How a Neurodivergent Couple Designed Their Small DIY Amsterdam Home, 54sqm/581sqft

Never Too Small

Issue 6 of NTS Magazine is here. Explore design, architecture, and enduring ideas. Get your copy now: https://www.nts-store.com/  Home to Pedro and Asia and their dog Lupe, Casa Koala is a small, protective “nest” shaped around daily rituals, sensory comfort, and the way they actually live. Colour, texture, and familiar objects help regulate the day, and every decision earns its place. Mornings begin in the kitchen, seated together at a long, narrow table made from a recycled tabletop, paired with repurposed toy boxes that double as seating and storage. Downstairs, the living area is designed for rest, with a sound-insulating carpet, oversized plush sofa and soft lighting. Upstairs, the home shifts into studio mode, where an attic-like workspace embraces awkward nooks and leftover materials, turning them into shelves, desks, and tool storage for Asia’s illustration work. Thoughtful choices in the bedroom and bathroom, - including hidden laundry, a painted headboard, and under-bed storage - keep daily life simple and uncluttered.  00:00-01:33 Introduction 01:33-02:32 Entrance 02:32-04:26 Kitchen 04:26-08:25 Dining Area 08:25-11:05 Living Area 11:05-14:34 Studio  14:34-15:45 Bathroom 15:45-18:16 Bedroom 18:16-18:52 Conclusion  To see more inside the apartment https://www.nevertoosmall.com/post/how-a-creative-couple-live-and-work-in-small-amsterdam-loft  #smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign   How I Live Small Ep.14 Project Name: Casa Koala Owners: Asia Orlando  https://youtube.com/@AsiaOrlando  https://www.instagram.com/asiaorlando_  Pedro Orlando https://youtube.com/@OrlandoPedro  https://www.instagram.com/orlandopedro_   Produced by New Mac Video Agency Creator: Colin Chee Producer: Lindsay Barnard Director & Cinematographer: https://www.instagram.com/namtran.me Editor: Jessica Ruasol Music: Artlist.io Nightingale by The Likes of Us Lakeside Cafe by WOOLFSON Daida by Yoav Shlomov Cottage pie by Just For Kicks POST BLOOM by Skygaze Morning Gloss by megks Safe Space by Loya Dream Loop by Ariel Shalom Date Night on a Ferris Wheel by Elifas Sonaru  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

00:01We make this house very functional in a way. It really well reflects what we do

00:08and how we move within the house during our days. This is like a smaller but

00:14every space is ours. It's like let's imagine that we are tiny animals and

00:20this is our nest. That's how we see it. I'm Pedro, I work in finance and also

00:27startup founder. This is my wife. I'm Asha and I work as an illustrator. And then we

00:32have our small dog which is Lupe, our baby. We call this house Casa Koala because

00:39that's my nickname. We moved to the Netherlands I think six years ago. We

00:48bought our first house. We didn't do much. This big pandemic was hitting and we had

00:52to work from home. We had to readapt our environments and that's when we start

00:56thinking about that. Maybe we should buy a new place and just do something new.

01:00For us, being in the spectrum, she and I were quite alike in that. The stimulus of

01:06color has to be very present. Whatever you surround yourself with has a huge

01:11impact on you. Especially on us because on the whole spectrum thing. What we see

01:15when we open our eyes, what we see when we do everyday stuff, it all impacts us and

01:22affects us. There's only so many things that you can control. And so we wanted to

01:26control those things that we actually can change or can decide on.

01:33We are in the entrance of our house. We leave our shoes outside most of the time. We have a

01:38small drawer. But here we leave our clothes. This is my cabinet. And then we have ashes on this side,

01:45which is hats and winter jackets and stuff like that. And all the bags and the backpacks.

01:50I usually leave all my hat in this cat. Like you see a pile of hats because I collect

01:55cups and of course plants everywhere. And a small mirror because sometimes you want to

02:00live and you want to make sure that you don't have anything weird going on.

02:04The furniture we also had custom made to fit well the space, to be very narrow and also to be

02:11pretty

02:13short so that once again we do not block the light coming in from the windows.

02:17Yeah and something if you see inside you see that we are hanging

02:20vertical not this way because it has a low profile. So we can put our stuff

02:24like packed a lot without having to occupy like probably 60 centimeters more.

02:34This is our kitchen. We designed it to just follow this one shape. We do not have any

02:40island, any extra cabinets. When we bought the place actually the fridge was on the other side

02:46and we have a big extractor here and the wall was filled with cabinets. The countertop is actually

02:53pretty deep so that we have some extra storage space. We have extra space to work. It's not a big

02:59kitchen

02:59but it's comfortable. The countertop being able to use recycled materials, it was something very

03:06important to us. Those are literally pieces of kitchen appliances that were just sent to a landfill

03:12all molded together. Inside we have Ikea kitchen cabinets with the custom made fronts that add a

03:20little bit of texture to the kitchen. This is the dishwasher that is a storage. This one is tea and

03:27some coffee stuff. This one is probably some food. This one is big items like my proteins, my creatine,

03:35all this stuff. Also our kitchenware is very eclectic. We don't buy sets. Yeah, we just go to

03:42somewhere. We also always think about what are the things that we actually need if we really need

03:48another plate. Except for mugs. Except for mugs. We always need another mug. We have all of this is all

03:53mugs. I only have that mug. That's my mug. Yeah, but all of the lamps are yours. I'm a lamp

03:58guy.

03:59Here should be another cabinet so it all should be fitting perfectly but the problem is that wall is

04:04kind of a bit curved so we lost this small cabinet that was here. But this fits perfectly here. We

04:11have a lot of spices when we cook. There is no gas pipes so all of this kitchen is electric,

04:17the oven

04:17is electric, the water purification is electric as well. Everything that is here is things that we

04:23literally use every day. There's a story behind this bin. When we moved here to the Netherlands, the first

04:29apartment that we fell in love with, well you did, I didn't, had exactly this bin. Later on I spent

04:37I

04:37think two months regretting the place that we lost. We decided to recreate the look and the first and

04:42the only thing that we bought from inspired by this first apartment was the yellow bin. It's very old,

04:48it should be replaced but I still have a huge sentiment for it so it will stay there.

04:54This is where we have like most of the fun in the house so every morning like I say we

04:59have this

05:00ritual where I make breakfast, we sit in front of each other no clutter, sometimes maybe a phone if

05:05we're doing something but we we have a conversation, we have our breakfast, our coffee and then we go off

05:11to to work. We always say this is my spot and this is your spot and that's Lupe's spots.

05:19We don't have visit often but we made it so if we have visits they can sit, probably six or

05:25seven

05:25eight people can sit here. We brought this one from the other apartment, this piece of wood being

05:31refurbished. It was a door and then was my desk and now is again my kitchen table.

05:37And it's also once again perfect because it's narrow and long. It gives us enough space without actually

05:42taking it away from us. The legs are new, we like to mix kind of different materials because last house

05:49that we had it was too much wood so we said okay let's bring some color and metal. The whole

05:57storage

05:58bench situation is actually a very comfortable sitting and a lot of storage room. Pedro doing

06:03his research because that's another thing that he's very good in, he found those children toy boxes that

06:09were actually the perfect size. This cushion is this thick to accommodate for the for the height

06:17of the boxes which aren't that high as we would like them to be. Those are our shoes that we

06:23don't

06:23use currently, Christmas decoration, once again Lupe's stuff and a lot of shopping bags. We decide to

06:29some point we we get bored thing and we can just move them around. This is Lupe's corner where we

06:36store

06:36all these toys and she has too many of them. And this is the storage also for her. I have

06:42a degree

06:43designing spaces and in interior architecture and fine arts but actually the person who took over

06:49when organizing and planning this space was Pedro. On the planning we were sitting together and just

06:56trying to figure out the best way. We had the the blueprints certified by a professional. This house

07:03one we bought it was completely different. We did everything from scratch. With some construction

07:07guy we turned the walls down and then we put everything back together. That was really scary

07:12and stressful for me. She's really great at like good taste I would say. Thank you. Right and she puts

07:19me in a direction and then I start like going through the rabbit hole.

07:28What does a magazine look like when you jam it full of intoxicating Greekness, Dreamlike Logic,

07:33Compeggi's convertible creations, Roboty sculptures, Jaime Hion's contagious creative compulsions,

07:39intimate home portraits from Japan, and Enzo Mari inspired creatures? Well it looks like this,

07:44and this, and this, and this, this, this, and this. And it includes sexy as hell small apartments from

07:52Amsterdam, Athens, and Milan too. As well as a spectacular archive of stickers and labels telling

07:58stories of design histories. And it also features the 100% definitive and scientifically proven principles

08:04of timeless design. Disclaimer, not 100% definitive or scientifically proven. Wait, there's more.

08:09There is a salami factory turned art museum, and there are very un-kitcheny kitchens, laundries,

08:15legacies, mythology, and some seriously hot pots. Oh my. Get your copy now.

08:26This is our living area. It's one of my favorite, if not my favorite part of the house. We have

08:32this

08:32carpet that is especially to isolate the sound of the floor even further because most of the afternoon

08:38we spend together here and watch a movie so we make sure that it doesn't bother the neighbors.

08:43It's a big couch. It's like a bed-sized couch. It came from another house that we had. We didn't

08:49change it. Even the sofa was a decision that we made based on how it would make our skin feel.

08:55It's

08:55very soft to the touch. This is the reading spot. The light is perfect. It's kind of hidden so that

09:02it

09:02doesn't you know butter anyone. It's very simple. It's Ikea. It's just basically here for me to read.

09:09This is a nickname she got from me when we met because of my nose. So you look like Koala.

09:14Fine.

09:14That was my 43rd birthday. It will deflate and they will probably fold it and keep it as a memento.

09:22This is an Ikea. I don't remember who is it. I think it's a Dutch designer, right? This was a

09:27very

09:28limited edition. It was a run in the European countries. I don't know if anywhere else they

09:33had it. This is our kind of picnic blanket that we keep inside. It's a big one. We don't have

09:40a

09:40balcony. So this is our solution. We just go to the park and organize a small picnic. This is the

09:46TV

09:46area. I made this custom in a website that does custom furniture. The problems I forgot to

09:53rearrange the ratios. So the actual PlayStation was supposed to be fitting here. It doesn't fit.

09:57You cannot see it, but it's sitting behind. This is a wall that we want to put here for security

10:03because I'm very clumsy. The options were like a wood thing or just do glass. Glass doesn't let the

10:08space breathe. And this was a perfect solution. This is like a 60 kilos hand-wheeled kind of mesh. We

10:17are now in the second floor. I had to rent basically a cable and just myself put it through the

10:22windows.

10:23There is this option in the Lego store where you can design a little you. There was no Lego head

10:30for

10:30a man with beard. So I had to paint that on. I had a very vivid dream that I was

10:35a ukulele prodigy.

10:37So I wanted to get one for myself and see if that's the reality. It's not. But I will keep

10:43on trying

10:43until, you know, I will get there. When we were looking down the stairs from the top,

10:49it was all white. In the Netherlands, the stairs are not regular. They are quite steep. So if you

10:55look at the white stairs going down, it's quite scary. And we wanted to add some color. It's very

11:00soothing. It's very, it's very warm. I think we love it. It's one of one of our favorite parts.

11:06So right now we are in our studio. This is where we work. This is where we spend most of

11:11our days.

11:12The funny thing when we moved, this was not here. So I just went and do it. So I bought

11:18the wood and

11:18I just put it together. It's not perfect. It does the job basically preventing me from falling through

11:23the hole. Something that I love about old houses is all those weird little nooks and crannies that you've

11:29got. And this is like a little shelf that was already here because all the pipes run through

11:36there. This is where all my books basically ended up. All of these construction elements,

11:42they weren't visible when we, when we got the space. And we also freed up this window up there

11:49because it was, you know, it was, it wasn't visible. So it was illuminating the space that nobody was using.

11:55This was before covered, but it was like an attic. We decided to leave that space for a storage,

12:01which is like a huge space over the kind of the bedroom. And we put all our stuff inside.

12:07Most of the furniture here is really simple. Sometimes my work can be messy and I just, you know,

12:12touch stuff with dirty hands with paint. So we just wanted to have this, this, this freedom of if

12:18something gets dirty, then, you know, it would just stay this way and we are okay with it. This is

12:23where

12:23most of my art materials are. There is a lot of sketchbooks, color pencils, cables, computers on

12:32the other side. Basically, it's like a small art shop. I know that I shouldn't visit one for a very

12:37long time because I have everything I could ever need in here. Well, I'm the illustrator behind this

12:43book and all of the books that you can see here on the shelves. This is what I do for

12:48my work.

12:51I always check out the neighborhood trash because people throw out all sorts of things and sometimes

12:57they're really interesting. I found a candle holder. It was just this main shape. It was brown. I sanded it,

13:04painted it. My idea was to create a lion or a tiger jumping through the ring of fire.

13:13My desk is pretty simple. It's pretty narrow. It's perfect for computer work. This is where I illustrate

13:18and draw with my tablet. The desks are the leftovers from the kitchen countertop. All the manual stuff

13:25where I do need space and really spread out of all my materials and it might get dirty, I go

13:32to the

13:32kitchen table. This is where all the rest of my messy stuff is. So all the papers, all the paints.

13:41The previous owner asked us what if there was anything that we wanted from the from the previous

13:47space that they had here and the only thing that I chose to keep were the plants. So actually they

13:52they've lived here longer than than we have. Dutch people are huge like not compared to me but literally huge.

14:01I think one of the tallest if not the tallest people in Europe live in the Netherlands. That means that

14:05the stairs have a lot of head space that I don't need and you don't need either. So what we

14:10did, we

14:11shortened the stairs. So this space is all recovered. This gave us also a good transit that was not here

14:19before. You don't have to go all the way around. It doesn't look like much but it's like one meter

14:23extra in Amsterdam is interesting. It's all the space that we can actually use and we do use it.

14:33Here we have the bathroom. We basically redid everything in the house. The only thing that

14:40remains from the bathroom is this kind of black thing that I love. We brought these amazing terrasse

14:46panels from Italy. It took us a while. We decided to put the washing machine here. So we designed

14:53this cabinet to have it hidden. It's not like chubby as the other one. It's 45 centimeters

14:58in depth. This window can be opened this way and also can be a tiny bit open that way.

15:03That's why when we designed this we didn't make it to reach to this point otherwise the window would

15:09not be able to be open. For this corner was quite the challenge. Before in the in the old apartment

15:15there was here a small basin and we decided to put the bigger one. We also put like what we

15:20need on

15:21on a shelf on the side. This is one of my biggest mistakes and it was making it blue. It

15:25gets dirty

15:26quite often. The mirror that we put here makes the bathroom feel bigger. Those tiles, the combination of

15:32those tiles and the terrazzo and the white was something that we planned ahead for a long time and we

15:37had to

15:37bring those from I think those are from Spain because it was the only one they had the actual terracotta

15:43color that we wanted.

15:45Right in front of the staircase and next to the studio we can go into the bedroom. I think this

15:52is

15:52actually the simplest room of them all. This is where we did minimal changes to really.

16:01We brought in our very old wardrobes. This is where all of our clothes live. We custom made for our

16:10old house 120 kilos and around 90 kilos of pure wood. This is again a polish brand that does this

16:17furniture. This was coming as is. This one we asked them to break it in half so this was staying

16:24in the

16:24living room. The same as we have the green one now and those two were in the in the bedroom.

16:30We really wanted a bed with a headboard but because of the slanted walls once again it was hard to

16:37find

16:37one that would fit the dimensions of the space so we decided finally to paint like a small fraction of

16:44the wall to serve us visually as a headboard. Pedro said he didn't really have a steady hand when painting

16:51it. We decided to finish it with a small trim. And we used a double tape to put it. I

16:57would prefer to have

16:58space under the bed but we opted for extra storage. This is where we keep towels and bed sheets. Without

17:07it

17:07it would be just harder to store all those things that you do not use every day but you need

17:12an easy access to.

17:14At the bottom of the bed this is where Lupe sleeps with us. That's her little house.

17:21This is a little French balcony situation. This isn't really a balcony you can walk onto and just

17:29I don't know enjoy your coffee but it does give you some extra space when we want to open the

17:34window and

17:34just you know having the nature right outside on this typical dutch patio is actually a very nice situation.

17:41This is one of those curtains that are blackout curtains. This detail we bought it for our previous,

17:50for my previous studio. I think it's original purpose to hang maybe handbags, purses, jackets on it.

17:55But right now it works out pretty well as a curtain holder. It's a very small window. This one in

18:01this

18:01case is a single glass. Normally we block it out also so that you know the light in the morning

18:07early

18:07doesn't come through. Honestly with the old laptop case. I don't know if I would call it a hack but

18:15it

18:15works. Our space is very much ours. All the parts really work. If we cut off one part we will

18:24miss it.

18:24If I had this room and I removed all the colour and the light probably I wouldn't feel comfortable

18:30or relaxed. I would maybe feel tense. It's very important for us to see all those small details

18:37where we are living and give us comfort. Sign up to our newsletter for subscriber only content

18:44and exclusive offers. Visit nevertosmall.com slash subscribe.

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