Before and after: A dream renovation come true

andrewjburing andrewjburing
Un petit studio qui a tout d'un grand!, Tout Simplement Déco Tout Simplement Déco Modern kitchen
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It's always nice to hear stories of dreams coming true. They make you feel like anything is possible, as long as you put your mind to it. And today, we can tell one such story.

Not too long ago, somewhere in France, a woman named Karine owned a very small 24m2 apartment. This, however, was not her dream home. The apartment tried to make as much room as possible, given the space, but very often came off as cluttered. There's not much you can fit in an apartment that size, but Karine was determined to change that. And so, with the help from the interior architects over at Tout Simplement Deco, she set out to make a change.

Below, you can marvel at her success. Cleverly designed, the home now manages to use storage space to get rid of all the clutter. Also, the whole place got an upgrade, and is now more useful for the modern person. All topped off with a new coat of paint, this apartment will astound. And just wait till you see what they did with the bed…

Before: A bleak outlook

While it's not too crowded, the living room does not inspire confidence. The cot to sleep on is pushed into a corner, with things stacked up on top of it, and the sofa is taking up a lot of space. The screen sits atop a cardboard box, instead of on something more stable, and overall, the room gives off a very impersonal feeling.

On the bright side, we can find the foundation of a great home here. The floors are of a high quality and their mute colour matches the quieter tone of the wallpaper. However, the most useful parts of the room are probably the windows. They are large and pour in a lot of sun, helping out the palette and making the whole place seem more alive. With a few additions, this room has a lot of potential.

After: Sunny days

With a few more things added, the room is transformed. While the new chair and coffee tables take some space, it makes the room seem more intimate, giving you the opportunity to relax with friends when they come to visit.

Other additions include the flowers and the new light above the sofa. These give the room a bit more charm, and let you spend more time in the living room, reading the evenings away. And, as mentioned above, the colours, while muted, work really well together. All it needed was a bit of charm and the personal touch, to turn it into a lovely place to live in.

Before: Chaotic corner

Small spaces and lots of things usually don't go well together. A perfect example of that, is the old kitchen. The kitchen corner is very crowded, and looks like something out of the 20th century. While you can cook a meal here, your choices may be limited. The small table pretty much seats only one, and the dotted chair, stands out like a sore thumb.

While you can get plenty of light during the day, the evenings may be a bit more difficult. While there is a light above the kitchen, the single light bulb will probably not give out as much light as you would like, making some of the finer details easier to miss. While the building blocks are here, it'll take a while before the kitchen is useful.

After: Sharp cooking

A couple of modern upgrades and the kitchen is good to go. With the corner expanded, multiple people can now go about cooking their meals. What's more, the cooking options have now expanded to include an oven, meaning that you can feel free to start experimenting.

With the clutter cleaned up, the rest of the room looks much more organised. The odd spotted chair is gone and replaced with chairs that better fit the colour palette. And finally, the lonely light bulb is enveloped into a beautiful cluster that looks interesting and is functional. The new kitchen goes to show that giving up some space, may, in the long run, be a great idea.

Before: Hardly a corner office

Along with the previously mentioned screen that lives atop a sagging cardboard box, the table, which is meant to be a working desk, is very small. This means that work will pile up in no time, and the occupant will have to start finding other places to store their things.

On top of all of that, corner is not very lively and is missing a personal touch. Work, including creative work, is very difficult to do in empty environments like this. The emptiness of the place can get you down and make you want to work less. To truly turn a place into a mini-office, you'll have to add some spark to it.

After: A pleasant work enviroment

With the sagging cardboard boxes gone, the place suddenly becomes more alive. The addition of the hanging cabinet absolutely changes the game, helping remove both the mess and the overall drabness of the corner. While it is a great place to store plates, the cabinet also holds the TV and stereo, cleverly saving up on space, while modernising the whole apartment. 

Switching from a circular table to a rectangular one, is another stroke of brilliance. Thanks to its shape, the table can now fit easier into certain spaces and if need be, can be pushed all the way up against the wall. The pot of flowers is a nice touch, and overall the corner feels like it has more live in it, which will no doubt do wonders for your work.

Drop bed

Here is that bed that was promised at the beginning of the article. In an effort to save space, and to get rid of those mattresses on the floor, the bed is now stored in the ceiling, ready to drop down when needed. Not only will it save a lot of space, but it also means that you can have a bigger bed without giving up floor space. Not to mention, it looks cool when you pull it down.

The bed itself is very comfortable and perfectly fits in between the two little lights, turning them into bedside lamps. This means that you can literally both read and dream while hovering above the floor. If that isn't magical, we're not sure what is. As a way of working with a small space, this no doubt takes cake and goes to show how a group of determined people can turn something around.

If you were inspired by the work done to this apartment, and are interested in making some changes to your own small home, this article can help you find new innovative ways of designing your kitchen.

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