Stone-look flooring runs straight through the ground floor, pulling the eye from the living area to the garden-facing kitchen. The first thing you notice is the space left by the removed internal walls: a wide, open living kitchen with room for a dining area, a central island and long views to the back of the house. Warm alder joinery softens the edges of the room, while the rounded openings and curved detailing keep the plan from feeling boxy.

An open living kitchen shaped by new openings

The ground floor was rearranged to make space for one large open living kitchen and dining zone of about 50 m². New window openings bring daylight deeper inside and set up a direct line of sight to the rear garden. The result is not a room that simply opens up, but one that is edited by thresholds: a glazed connection outside, a dining area in the middle, and a kitchen volume anchored by timber fronts and a central island. The mid century modern reference is visible in the way the plan stays clear, but never bare.

Across the floor, the stone-look surface keeps the rooms visually linked. It meets pale wall finishes and microcement surfaces without a hard break, so the kitchen, dining area and sitting zone read as one continuous sequence. That continuity matters here because the furniture and joinery do the separating. Instead of internal walls, the layout relies on shifts in height, texture and curvature to define each part of the room.

Custom wood kitchen with curved edges

The custom wood kitchen is built in warm alder, with a central island that rounds off at the corners rather than stopping abruptly. From one angle it reads as a soft block in the room; from another, the mahogany folding window turns it into a serving point toward the outside bar. That small move changes how the kitchen works. It becomes a place for cooking, passing food through, and keeping the connection with the terrace visible even when the doors are closed.

Open shelving, integrated appliances and the long run of timber cabinetry keep the composition calm without flattening it. The wood grain is left readable, and the joinery sits against the stone-like floor with enough shadow to give it depth. The rounded interior forms are not decorative add-ons. They guide movement around the island and ease the transition into the dining area, where pendant lights mark the table and shift the mood after dark.

Materials that carry the 1970s reference

Several details nod to the house’s earlier character: the recessed sitting area, wooden wall panels, a textured ceiling and floors with a terrazzo-like effect. These elements do not copy the period literally. They are filtered through lighter colours, smoother transitions and cleaner lines, which gives the interior a more restrained reading. The ceiling texture catches light from the spotlights and makes the room feel less flat, especially over the kitchen and dining zone where the surfaces otherwise run long and low.

Microcement appears in the surfaces that need to stay visually quiet, letting the timber and the circular forms stand out. The palette stays close to sand, wood and soft off-white, with darker accents coming from lighting, metal details and the deeper tone of the mahogany window. The overall impression is driven less by decoration than by the sequence of surfaces: textured overhead plane, timber wall, stone-like floor, then glass.

From living room edge to dining zone

The plan is at its best where the living and dining areas meet. A curved opening draws you toward the kitchen, while the furniture keeps the room usable from multiple sides. The recessed seating area gives the ground floor a second centre, lower than the main circulation line and visually tied to the rest of the space by the same flooring. This shift in level and enclosure gives the interior rhythm without adding clutter.

Vintage and contemporary pieces sit within that framework, but the architecture keeps the lead. A sculptural mirror, a curved chair and the lamp over the dining area all register against the room’s larger gestures rather than competing with them. The mid century modern language is present in the proportions and in the use of rounded forms, not just in individual objects. That is what makes the room read as a project, not a styled set.

Light, texture and the ceiling plane

Above the kitchen, the textured ceiling carries small spotlights that puncture the surface with even, controlled points of light. In daylight, the texture is softer; after dark, it becomes more legible because the spots pick up the relief. This is where the room gains depth. The ceiling does more than cap the space. It frames the timber joinery below and makes the larger opening to the garden feel even wider by contrast.

On the upper floors, the atmosphere shifts through floor covering, fabric and metallic finishes. High-pile carpet, richer textiles and patinated metal details create a denser layer of materiality than the ground floor. The move is subtle in the project as a whole, but it keeps the family home from flattening into one note. Each level uses a different surface response, while the wood and rounded geometry remain part of the same vocabulary.

Bathrooms with stone texture and built-in wood

The bathrooms continue the material logic in a quieter register. Ceppo di Gre tiles give the walls and floors a stone-heavy presence, while custom wood furniture introduces a warmer note without breaking that surface language. In the images, the glass shower enclosure sits cleanly against the tiled shell, and the double washbasin is set into a compact composition that keeps the room ordered. The effect is concise rather than ornamental.

Seen alongside the main living spaces, the bathrooms feel like a continuation of the same project rather than separate rooms with a different idea. The timber, stone-look finishes and controlled lines repeat the house’s core moves, just at a smaller scale. That consistency matters in a modern family home. It allows the ground floor to stay open and light, while the private rooms keep the same material discipline in a more contained setting.

Photography by Thibault de Schepper.