30 sqm Apartment in Shanghai Transformed into Creative Home of a Young Couple

The owners are a young couple of the creative sort.

He loves music. Singing, playing the instrument and recording are what he likes to do at home. She works as an illustrator, and requires a bright and quiet space that is conducive for her to do paintings without distraction. She also runs a fashion blogshop, and is in desperate need for proper storage to keep the stocks from being damaged by the 3 cats they have at home. They both hope to have friends come over for gathering.

However, their current home which has a long and narrow layout, with a small balcony as the only source of natural light, simply does not fulfill any of their needs.

This is a story from the China’s TV show 梦想改造家, which is like the Chinese version of “Before and After” TV show done in Japan before.

And let’s have a look at the result after the transformation done by designer 范继景 from 壹舍室内设计（上海）.

The tight 30m2 space was opened up to create one unobstructed space that creatively suits all the needs of the owners’ daily living, her business, their hobbies and not forgetting – the 3 cats :)

Upon entering the house, you are greeted with a splash of colours from the patterned tiles. The kitchen cabinets are kept to one side of the wall, with a pullout table that serves as the dining table for the couple.

On the other side of the kitchen was the toilet separated by a wall made with aluminium panel, which is thinner than a concrete wall. The designer has made some perforated circles with acrylic inserts on the wall and doors too add more visual interest. I think it does look like a polka dots wall when it is illuminated with the lights from the toilet.

From the kitchen, we enter into the main living-working space of this apartment. All the walls have been removed, allowing the natural light from the balcony to reach most of the corners of this long, narrow space.

The floor of this entire area was elevated by about 30 cm to create plenty of platform storage for the owner to keep the stocks for her blogshop. The elevated space also allows the designer to build-in 2 hydraulic operated platform – one as the bed (seen without mattress here), and another one as a coffee table that works perfect when they host gathering for larger group of friends and family.

When the bed is not needed in the day, it can be hidden below the platform and covered. This will turn into a larger workspace for her to do paintings since it is also closer to the source of light from the balcony.

The kitchen and living area was separated by a sliding door made with sound-proof glass panels. This has solved the issue of creating individual space for each of the owners. He can make music in the kitchen, not having to worry it will distract her who is working on the paintings and illustration at the other side of the room.

Storage is always crucial in a small space. Besides the platform storage, there are also floor-to-ceiling wardrobe and cabinet built around the bed to make full use of every inch of space.

For the cats? Have you seen those shelves on the walls? Not forget to mention, those shelves are movable and the owner can just keep on creating different “route” for the cats to mingle around.. :)