On the left is the before floorplan, the apartment as we purchased it, and on the right is the after floorplan, drawn up by our architect, Jan Portier of Silo Architecture. You'll notice right away that the main feature of his new design is the introduction of a central hallway. Previously, you had to pass through all the rooms marked 2 hal before you could turn either right, to the living room, or left, into the kitchen.

We created this hallway by eliminating one of the WC's and by opening a few walls. The hallway is made even longer by the introduction of a new wall in the kitchen. This wall has two effects: it places the bedroom entrance in the hallway, not through the kitchen; and it pushes entry to the kitchen itself back through the dining area. This throws attention on to the dining table, and hides most of the kitchen away in a corner. All the appliances, except the stove, are now lining a nook instead of being spread across an entire wall.

Another benefit of the central hallway is that it allows access to the right-most 2hal to be closed off at the top and bottom, to become a study and storage area. We've kept a small window into the living room to let in natural light.

The remaining WC was enlarged so that knees won't scrape on the door, and the remaining space from the bedroom was remade into a single walk-in closet.

The deck terrace is still there, but isn't drawn on the after blueprints. We added a layer of rubber under the new wooden deck and it's quite pleasant in the summer.