Contemporary dining room and kitchen

APARTMENT P – RENOVATION AND INCREASING THE NUMBER OF ROOMS

Kreativci Interior

Project manager: Andrej Kregar

Year of the project: 2021

Designers at Kreatif Design have successfully renovated an old 1960s apartment in Ljubljana.
By taking a closer look at what might seem like a simple renovation of a conventional flat, we can witness the power of professional design and good planning. Despite the number of load-bearing walls, we managed to transform a two-room flat into a three-room one, which increased its value.

Our slogan at Kreatif design is ”Make a difference”, and this is what we did. After hearing our client’s wishes, we didn’t stop at the first possible, conventional variant; instead, we researched all possible layouts and found a different solution. By adding a room, which can be rented or transformed into a kid’s room, we created a flexible apartment suitable for students or families.

VISUALIZATIONS

FINAL PRODUCT

We met the client in the apartment when it was still in its original condition; it was built and furnished in the 1970s. The apartment had mainly original equipment and layout: a separate kitchen and living room and a long hallway. This was a very common floor plan at the time. At the first meeting the client explained that he wants to renovate the apartment for his children, so they could study in Ljubljana. With the idea that we are designing an apartment that will be given another function when the children finish faculty (possibly for the family or for renting), we prepared several floor plans and client decided on a two-bedroom option. With this creative solution, we enabled a student to rent a room, and later the apartment can be easily transformed into an apartment suitable for a family.

During the renovation, we demolished all the non-load-bearing walls and made quite unusual move when we changed the position of the bathroom, which is usually almost impossible in a block of flats. Fortunately, we quickly gained the trust of the client, who believed that our idea could be implemented. So we demolished the whole bathroom and made a kitchen in this area, and now kitchen stands in the part where the pantry used to be.

Older apartments are generally less thermally insulated, so we decided to additionally insulate the entire floor. Due to the additional insulation, we did not want to lose height, so we covered the entire apartment with multi-layer reflective insulation, which is 7 mm thick. In such cases, high-tech thin-layer insulation is very welcome, as it allows us to renovate old buildings, while providing the comfort we desire.  

It’s interesting that at the beginning of the project we designed the kitchen in the shape of the letter U, but during the project we had to turn it for 180 °. Namely, during the removal of the bathroom wall, it turned out that there is a “vertical” pipe for heating all the bathrooms on the upper floors. In our case, this pipe runs through the middle of the new kitchen space. Since this cannot be easily reworked, and in addition, it is necessary to obtain the consent of the neighbors, we decided to turn the kitchen around. We placed a “camouflage” pillar in it, which hid both pipes in the middle of the room. With this, we also gain the option for additional shelves for salt pans and a plant that perfectly brightens up the space. Despite the really small floor plan of the kitchen, it has everything that large ones have: a refrigerator, a hob, a hood, a sink with a drainer and even a dishwasher.

EXISTING PLAN

CHOSEN PLAN – STUDENT APARTMENT WITH EXTRA ROOM

LARGE LIVING ROOM OPTION

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