implications) and a combined bespoke shower and bath proposed
  
• Kitchen/Office: new units were added that use a deep teal shaker-front broken up by ash-wood vertical and horizontal supports. These units run around the corner in to the office space where they form a deployable desk that can be stored when not in use. The space is divided using a polycarbonate or ash-wood screen that can be stowed when not needed.
  

Option B expanded the limits of the brief to create a vision that we felt made the best use of the spaces and floor area within the apartment.

• Kitchen/Living/Dining: In this option the combined the living and dining areas feels much more spacious with a dual aspect that allows for more daylight and better ventilation.
  
• Office/Kids bedroom: the end of the corridor also feels much more private which is useful both for getting work done during the day and for whichever child might be using it as a bedroom in the future.
  
• Bathrooms: this option creates a more functional bathroom arrangement with both a master en-suite that allows privacy for the parents, and a kids/guest bathroom with a bathtub that can be accessed from the main hall. Splitting the bathroom in to two rooms means that the boiler would indeed have to be moved to the living room but this also creates space to keep a cloakroom in the hallway to store jackets and shoes.
  
• Master Bedroom: the parents bedroom was moved to the former kids room and a pocket door was added in the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom to allow for a private en-suite with a walk-in shower and natural light.
  

︎︎︎   ︎︎︎