Heart of oak
Limited space in this apartment’s upper floor called for an innovative approach
to providing maximum storage for the bathroom and two bedrooms
Above: Cantero Architecture’s
renovation of the first floor of this
terraced home makes the most of
views to a courtyard and private
garden at the back of the house,
while an innovative approach to
storage provides a more efficient use
of the limited space available.
Facing page: The bathroom’s wet
area containing the bath tub and
shower also takes in garden views.
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While original inner city homes certainly have
location in their favour, they usually made poor
use of the limited available space inside, and
this included having poor storage options. This
was particularly so in bedrooms and bathrooms.
Resolving these issues often requires some
‘outside the box’ thinking, which is what archi-
tect Inmaculada Cantero Tamayo applied to the
renovation project shown here.
The central Amsterdam apartment is in a
terraced residential building, with its typically
deep and narrow interior layout.
But the building did have views on both
sides – out to the street at the front and to a
courtyard and private garden at the back.
“Having a strong connection to the exterior
was a key concept in the renovation of the upper
level,” says Cantero Tamayo. “Plus the aim was
to optimise use of the existing rooms and to
create a lot of cleverly integrated storage space.”
Large windows allow the bedroom at each
end of the floor to connect to its view, while
Tamayo designed what she refers to as the ‘oak
heart’ in between these two rooms.
“This is a large walk-in closet that connects
visually and spatially with the bedrooms on