It may sound like an impossible mathematical problem: How do you fit a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, a work area, a spare bed, and storage—lots of storage—in a 183-square-foot apartment with a single window? Céline Boclaud offers one solution with her design for a functional and comfortable Paris apartment created with a student in mind. “Originally, we had the plumbing for a small kitchenette near the window, but we wanted to use it, and its natural light, for a built-in bench and work area. So we moved the kitchen, and its plumbing, to the opposite wall,” Céline says. The result is a rarity in small spaces: a truly functional kitchen, with storage both above and below the countertops.
Facing the kitchen, the lounge area is designed around a bench that can convert into a bed and also incorporates a coffee table, storage, and a niche underneath the desktop, which can serve as a small nightstand. “As the wall is curved, it was difficult to integrate a right-angled desk, so we played with the roundness by designing a free-form worktop that hugs the curvature of the wall and integrates a chair,” Céline explains. Above the desk, shelves with undulating contours also add roundness and softness to this very geometric apartment. In the bathroom, a small partition and a rounded, tiled vanity unit are also used to introduce an appealingly curved look to the unit.
In the bedroom, a double bed is set between cupboards and closets, making it easy to clean up and keep the small space tidy. The room is illuminated from above thanks to a skylight located just above the shower. Boclaud Architecture’s use of a partition wall that is shorter than ceiling height allows light to pour into both spaces. To further maximize the effect, the walls are painted a luminous white. Light wood provides a sense of warmth, and two different shades of dark gray were used for the base units, worktop, and kitchen backsplash creating a dynamic and elegant contrast. Integrated furniture saves space, while a vintage chair and ceramic lamp with a raffia shade are paired with muted bed linens. The colors throughout the unit are soft, with warm tones of wood, earth, and ochre lending warmth to the wood of the parquet floors, the colorful linen weavings of sofa bed, and the light caramel mosaic tiles in the bathroom.
