Designing and building a home is more than just putting boxes together and calling them rooms. You need flow, spatial planning, and designing for humans. quick build homes changing the skyline of Toronto might not have!
Spatial Planning was my specialty through design school and all the subsequent jobs I held then. Let me take you through how I improved the spatial planning of this 2BHK, 1100 st. ft. home to make it more human compliant.
Problem: The 2 BHK seemed extremely compact and small. It didn't provide enough light and brightness into the room. The client was spiritual and needed a large temple within the home that complied with the Vastu norms.
The problem, I realized, was the cordoning off of different areas to designate spaces. What I mean by that is, the architect had to meet certain requirements to call the apartment a 2 BHK.
So they went ahead and literally created the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen as three separate rooms as you can see in the floor plan below.
The best way to deal with this would be to bring down some of the walls and open the space up to allow light into the house. The second slide in the above slide show shows you the resulting layout.
The proposal was to bring down the wall separating the living room from the balcony. This made the room longer and opened up an entire wall to bring in light.
The other change was to bring down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and convert the one between the dining and its verandah into large, soundproof french doors.
Lastly, one issue still existing was the lack of a powder room for guests and residents alike. They had one bathroom that was an ensuite to the master. The second bathroom opened up into the dining room and the guest was left without one. I proposed closing off the door to a common full bath. The bedroom doors were moved around to open into the dining area instead of that small niche. This opened up enough space to add a half bath!
The home looked more spacious and the open floor plan with large glass facades created a bright, airy, and lively look!
What do you guys think?
Check out the full project in the portfolio!
Master Bedroom Interiors
This is the master bedroom design for the apartment. The accent chair with the floor lamp and a side table create the perfect reading nook for a lazy summer afternoon, which seems to be never-ending with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown! What is a cozy space though without a few prints and paintings!
Using all available space to the maximum without making it too overwhelming is possible with the light cream wardrobe that almost merges into the wall. The length of the wall was used to create a wardrobe-cum-bookshelf unit that had no dearth of space.
Guest Bedroom Interiors
The kid's bedroom doubled up as the guest bedroom. Except for the wardrobe & study unit, everything else is readymade. The bed is from Gulmohar Lane, the bedroom bench, side tables, chair, rug, and pendant lamps from West Elm.