Storage room is turned into multi-purpose mini home by Swedish architect

Karin Matz, an architect from Sweden, found a storage room and came up with the idea of turning the small space into a multi-purpose mini home. The space had not been touched for more than 30 years and is just 36 sq m. Now it has been transformed into a compact home that is filled with light.

[Image Source: Karin Matz]

Matz said that she thought it was fascinating that the space had been left for more than 30 years. She said that it was as though it had become frozen; wallpaper was half hanging off the walls, it was without electricity and had not been lived in for years, apart from rats.

[Image Source: Karin Matz]

Matz pointed out that Stockholm suffered from a housing shortage and so the small space was too good to resist. In just under 6 months she had completed the construction of the mini home. Matz divided the interior into two separate parts. One area consisted of an open space living area along with a bedroom/kitchen/wardrobe, all from just one structure. Matz chose to leave the walls bare, just as she had found them, as a reminder of the past.

[Image Source: Karin Matz]

The kitchen was designed with pine plywood and along with the bed area was designed on an Ikea unit. To keep the wardrobe, bed and kitchen areas separate Matz used glass panels to partition them off, along with roller blinds, which were fitted onto the ceiling. These are used to close off areas including the bedroom and kitchen. Pigmented plywood was used for the kitchen table along with the floor in the bathroom.

[Image Source: Karin Matz]

Matz said that it was rather difficult to make everything fit into the space as it was so small. She said "It took a lot of different tests but I really enjoyed puzzling everything together in a smart space-saving way. It was a big challenge to fit things into a space which is actually too small to fit everything into it. It was also difficult to find a rail which was strong enough to hold all of the clothes."

[Image Source: Karin Matz]

It cost Matz 27,000 euros, which is around US$36,855, to complete the whole of the mini house. It might be small, but the mini house is filled with light and Matz made good use of every inch of the small space with clever ideas such as using the areas under the bed for storage.

[Image Source: Karin Matz]