Rethinking small spaces for work-from-home lives Making every centimetre count: ‘Even changing the way a door swings can make a big difference’
Sat, Jan 2, 2021, 06:00
“Every centimetre counts in an apartment,” says architect Eva Byrne. “But just a few small tweaks can make great improvements.”
When she was commissioned to make this apartment in Dartry, Dublin 6, suitable for renting, Byrne first thought about storage and then thought: “Hang on a minute, people are working from home.” In a two-bed rental property this could mean four young adults needing desk space.
So both bedrooms – one on the lower floor and one upstairs – lost their doors into the bathrooms, leaving the latter accessible only from landings. “I don’t like bathrooms with two doors,” says Byrne. In this case they were “pretending to be en suites too and dictating where the bed was”. In one bedroom the door to the bathroom wiped out that wall space, which had two doors on it. T