00:03My philosophy when it comes to designing small spaces is to iterate until it feels right.
00:09It also helps a lot if you live in the space and can really try out what works for you.
00:15My name is Koen Vrijman and I love to make things.
00:19I've made sculptures for light at festivals, I've made exhibitions
00:24and I've also made most of the things you can see around here.
00:28I live in this loft with my girlfriend Vadim and our cat Sok.
00:39In the 90s the municipality of Amsterdam transformed this district.
00:45All the houses could be built without any aesthetical restrictions.
00:48So all the houses in the street look completely different.
00:52This apartment building was finished in 1998.
00:55This unit was owned by my mother and we decided to buy it from her and renovate it by ourselves.
01:04The loft is 45 square meters.
01:08We fell in love with a high ceiling, big windows opening up to the waterfront and the playfulness of the
01:14layout.
01:15In this space there is a loft floor where you could sleep on.
01:18On the lower floor there was a kitchen and a living space.
01:22We added a kitchen island to the kitchen.
01:26We built a frame around the bed.
01:28We also extended the terrace by having a floating deck.
01:38The entrance is pretty small so we try to keep it clean and clear.
01:41So you can look straight through the house and see the water.
01:45The coats are hung in a cabinet around the corner so they are not in the way when entering or
01:50leaving the house.
01:53There is a mirror above the door to bounce the light around in this corner of the apartment.
01:58The ceiling light in the hall came from Turkey.
02:01I found it in an abandoned factory in Istanbul and brought it home in my hand luggage.
02:06The shoes are stored in a cabinet on the loft floor which also blocks the line of sight into the
02:12sleeping area.
02:14There are some pretty big plants in the living room area.
02:17Our windows are all facing the south so there is plenty of light coming in.
02:23The thing I am most proud of is the TV.
02:26We suspended it by a rail on the ceiling so it can be moved back and forth.
02:31When it is placed on the wall there is actually a sculpture on the back of it.
02:38The eye-catcher of the living room is the pink cabinet backed by green tiles.
02:43The cabinet stores a lot of stuff and features a hidden desk and a hiding place for our cat.
02:51The left side doubles as a scratching surface which was a great idea at the time but in reality she
02:57prefers to scratch our couch.
02:59We placed the green tiles ourselves and one of the hidden gems is the tile in the corner which was
03:06made by us.
03:07It features our own signatures.
03:10We like the simpleness and the calmness of the original grey kitchen.
03:14So we decided to keep it and extend it with a kitchen aisle.
03:18My girlfriend loves to cook and spices are really important.
03:21So we made a huge spice rack above the kitchen aisle.
03:25This is an actual street lamp which we got from the municipality.
03:28We converted it to the kitchen light.
03:31The washing machine used to be in the kitchen.
03:34We moved it to the bathroom to make space for a dishwasher.
03:41The round table is a nice contrast to all the other square furniture in the house.
03:46Normally it doesn't take up too much space but extended it can host up to 8 people.
03:55The bed is surrounded by a set of curtains.
03:58These help with keeping the mosquitoes and light out and it can create a separate zone when sleeping.
04:04We have two smaller electric roller blinds deflecting some of the sunlight on sunny days over privacy.
04:10We only had one remote.
04:11We made a playful solution to have the remote accessible from each area in the house.
04:17We have floor to ceiling mirrors on our wardrobes for a more spacious feeling and extra light.
04:23The light switches are located in the entrance which is very inconvenient when you are lying in bed.
04:29Luckily I had a huge industrial switch laying around which I had found in an abandoned factory in Belgium.
04:36I made an open drying cabinet which has plenty of room for our wet clothes.
04:41It also doubles as a room divider.
04:46The bathroom is next to the hall.
04:48I found a small washing machine that could squeeze into our bathroom.
04:52After figuring out how to install the water pipes I also built a custom cabinet around the washing machine.
04:57A very neat feature of our bathroom cabinet is the integrated litter box for our cat.
05:07We expanded the outdoor space by building a floating terrace.
05:15This was a very challenging build because we had to build it indoor.
05:18Then partly deassemble it, move it around the central column and then reassemble it outside again.
05:29The style here, it's a combination of many personal things.
05:33For example, things I found like the switches, the lights.
05:38Trying to keep everything neat, so having a lot of dressers and things to tuck things away.
05:43I like to make things myself.
05:45And that really creates a certain style.
05:49It's a really combination of existing elements.
05:53That's how the style here evolved.
05:55The style there evolved.
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