Design - Apartment Redesign

This is an unsolicited redesign I did of a client's apartment. She wanted to do as little update as possible, so her scope of work only included redoing the kitchen and bathrooms. (And they needed it.)

But when I was looking at the plans, and knowing that the best time to do a full overhaul is when you aren't living in the space, I knew there was a better layout. So I drew up plans for a more extensive renovation.

This is the existing floor plan. This is a circa 1920s building so there are a lot of small closets. This also was at one time a studio apartment (the Master Bedroom/Home Office) and a one bedroom apartment. They were combined some time in the late 80s-early 90s.

The most important change is the expansion of the Kitchen, eliminating the Foyer. The original Kitchen is incredibly narrow and dark, so I would suggest replacing the cabinets on the south wall with 18" cabinets instead of the usual 24" and extend them to the entry hall opening. This means there is no lost storage. The working counter becomes the north side with a peninsula looking out over the Living Room.

I removed the walls that divided off the Living Room in order to expand the space. I would then use it as a combined Living Room/Dining Room.  Since I removed the Living Room walls, I reshaped the Vestibule to the Bathroom and Bedroom. This provides a delineation between the owner-used parts of the apartment and the guest quarters.

The closets in the bedroom are combined to provide additional storage. I also combined the Entry closets and moved the back wall to the correct location allowing for additional long-term storage. The Master Closet has also been expanded and the door relocated to allow for maximum storage. The Library has been opened up with the removal of the nib walls. The step and dividing wall separating it from the Master Bedroom are structural and cannot be removed.

I think this means you end up with a significantly more usable space that is better defined.