The rectangular living room, curved French windows, room door, and entrance door had taken up part of the wall to leave only a small piece of wall space. It was indeed a big challenge to create a mirror wall in a limited space to serve as a dance practicing area. Moreover, it was necessary to rearrange the lighting and light distribution due to uneven light from only the single-sided window. In addition, the master bedroom of area about 40 square feet was not an ideal site and its outside view was also not favoured.

Based on the fact that the bedroom is only meant for the female house owner, so the bedroom wall adjacent to the living room was simply torn down by Kevin and Albert and changed it into an open sleeping area. This can drawn the sunlight from the living room window and widened the spatial view. In space layout, designers mainly use the light brown and white colour, and trimmed with charcoal gray building materials and mirror to create a simple open dwelling area.

Design focus:

1. The use of materials: The main tones for the entire house are light brown and white to coordinate with charcoal gray building materials and mirrors to create a stylish open feeling. The light-colored polished floor tiles allow full reflection of sunlight and lightings to brighten and broaden the space. In addition, a low furniture in dark wood grain and white was constructed by Kevin and Albert to create a sense of stretching the floor and ceiling further apart, and allowing the low-ceiling house to look taller.

2. Open-style bedroom: The original bedroom was simply reconstructed to become an open-style bedroom. The platform was deliberately raised by the designers to make a clear attribution of the living room and bedroom via height differences, thereby simplifying the layout simultaneously to merge the bedroom and living room areas into one, and successfully broadening the spatial view.

3. Charcoal gray anti-scratch board: To unify the spatial style, a same material was used on the charcoal gray anti-scratch board, the TV back wall and bed frame by the designers to decorate the living room and bedroom. This has linked up the two areas to complement each other, and enriched the space with an elegant hue.

4. Curved platform: To enhance a sense of space, the traditional sofa, dining table and other furniture layout were discarded. First of all, a low-curvature platform was constructed by the designers between the bed’s end and the French window, and the wooden floor was placed with comfortable cushions to replace the relatively large sofa. In addition, the platform near the window was created with a drawer cabinet to increase the storage space; and the dining table was replaced by a coffee table to further vacate more usable space.

5. Extended platform with rounded corners: The elevated sleeping platform was deliberately extended by the designers to magnify the view of sleeping area, thereby creating a deep and wide illusion. In this way, the extended floor has naturally become a seat to help the female house owner to greet relatives and friends conveniently. The rounded corners of the platform look simple and neat.

6. Magical use of mirror: To cope with the female house owner’s demand for a mirror wall and ample space to practice dancing, the space between the entrance door and living room was transformed into a “dance practicing” area. The L-shaped wall on the right of the entrance door was constructed with a two-in-one shoe cabinet and locker equipped with a mirror, allowing the mirror to reflect the indoor view to further enhance a sense of space and broaden the field of vision.

7. Turning the master bedroom into a dressing room: After creating an open-style sleeping area, the master bedroom has instantly turned into a dressing room to store clothing and fashion accessories. To meet the female house owner’s needs, a full-height mirror wardrobe was installed by the designers to create a sense of space.

8. Multi-purpose desk: The other wall in the bedroom was built with a white desk and multi-purpose furniture to help the female house owner to do household chores conveniently and make use of every inch of space in the room. A section of the desktop can be flipped-up design to reveal a mirror, and the desktop has a checkered drawer to store cosmetic products.

Three key points in mirror layout

Many people think that a mirror is a space-magnifying magician, but we must bear three key points in mind before we use it to achieve a sense of space. Otherwise, it may create an opposite effect to generate an even complex and oppressive view. “Firstly, we must consider the points, lines and faces reflected by the mirror wall, i.e., the angle between the mirror position and the reflected image. Secondly, the indoor environment and space image are directly affected by the height and width of the mirror. Thirdly, the brightness and broad view effect of the space are affected by the relationship between sunlight and lighting due to light refraction.”