How a Couple DIYed Their Small London Flat, 46sqm/495sqft

Never Too Small

Visit https://rayon.design/r/nevertoosmall_v3 to create your free account or head to https://rayon.design/r/template_nevertoosmall_v3 to explore Celeste & Pete’s floorplan.  For Celeste and Pete, this 46sqm/495sqft North London flat is the first place that really feels like theirs, and it has to work hard for three (including Percy the dog). Working with architects Loader Monteith on the layout and doing almost all the joinery themselves, they opened the kitchen, dining and living area into one continuous space and used a single timber language to tie everything together. Smart small-space solutions include a custom kitchen with open shelving, an office nook carved out of an old corridor, dining bench that doubles as a linen cupboard and walk-through wardrobes flanking a pocket door into the bedroom. In the living area, a raised timber platform sofa hides drying racks and storage beneath, while low IKEA Besta units keep the floor feeling open and connected to the garden.  00:00-01:21 Introduction  01:21-01:40 Location  01:40-02:25 Entrance  02:25-04:51 Floor Plan 04:51-08:14 Kitchen  08:14-09:11 Dining Area 09:11- 12:07 Living Area 12:07- 13:42 Study  13:42-16:07 Bathroom  16:07-19:08 Bedroom 19:08-20:45 Backyard 20:45-21:49 Conclusion   #smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign   How I Live Small Ep.11 Owner: Celeste Bolte & Pete Fisher https://www.instagram.com/celeste_bolte https://www.instagram.com/salt_press Architect: https://loadermonteith.co.uk/  Produced by New Mac Video Agency Creator: Colin Chee Producer: Lindsay Barnard Director & Cinematographer: Nam Tran Editor: Jessica Ruasol Music: Artlist.io Aquarelle by Magiksolo Nearby Galaxy by Skygaze Aisle Thots by Skipp Whitman Winter by Magiksolo The Light Tonight by Skygaze Dreams by WOOLFSON Hummingbird by Less Gravity When I Get Home by Brian Claxton Memory Lane by Less Gravity Blur by Less Gravity morning by Out of Flux Airone by Jazz Art Quartet  Share your projects with us- https://www.nevertoosmall.com/submissions Subscribe to our newsletter- https://www.nevertoosmall.com/subscribe  Check out our store- https://www.nts-store.com Website- https://www.nevertoosmall.com Instagram-  https://www.instagram.com/nvtsmall Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/nvtsmall

Transcript

00:02this is the first place that we've lived in that's like really ours it's a 46

00:08square meter apartment so it has to work really hard for us but at the same time

00:13it's a perfect size for two well three of us at the dog as well I think now

00:20that we've done the work in here that doesn't feel like it's too small it

00:24works hard but it's still bright and airy and you know sort of nice and easy to

00:30tidy away I mean that's the joy of living small right it takes like 15

00:34minutes to clean it's lovely my name is Celeste I work in design PR and I'm Pete

00:41and I'm an engineer I work with batteries and we live here in North London with

00:46our dog Percy we moved to London six years ago from Melbourne we said we

00:57would come to London for maximum two years and we're still here today the

01:03longer we've stayed the more it's just kind of felt like home is here we paid

01:10four hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the flat and then our renovation was

01:15budgeted to be about thirty thousand we ended up spending about forty so we are

01:23in gospel oak in North London it is at the top of Camden and we're on the corner

01:29of Hampstead Heath we're in a really lovely modernist estate we're on the sort of

01:34lower ground of the one of the smaller blocks we have a lovely little boot box

01:41here which has all of our muddy bits and bobs in for the winter means we don't

01:45have to bring muddy boots into the house when we inevitably get very muddy on a

01:49dog walk also if we've been out cycling we've got a little shed out here which

01:55means that we don't have to track bikes into the flat it also gives us a little

01:59bit of storage for tools and whatnot for our renovation a bit of gardening

02:03equipment and that sort of stuff that happens every five minutes we have a

02:11hospital down this road we have a hospital up this road and we have a

02:15fire station down the other road we always say if we were ever to like have

02:19a collapse we just have to crawl out to the road and someone will pick us up

02:26the hallway was quite a mess there were radiator pipes everywhere that were

02:31painted over and rusting and definitely needed attention we had front door kitchen

02:37entrance boiler cupboard door we had a door to the lounge here there was a door

02:41to the bedroom here there was a door to a linen press here and there was the

02:45bathroom door yeah it's like an intersection in the middle of the flat

02:49you couldn't really navigate two people through at once the architects really

02:52helped us kind of plan the space around making this this flow so this wall

02:59here you can move fully around through the kitchen which means that if someone's

03:04coming this way someone else can move through the space without kind of that

03:08like collision I work in design PR and I work with a lot of architects so we

03:12actually tapped one of our client my clients on the shoulder load them on teeth we

03:16asked Matt from the practice to help us figure out like what to do with the

03:21apartment so that it really flowed I also took a lot of inspiration from the

03:24projects that I've been really lucky enough to work on I think we spent six

03:29months planning before we started any works we come through from the hallway

03:34into the kitchen where we spend a lot of time this is like kind of the space

03:38that we had the most aspiration for I think in the brief the previous kitchen

03:43just did not function at all there was cabinetry kind of here splitting up the

03:49room and blocking off a lot of the usable bench space from really like about sort

03:55of here onwards so you had to kind of reach behind the cabinetry to use this

04:00bench space so we've tried to make it much more functional we removed all of

04:04the radiators and put in an underfloor heating system just a kit system that we

04:08laid ourselves it meant that we could take the radiators off all the walls which

04:12gave us loads of flexibility on how we lay everything out when we were working

04:18with the architects they sort of mentioned that if we had high-level

04:20cabinetry it would actually block like the sight line of the kind of wall all

04:25the way through to the through to the living room and through to the outside so

04:30actually to keep these shelves open gives it like that sort of sense of kind

04:34of an elongated sense of the apartment which is really nice and keeps it

04:38feeling open and airy we have everything for tea and coffee over here so

04:42that we can grab a mug really easily grab our our aero press or our teapot or our

04:48cafeteria here all of our sort of serving where bowls etc are here so that if you

04:53are like serving hot food in the evening or for lunch you can just really quickly

04:57grab a bowl and then all of our kind of wine and drinks are towards the end so

05:03you can pour friends a glass of wine really close to the dining table I guess

05:07one of the challenges with open shelving like this is that you don't have an

05:10extractor fan or a hood we usually just open the windows on either side of the

05:15apartment and you know sort of any oil smoke or anything can kind of just zip

05:20out of the flat quite quickly which is great we've done all the joinery in the

05:25apartment ourselves we did an order of timber that was enough to get all of the

05:31joinery for the kitchen the lounge room the office space and the furniture it

05:36creates a good bit of continuity throughout we integrated and routed in

05:41LED lighting it also dims down in the evenings so it can create kind of a bit

05:46more mood especially for when we're hosting and we want things to feel sort

05:49of more ambient and atmospheric we've had this been for Percy's food for years

05:56Percy stop all of his little biscuits are tucked away in here and he has his own

06:02little space where he can have his dinner or have his water bowl our friends

06:06definitely confuse this for the kitchen bin I would love it to be just that

06:09little bit slimmer to like really fit in this wall but we might have to keep

06:14shopping around one thing that we don't have is a cutlery drawer because

06:17actually cutlery takes up a lot of flat space when you're storing it sort of in a

06:23in rows so we just keep it in a little jar on the bench I think we had a very

06:28conservative estimate when we first planned the renovation but we did

06:34completely gut the apartment you know all new heating all new flooring whole

06:38new kitchen whole new bathroom moved some walls so we saved so much money by

06:43doing all of that work ourselves we had a plumber and an electrician come and do

06:49some kind of key services but ultimately we did most of that hard graft this is

06:56our dining space it's very close to the kitchen so very easy proximity for when

07:02we're hosting friends and even just like cooking and chatting in the evenings

07:06after work together we have designed all of the kitchen furniture ourselves

07:11obviously except for these amazing hey Bruno Ray chairs but this table is made

07:17from chocolate velcro mat which we designed and had CNC cut out and essentially

07:24sent to us in like three parts after a while of looking and not being able to

07:28find the right thing we just decided to make our own we made this beautiful oak

07:34bench seat we have all of our linen spare blankets sofa covers duvet we've got some

07:41spare placemats some rugs all of our towels sheets everything is tucked away in

07:46here and it means that we don't have to have a separate linen cupboard elsewhere in

07:50a flat which frees up a lot of space and then of course we kind of have like the

07:54rest of the living space we have this fabulous sofa which it's lovely oh yeah

07:59this is great it's timber from fallen and felled a really fantastic joinery

08:05workshop in East London and they take trees that are cut down in parks across

08:10London or in other sort of cities so it's waste material they've made it into

08:14this lovely platform for us it's a little bit Donald Judd it's a bit Mark Tucky from

08:19Australia and we've got a few different like covers made like a nice green as

08:23well as this kind of charcoal-y slate color so that we can change them

08:26regularly so purse doesn't get them too messy under here we have our clothes rack

08:33which is a folding clothes rack that we can hang our washing out with but it

08:39doesn't take up too much space it's made out of timber so it's nice and kind of

08:45natural but it just slides under so we can tuck things away on this side of the

08:50room we've got some more built-in storage so we've got some IKEA besta units

08:55down here just with the hardwood top on them and it's the same timber as the

08:59joinery throughout the rest of the flat the rest of the apartment has like such

09:02a good flow to the garden even from like the front door the architects

09:06suggested that we had things that were kind of at least raised up so that you

09:10could really like see the full span of the room on the floors which just makes

09:15it feel really light really airy if you took all of our things out of the

09:20apartment there wouldn't be much color in it but like all of these things that we

09:24have are really special to us this plate in particular has had a few lives I

09:30brought it from a really wonderful artist on Instagram during lockdown we

09:36walked over to her house and then I had it on a little low side table in our old

09:41apartment and within about three hours Percy had knocked the table over and it

09:45completely broke so she made me another one and then about three weeks later he

09:49knocked it over and it broke again this is the other one so they've both been

09:53glued back together all the things that are in here are things that we don't

09:58need regularly but like if we need to access them they're here this one is the

10:03Percy shelf this is all Percy stuff spare leads toys etc obviously we have to

10:11have a dehumidifier as pretty much every flat in London as well ugly but necessary

10:16we have this we have another one out in the shed to keep things like keeping

10:20them dry but actually like our first like year or so here we really struggled

10:25with mold in the apartment because you couldn't get airflow through the flat

10:30because obviously it was kind of more smaller rooms our clothes and the old

10:35cupboard was right next to the old external wall and the condensation from

10:41that just like poor insulation ended up having the built-in robe be really damp

10:45which was not nice it was awful yeah this is our office space we've got our

10:53Google Nest thermostat there that's to control all of our underfloor heating system

10:58this used to be kind of a little mini hallway and there was a linen cupboard

11:03here and then behind it was a built-in robe for the bedroom being creative with

11:08making storage space elsewhere in the flat we've been able to turn this into its own

11:13little space we don't work from home all that often but it means that when we do

11:18we've got a little light that can turn on here bring this down and we've got a

11:23monitor ready to go and a mouse and keyboard we can just plug a laptop in

11:27there and it means that we don't have to do a big set up and pack down every time

11:31we work from home we made this out of the same timber joinery that is

11:37throughout the rest of the flat got a little rounded edge on the front we

11:40didn't want to have like a sharp edge there's some storage space for some

11:44other bits and pieces this is a piece that Celeste had made for me for our

11:50first wedding anniversary one of her friends drew this and it's got all the

11:53things that we love on it this was a linen cupboard which had the electrical

11:59switchboard inside it when we removed that cupboard there was lots of

12:03discussion about whether we should move that electrical switchboard somewhere

12:07else it was also quite an expensive exercise to go moving that we made this

12:12out of leftover off cuts of board from other parts of the flat and just pops off

12:17and then access to all of the bits and pieces that you might need pops back on

12:29the bathroom door itself is in the same position but we've swapped it out for a

12:35pocket door we were able to kind of get rid of the wasted space of a door radius

12:40and we painted them this kind of lovely sage green just so that we could have a

12:44little bit of color but it's not always on show the layout of the bathroom is

12:50basically the same from when we first moved in but what we've done is build

12:54this wall out here so that we could integrate flush storage and get some

12:59additional storage in terms of this shelf it also meant that we could suspend

13:03our light from the wall here instead of having a ceiling light and this is

13:10really lovely for when we need directional light because we can move the beam of

13:19light down or up as we need but we typically tend not to use this instead we

13:25have another hidden strip light the bathroom can feel maybe a little more

13:30moody so you don't get like that shock of a bright light in a bathroom from

13:34coming out from the dinner table which is quite nice we have sort of a whole set of

13:39cabinets each it meant that we really didn't need to have storage down low

13:43there's obviously the loosest in here it means we can hang the basin off this

13:48wall too we also have as a stainless steel tap I got this off eBay for ten

13:54pounds I think it was sold via the British Red Cross and actually just so

13:59many of our things came secondhand from online a lot of like London

14:04apartments have big issues with mold and damp so we have an extractor fan here in

14:09the window and often after a bath or shower we'll just open the window up for

14:14extra ventilation this is just a really easy shower screen I think it came off

14:19like a standard hardware shop and it can just rotate in so that anytime we're kind

14:24of cleaning the inside or the outside it can hang directly over the bath and

14:27won't kind of drip down it's also really handy for when we're washing purse and we

14:32can push this back so he's got more space to kind of dry off we can dry him off

14:36with a towel before he gets out and does zoomies around the apartment oh my gosh

14:41this pilea is so happy he's like doubled in size in the last few months alone

14:46just by being in the bathroom from the office we come into the bedroom the old

14:50design was we had a bedroom door here in the corner of the room with the bed

14:55sort of sitting just in front of the doorway which we weren't that keen on so

14:59we've taken that door off rebuilt this wall and put it in a pocket door system

15:04to give us a bit more space we were keen to center the doorway so that we could

15:11have clothes storage on both sides we've offset the door a little bit to the right

15:17that's for a couple of reasons one it gives us some extra hanging space that

15:21we'll see when we go into the bedroom but also it gives us more wall over this

15:25side for the pocket cavity that little door has to slide into we've put in some

15:30walk-through wardrobes which are actually just like Ikea pack systems Pete has a

15:37side and then I have a side if you are opening a door you're locking someone

15:42else out of a room so in just having like a sliding curtain you've never got the

15:46pressure of opening and closing a door on someone else like as you're both you

15:52know getting dressed in the morning or getting ready to go out we both just

15:54have a few drawers our shoes on top here although we might be borrowing the

16:00sliding pullout drawer for shoes that we saw in one of your other videos and then

16:05like high-level storage for the things that we don't access very often from my

16:09side it doesn't need to be rare access items just having a little bit more reach

16:15than Celeste does I can I can reach my shoes up on the top shelf we pushed it out

16:20from this kind of external wall here to give ourselves hanging space for coats

16:26dresses suit bags we can kind of hide things that we don't need very often

16:32he also put in a handy little hook for me to hang my hairdryer so that when I can

16:37kind of dry my hair every day in front of the mirror that's just there ready and

16:41plugged in this is an amazing kind of fine it's just a gym mirror it does reflect

16:45the curtain so the room feels really soft but like quite long Percy's already

16:49nibbled a little hole in the bottom of this one we also built a built-in headboard

16:54it gives us some nice little storage space to put things on top and also made

16:59it a lot easier with putting in these bedside lights and some extra power

17:03sockets next to the bed we have these beautiful original pieces of art these

17:08drawings which were completed by Lodermonteith the architects who helped us

17:13with the plan I think these were just like early day sketches of how the flat

17:17could work potentially they kind of look a little bit like Mondrian almost it's such

17:22a nice memento of the house we've got Percy's dog bed next to the bed in here it

17:27never used to be in the bedroom it was always out in the lounge room and then when

17:31we were renovating and the flat was a mess we always tried to keep the bedroom

17:36fairly clean and so we moved his crate in here it's never never left yeah so now he

17:41sleeps in there every night next to us I have grand plans to do a timber crate one

17:47of the next projects one of the next ones once we've got over this one sometimes in

17:51the morning Percy if we're feeling particularly lazy and we don't want to

17:54walk out to the other door in the lounge room we just let Percy out from here

17:59it's a really nice way to get air through in the summer as well but yeah

18:02definitely also in the warmer months when you wake up and it's quite warm in the

18:06flat it's nice to just be able to open the windows just let a bit of fresh air in in

18:11the

18:11mornings we were sort of looking for a year before we purchased or found this

18:16apartment and it was under budget for for what we'd been looking for to the other

18:20places we were looking at were all bigger flats but didn't have the

18:24backyard space like this one does we thought we were making a big compromise by

18:29taking a smaller flat but getting a backyard as a trade-off now that we have the

18:34one bed plus study space or office space with the garden I don't think that we

18:38could have found anything better for us got our little outdoor space got a bit

18:44of work to go still this summer to replace the deck it's getting a bit

18:47rotten in places but this is a space that we use a lot in the warmer months we

18:52often say that he's a different dog living here when we first got the keys to

18:56the apartment we let Percy off the lead like in the front door and he just ran

19:00straight out to this space when we open the door and I just like kind of knew in

19:05that moment we'd made the right decision this is embarrassing of how excited I

19:09am about the clothesline but we have a retractable clothesline this was another

19:14fairly early addition when we moved in to be able to have somewhere to hang our

19:18clothes outside in the warmer months it makes such a difference to be able to

19:22like keep the tight the the flat like tidy in the house tidy it's so cool I

19:27think Celeste has the kind of design brain and I for working out what the end

19:34product should look like and then I've got the logic side of it with working out

19:39you know what's going to fit and how big things need to be and getting all

19:43dimensions and all that sort of stuff projects go over budget and people

19:48become stressed when there's like a really hard deadline and I think because

19:51we didn't have one the project was more enjoyable I think in the long run for

19:55us having done the DIY ourselves we just wanted it finished for ourselves I

20:01look around the apartment and I feel really proud that we've been able to do

20:05this over the last year certainly whenever there's imperfections I think

20:08I'm happier to live with it but I know that it was me it was me it was the best

20:12I

20:12could do yeah the best we could do that's true that wonky corner that's on us and

20:17that's fine maybe that's just part of the character

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended