The first thing you notice is the height. A former school building now opens up as a converted school house, with a double-height void pulling daylight through the centre of the home. The structure still carries the scale of its previous life, but the new layout breaks that volume into usable zones. Up below, the living area stays close and quiet. Above, the loft home with mezzanine effect makes the upper level feel part of the same room rather than a separate floor.

From schoolroom volume to a house with layers

The old shell was never small, and the redesign does not try to hide that. Instead, the double-height void living area gives the main space a clear pause in the middle, so the house reads as a sequence of levels rather than one long hall. The result is less about filling space and more about shaping it. White walls keep the light moving, while the exposed wooden beams draw the eye upward and explain how the volume still holds together.

That sense of structure becomes more pronounced near the top of the room, where the timber roof form sits in view and the ceiling services remain visible. The exposed wooden beams are not treated as background detail. They define the atmosphere of the upper volume and give the interior a measured rhythm. Large arched windows add another layer to that reading. Their curved tops soften the tall openings and let daylight fall across the pale surfaces and dark built-in elements below.

A white interior with green accents

The palette stays restrained, but it is not flat. A white interior with green accents connects the ground floor and the upper level in a way that feels deliberate without becoming decorative. The green shows up as a linking tone, carrying the eye between zones and tempering the pale walls. Around it, larger pieces of furniture and accessories keep the rooms from feeling scattered. The effect is calm because the objects have room to breathe, not because the space has been emptied.

That approach is visible in the living zone, where a generous sofa sits under the height of the void and turns the oversized room into something more intimate. The double-height void living area helps with that shift: it leaves enough openness overhead while letting the seating area stay grounded. Nearby, the white surfaces, timber accents and darker furniture blocks create a simple contrast that works across the whole plan. Nothing shouts. The furniture just gives the room a scale that matches the shell.

Dark kitchen cabinetry in a bright volume

The kitchen sits within the same open interior, but it reads as its own place through darker built-in lines. Dark kitchen cabinetry anchors the room and gives weight to the lighter walls around it. In the image set, the kitchen fronts are integrated, with appliance niches and slim pendant lights dropping over the work zone. Against the white ceiling and visible beams, those black elements sharpen the outline of the cooking area without closing it off from the rest of the home.

Large windows sit close to this zone as well, including arched openings that bring daylight down onto the countertop and the surrounding floor. The mix of light plaster, timber and darker joinery keeps the kitchen from becoming visually noisy. Even the hanging lamps contribute to that restraint. Their slim shapes echo the linear profile of the cabinetry and let the room stay open to the mezzanine-like level above. The converted school house feels most convincing here, where old volume and new domestic use meet directly.

Spaces that stay open, but not empty

Elsewhere, the plan moves through a hall and toward a bedroom, keeping the same language of pale walls and stronger pieces of furniture. The entrance area introduces wood paneling and recessed lighting, which gives that first passage a more enclosed character before the larger rooms open up again. It is a useful contrast: one room handles transition, another handles height. In both, the materials stay limited enough to let the construction itself remain visible.

The stairs strengthen that reading. A black handrail traces the route upward, while light treads and open edges keep the movement visually light. From below, the stair zone acts almost like a line drawn through the house, linking the lower living area with the upper floor and reinforcing the loft home with mezzanine feeling. This is where the project’s planning becomes most legible. The inserted level is not just storage or a platform; it is what makes the former school building live like a home.

What the structure does for the interior

Because so much of the original height remains present, the interior relies on proportion rather than decoration. The exposed wooden beams and the visible ceiling elements do a great deal of work, especially when paired with off-white walls and broad openings. The house never collapses into a series of small rooms. Instead, the double-height void living area preserves the sense of the original school volume while making it practical for daily life. That is the point of the conversion: keeping the room’s scale, but changing how it is inhabited.

The strongest moments are also the simplest ones. A green wall beside the seating area. A dark cabinet block under a bright ceiling. A curved window line cutting into the tall wall. Each detail is modest on its own, yet together they make the converted school house feel settled. The space remains open, but the placement of furniture, the built-ins and the mezzanine edge all give it direction. You read the building from level to level, and the old school reveals itself through the new domestic route.

Photographed by Anneke Gambon.

Credits in the source mention Legemaat van Elst, Brouwer Wonen, Hofland, Eggersmann, Bora and Tekelenburg Elektrotechniek.