Previous State
Parents of three children rented a private house in the Sharon district. They became attached to it, and understood its potential, so they decided to purchase it and adapt it to their family outlook. Over and beyond its poor maintenance, the house that was built on a narrow and long plot gave a feeling of coldness and constriction because of the small windows, old plastic shutters, and verandas that were inaccessible from the living area. Typical of rented houses, the lack of planned and structured storage caused the place to be cluttered with furniture which formed a suffocating environment.
Dream State
Our clients dreamed of a bright house, aerated and attached to the garden that surrounded it. But along with this they stressed that it was important to conserve a feeling of privacy from the road. The family of three children had a busy schedule of courses, and everything related to them, which obliged them to think extensively about creating storage space that would suit the daily schedule at home.
Each family that I work with has a different life style which is important for me to understand, because with respect to the principles of design, life is larger than that, and if we do not take into account first and foremost planning convenient and suitable solutions for daily living, design will very quickly become a mess. Added to the parents’ dreams was the children’s wish for a basket for training, and convenient parking for bikes in the garden.
The main aim was to balance between the love of the client for minimalistic and modern design with the love of the wife for a full and warm atmosphere with lots of happiness and pastel colors. I chose as the basis a terrazzo?? floor with a grey concrete polish and light grey walls that would offset the combination of the future planned colorfulness.
At the entrance level, by forgoing a closed office space that was adjacent to the kitchen enabled the kitchen’s increase in size, providing space for putting in a dining room table in the center. Previous to this the table was at the other side of the house, a large distance from the kitchen, and was therefore used only occasionally.
The working space of the kitchen is designed in an L shape. At the southern wall, removing the window to be replaced by a full wall of cupboards and electrical appliances, added significantly to the storage space. As compensation, the window that was adjacent to the dining area was enlarged. On the other side of the table there is a big wall of cupboards that contains designed storage space for all options – school bags and books for the children who prefer doing their lessons in the kitchen, coats, serving plates, a place for the i-robot and more. In the center of the cupboard are open shelves for the collection of the owner’s colorful plates.
The entrance to the house that was an integral part of the design did not change, but instead of closed walls, the opening of a vista to the lounge via a big glass window and the changing of the standard closed door with a door made of iron and glass enabled a lot of light to enter the house and contributed to the free flowing feeling. In order to establish a hierarchy, the entrance door was painted pastel green, as distinguished from the rest of the doors of the house. When you open the door you can see the central wall with a console and Ofry Merom’s great work of art.
The lounge doubled its size due to the fact that the dining area was moved to center of the kitchen. The entire northern wall that faced the garden was removed and in its place comes a complete façade of iron Belgian doors that form a connection between the inside and outside, and bring the garden into the home. Throughout the entire house are electric blinds that give privacy and enable screening the light. Two narrow and low windows on either side of the couch frame it and give an added “green” view of the garden as well as draw your attention to the works of art above it. On the opposite side, an external opening that was accessed from the garden without any purpose was united with the central space and becomes an intimate office space that enables working in a quiet atmosphere without disturbing or being disturbed. A big window brightens it with a soft northern light and transforms it to a quiet place full of inspiration. Next to it is a low and long cabinet along the entire wall, which adds an abundance of practical storage space.
The guest bathroom at the entrance to the house is embellished with a concrete designed floor and has a wide cupboard that the children use for brushing their teeth after meals.
On the living floor, the room of the daughter was extended by the addition of a veranda adjacent to the opening, making it a work space. She chose turquoise as the central motif for her room. A cabinet showcase serves as storage space and displays all the collections and books that are particularly liked, and a simple look becomes magical with the help of strings of floral lights.
The sons’ rooms are in a quiet monochromatic shade, which leaves them room to express themselves.
A computer corner common to the childrens’ rooms encourages interaction.
In the parents’ room a space was added that was previously orphaned. The shower to the left of the entrance is open to the room enhancing the feeling of depth. An abundance of clothing cupboards fill the space without burdening it and provide an answer to the owner’s request to having a lot of storage space.
A comfortable life behooves easy operations. In order to achieve this we need to create a house that gives the feeling that we don’t need to work for it but rather that it works for us. A mess is simply a waste of energy, a feeling all the time of a lack of control. Just think about how much time you spend looking for things, or doing assignments that do not have a defined space allotted to them, or how much energy is required to continually mentally repress the feeling of load and distress a mess generates. Together with this, we do not live in a museum, and the natural flow of life is a prerequisite, therefore we aspire to a surrounding that gives us a natural feeling of order through finding articles in their natural place and the different activities that occur happen with a minimum of effort and maximum pleasure. In the general bathroom there is a concrete floor designed in shades of grey and aged yellow and was chosen as pleasant and not tiresome, such that the children can enjoy it and that it would remain relevant for any age. A high storage cupboard with slatted doors contains the washing machine and cleaning materials leaving the room organized and pleasant.
The cellar is the children’s empire, full of games and with a television corner. This is a dynamic space that is constantly changing and in which the modular sitting corner is not only used for sitting but also for games, where the children take apart, change, or pile up the cushions and build houses and castles. When friends come to sleep over, the cushions are spread out over the room and turn the room into one big bed. Seeing that in a wide ranging house many functions are included for the children’s use, starting with the games’ cellar, continuing to the computer corner and ending with the sports area in the garden, there was no need to clutter the children’s rooms and they are spacious without too many things. The central space of the living area was extended by closing the space above the entrance below and transformed into a common computer corner.
Planning and choosing of finishing materials create a perfect background for the owners’ works of art. Each work of art is of personal significance to the owners, expands their hearts and livens their spirit. They fill the room with color, content and personal flavor. This is the house of a warm and close family, and it was designed with the children close in mind without it detracting from the parents’ taste and style. The result is a harmonious house full of life and action.
