Modern Apartment Renovation: BEDROOMS
Updated: Aug 20, 2018
The bedrooms are the personal spaces within a home, they are the areas that you want to ignite emotion and feeling when walking into.
A well designed and thought out bedroom brings a true essence of relaxation, comfort and “home” into a building. A major factor to consider when deciding to renovate a bedroom is discovering what you want people to FEEL when they enter the room. The consideration of the character, size, functionality, flow, colour pallet and light are key elements when designing a successful renovation.
This modern renovation took place on the 10th floor of an apartment building. The owners were in their 60’s, the brief was ‘black and white’, and they wanted to combine 2 separate apartments to create one 4 bedroom apartment with large living spaces that took in the views of the ocean and river mouth.
When renovating in an apartment building, there are structural elements that MUST be considered. For example, your floor is the lower level’s ceiling, and your ceiling is the level above’s floor. In a major renovation such as this, there a clever ways to ensure you can make changes to the placement of lighting and air-conditioning, move walls, windows and doors to create a feeling of spaciousness; without compromising the integrity of the building.
GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR PLASTERING:
After removing all of the asbestos in the house, we plastered the walls and ceilings with a level 5 finish, which gave us the ability to recess the lighting and shift it to where we wanted it.
By creating plaster bulkheads above the doors, we were able to have the blinds recessed into the bulkheads ensuring there was no disruption of the views. REMEMBER: When renovating, always work with what you have. A great view is a gift from nature, make sure than anything you add to or take from the building work with what is already there so you can fully enjoy it, then enhance it.
FUNCTIONAL FEATURE WALLS:
As the bedroom wall was an outside wall of the building, we weren’t able to cut into it. To keep the price down, we designed the feature wall to run electricity behind it, while also using that feature wall to create the bulkhead of the bed.
This feature wall is where we placed the air-conditioning to avoid any unsightly split systems on the walls.
By adding texture within the functional feature wall, recessing the down lights into it threw soft shapes and light into the bedroom.
CONCERTINA STACKING DOORS
To add greater space to the balcony off the bedroom without needing to change the wall structure, a Ferguson Stacker was used for the door. The incredible thing about these doors is that they can slide any way, left to right, and completely stack onto each other – creating optimal open space and easeful flow between the inside and outside.
ENHANCE NATURAL LIGHT
As the ensuite off the bedroom had no natural light through windows or sunlights, we made the door a glass panel to carry natural light from the balcony, through the bedroom, into the bathroom. The result flooded the bathroom with light! As a personal touch, the frosted glass was engraved with symbols of the clients family crest.
Keeping with the soft colouring that suited the mood of the owner, also kept with the notion of enhancing natural light in the bedroom. Softening the robes by using edgeless glass doors kept the room bright while allowing light into the wardrobes.
This apartment was a stunning overall renovation with the bedrooms creating an intimate yet open feel within the space of the home. The bedrooms were a standout in this project as they addressed the individual needs of the client, while keeping costs low and creating a real connection with the outside. Because a home is the combined connection of the different areas, all areas need to flow within themselves and into each other - creating a complete journey throughout the home, and this effortless flow was achieved in this renovation.
BUDGET: Complete renovation: $200,000
Spend: $220,00
*Large (unexpected) lifestyle costs: $14,000 on kitchen cooker
*Large necessary costs: $24,000 on asbestos removal
Added value to home: $280,000 (apartment sold for $880,000 in 2015)