Our client, a ceramicist, wanted room to work from home and space for a growing daughter — without the flat feeling new. The brief fitted on a napkin: more light, less clutter, keep the soul.

Two walls, gone

The corridor was the problem. By removing two non-structural walls we pulled courtyard light deep into the plan and turned three cramped rooms into one generous living space.

We kept the original oak floors and plaster cornices, repairing rather than replacing, so the flat still sounds and smells like a 1920s home.

One wall that does everything

A single run of oiled oak joinery now hides storage, a fold-down desk, the pantry and a small clay shelf for drying pots. Closed, it is calm; open, it is a working studio.

1. Storage for everything that used to sit on the floor.

2. A desk that disappears at six o’clock.

3. A pantry behind the kitchen wall, not in it.

Fourteen weeks later

The family moved back in two days before Christmas. The light reaches the back wall at three in the afternoon, which, in Aarhus in December, feels like a small miracle.