Designing with Daylight

Marcus, his wife Louise and 1 year old daughter purchased a 1960s house which hadn’t been renovated in decades and transformed it with higher ceilings and more daylight into a great place to live but also work.

With low ceilings and a dark kitchen, the couple directed their design backgrounds towards their home and began to re-imagine the space becoming their favourite place with high ceilings, more daylight and the perfect home office.

“The first thing we did was look at the ceiling and think ‘how could we change that?’ Back then they probably didn't consider the amount of light and the ceiling height,” said Marcus.

The hub of the home

Marcus, an educated industrial designer, and Louise, a fashion and shoe designer, saw the potential in building a communal space that could be the hub of their home. Since the original kitchen was small and placed on the opposite side of the house, they re-worked the floor plan to combine the kitchen, living room and even added a home office.

“We definitely wanted to have this huge room that would contain how we were living and this kitchen was naturally at the center of that,” said Marcus.

“Getting the house and actually having the opportunity to plan out a separate area for the office, just made sense,” said Marcus.

The couple’s renovation plans included their dream home office nook with a custom-built area to fit Louise’s father’s beautiful vintage cabinet, an elevated ceiling and a VELUX INTEGRA electric roof window to naturally illuminate the space from above.

“The amount of light that we get into the office every day, it's just amazing,” said Marcus.

The new bright working area creates a cosy and efficient atmosphere but more importantly, a level of comfort which has contributed to Marcus’ inspiration.

“It definitely adds to our creativity. I think if you generally don’t feel comfortable in the area or the room you're in, you automatically won't perform as good as you would in a nice environment,” said Marcus.

“On an everyday basis, sitting behind the screen all day, the daylight that we get from the windows and the energy and the level of happiness just increases exponentially,” said Marcus.

And as a young family, including the new home office in their renovation means they can be more flexible in how they balance their work and family life.

“We definitely liked the idea of having it so close to where we would actually spend our everyday life, so we can switch back and forth between the two functions,” said Marcus.