Sleeping Nooks
Nestled within a 15th-century building, this fresco-lined apartment is characterised by its unique, exposed walls discovered under decade-old layers of paint by architecture and design firm Archiplanstudio during the renovation. The team decided to honour the peculiarities of the walls by creating a central cube to house the bed. Almost counterintuitively, this central bedroom actually helps to add visual depth to the space by layering the views from both the bed and the living room. The cube itself contains a double bed on a platform, hidden storage accessed at the end of the bed, an integrated headboard with shelving, and two electrical access points. Circular cutouts and windows were also added to maintain airflow and the visual relationship with the rest of the room.
In case you missed it: Luxurious Small Spaces
When interior architect Carolien Potter was redesigning her 51sqm/548sqft Antwerp home, she prioritised creative budget-friendly solutions to create her dream open-plan studio space. Potter removed all of the interior walls and replaced them with a central unit that acts as a wall dividing key areas and contains storage, a shower, and a sleeping cove, which can be closed off with a semi-transparent curtain for privacy.
This ground-level London apartment by Studiomama features not just one but two private sleeping cubes. Enclosed by sliding panels, the cubes are also on opposite sides of a sliding pocket door, in effect transforming the overall space into two larger private bedrooms when desired. Each box bedroom has integrated storage within the platform, while the raised one also contains an integrated staircase.
Room within a Room
There is no shortage of playful design tricks in this futuristic Hong Kong apartment. The fun and colourful space was carefully thought out by architect Nelson Chow of NCDA to maintain both visual consistency and distinct zones for different activities. A box bedroom supports this by serving as a stylish gradient glass backdrop for the dining room on one side; while offering a cosy sleeping area on the other. A study and storage space can be found behind the panels in the corridors to each side of the bed. Beyond its practical or aesthetic value, the placement of the bedroom was carefully selected with the help of an expert for its Feng shui. Chow enjoys how this box bedroom feels like a room within a bigger room, and even has its own window looking out onto Victoria Harbour.
In the heart of Milan's Medieval Brera district, this modular 32sqm/344sqft apartment was designed to be reconfigured at will. The team at ATOMAA took inspiration from both modern European architecture and Japanese design to create a system of folding panels to form a series of different configurations depending on need. Tucked within two such panel doors is a raised bedroom platform that can be opened (to create a throughline between the entire living space) or hidden from sight (to hide your unmade bed from friends). The platform itself lifts to reveal a wardrobe and a hidden staircase for easy bed access. In place of handles, holes were cut into the wood, which adds an interesting visual appearance but allows speckles of light, like stars, into the sleeping area — perhaps a complement to the round, moon-like window facing the warm ambient light from the bathroom.
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