High windows and a brick wall set the tone from the first step inside. The room still carries the scale of its former use, but the plan now reads as a modern loft apartment with exposed brick interior design: open, bright, and anchored by strong lines. White curtains soften the tall openings, while black steel details draw the eye across the living kitchen and toward the next space.

An open living kitchen built around contrast

The kitchen sits in a field of white custom cabinetry, its flat fronts and pale surfaces keeping the volume visually calm. Against that background, the exposed brick interior keeps its rough edges. The wall is not cleaned into something new; the marks and unevenness remain visible. A smooth stone countertop, described in the source as silestone and marble stone, cuts through the composition with a quiet sheen. It gives the open living kitchen a sharper line without taking attention away from the brick.

Warm timber panels run along one side and hold the storage in place. Their grain is visible from across the room, and the tone changes the pace of the interior. At the opposite end, a slim black steel mezzanine carries a library. The frame is light enough to sit above the room without closing it off. That black steel detail repeats elsewhere, so the apartment feels edited by a small set of materials rather than by decoration.

Brick, timber and steel in one clear view

The exposed brick wall works as the main texture in the project. It breaks the brightness of the white cabinetry and gives the room a physical memory of the building. Instead of hiding the wall’s irregular surface, the design lets it stay visible beside the crisp kitchen fronts and the dark profiles of the glazing. The result is not polished in a glossy sense; it is direct, with each material kept legible.

Across the main room, glass and steel define the route between cooking, dining and living. The dining behind glass steel arrangement appears as a sequence rather than a separate room. Chairs, a table and hanging lights are visible through the frame, so the eye keeps moving. The structure does more than divide; it shapes sightlines and makes the apartment feel larger than any single zone.

Daylight at full height

Much of the atmosphere comes from the high windows and the white curtains hung beneath them. The fabric drops in long folds and filters the daylight before it reaches the floor. That softening effect matters because the room contains several hard materials at once: brick, black steel details, stone and timber. The light keeps those surfaces readable, especially where the glazing meets the kitchen and where the steel frame outlines the opening to the dining area.

The original building once felt strict, and that quality is still present in the tall proportions. The design does not fight it. Instead, it uses the height to make the room feel composed and to give the custom joinery room to breathe. Even the library on the mezzanine benefits from that vertical scale, sitting above the living zone like a measured line rather than a heavy insertion.

White joinery, stone and a calmer edge

The white custom cabinetry appears throughout the main living kitchen as a continuous system, not as loose pieces of furniture. It keeps the perimeter clean and allows the timber panels and brick to carry the texture. In the kitchen area, the countertop surface reflects a little of the daylight, enough to separate it from the matte cabinetry without turning it into a focal object. The overall effect is restrained, but never empty.

One of the strongest moves is the black steel connection between the two former classrooms. A black steel ensuite door links the spaces and is paired with contemporary ensuite cabinetry. It gives the transition a clear edge, so the change from one volume to another feels intentional. The material repeats the language of the mezzanine and the glazing, tying the apartment together through a small number of moves.

A hallway that hides more than it shows

In the hallway, a mirror extends the sightline and reflects the room back into itself. It also conceals hidden doors, so the wall reads as a single plane until it opens. The effect is subtle but precise. Hallway indirect lighting runs along the route and keeps the passage from feeling like a leftover corridor. Instead, it becomes part of the composition, with the reflected light and concealed openings guiding movement toward the private rooms.

The former offices now hold a bedroom, bathroom and study in a more intimate setting. A wooden ceiling changes the mood immediately, lowering the visual temperature after the open main space. The rooms are not treated as separate statements; they are quieter, with fewer hard contrasts and a more enclosed sense of scale. That shift from open living kitchen to smaller private zones gives the apartment its rhythm.

Subtle changes of height and texture

The stair zone adds another layer of material contrast. A curved steel staircase appears in the project as a dark line with upholstered treads and a steel handrail, set against nearby timber and masonry. It is compact in the way it moves through the interior, but it still carries visual weight. The curve softens the geometry of the plan and introduces a different motion from the straight run of the kitchen fronts and glazing.

In the bathroom, the palette turns spare. Tile surfaces and dark frames keep the room graphic and measured, while the adjoining door openings stay close to the same material language used elsewhere in the apartment. Nothing is over-described. The room simply continues the project’s preference for clear edges, controlled reflections and surfaces that show how they are made.

What stays with you is the sequence of surfaces: brick, stone, steel, timber, glass. Each one is given enough space to read on its own, yet none of them is left to work alone. The apartment grows out of that measured stacking of materials, and the former classrooms now register as a residence shaped by sightlines, daylight and a few decisive junctions. It is a modern loft apartment with exposed brick interior design, but one that relies on detail rather than a single gesture.

Photographer: Alexander van Berge.

For related project pages, see residential interiors, loft conversions, kitchen design projects, stairs and galleries, and interiors with exposed brick.