Make your home feel bigger without extending

telegraph.co.uk:

De Rosee Sa to help her redesign the apartment into a functional and beautiful family home, and maximise every inch of space.Updating the entrance hall, so that the flat feels spacious and sophisticated the moment you step through the door, was key to their approach.

Previously a cluttered corridor painted a nondescript shade of off-white, it has been given a smart new look with the installation of elegant panelling and a coat of rich blue paint (Oval Room Blue by Farrow & Ball), which covers the skirting boards, the door architraves and the back of the front door, enhancing the ceiling height and the overall sense of space.

A doorway to the left, which previously opened on to a tiny kitchen, now leads to what Souyioultzi calls “the hardest-working two square metres in London” – a utility area with a laundry cupboard on one side of the doorway, and a little built-in boot room on the other, complete with a storage bench, concealed cupboards above for coats, shoes, boots and bike helmets, and hooks for bags on the front of the cupboard doors.It may be a small area, but it’s an important one that has transformed the way the hallway and the rest of the flat is used.

As Stevenson says: “When all the family come in together, and you’ve got coats and boots spread everywhere, this little zone really hides all that clutter.”“Friends often ask ‘How is your place so tidy?’” adds Souyioultzi, “and the answer is actually that there’s a place for everything to go.