Best displayed under soaring ceilings,
mezzanines
are versatile, functional spaces that help better lit up and ventilate a
home and extend visual reach, creating inviting social spaces. This
intermediate floor can help add a certain vibe to the space,
illuminating it or defining a new purpose for a different portion of the
same space.
Small rooms can be adorned with mezzanines that solve
space issues – this platform can serve as a second bedroom, a home
office, a library or it can be the perfect solution for a double-heigh
social area with the living space upstairs, so it can benefit from
expansive views of the surroundings.
The
Algarrobos House by
Jose Maria Saez and
Daniel Moreno Flores
provokes our imagination with a wooden mezzanine built under the
skylight. Above the kitchen and dining space, this platform made of
equal beams is flooded with natural light via glass panes.
The
Cowshed House by
Carter Williamson Architects boasts
high clerestory windows unveiling the beauty of an open floor plan
under natural daylight. Within this bright social space, the bedroom
mezzanine sits snugged under the long steep roof plane.
This small, 29 square meter
apartment in Poland incorporates a mezzanine in its design, extending the living spaces with a large bed area.
3XA architects
imagined a semi-mezzanine under the 3,7m ceiling and built it above the
bathroom and hallway, solving the space issue with style.
The
Oriental Warehouse Loft renovation in
San Francisco includes re-imagining its mezzanine level, replacing the
opaque guardrails with transparent glass rails and thus creating a
visual connection to the living space below. Local architecture team
Edmonds & Lee imagined this platform as a sleeping mezzanine complete with a shower and a library.
Part
of the Unité d’Habitation ( or Cité Radieuse) in Marseille, France,
this apartment paying homage to Le Corbusier’s influence on mid-century
modern in the US was kindly photographed by the
Living Agency. Dark walls under a white ceiling split by a mezzanine showcasing a large wooden rail compose a sleek and elegant design match.
This Italian
House Studio by Studioata
defines a contemporary perspective on mezzanine design. Defined by
wooden insertions throughout, this apartment was ingeniously adorned
with a volumetric desk reached via a floating staircase. Creativity
abounds in this functional home office mezzanine design, doesn’t it?
This stunning mezzanine bath is part of Dutch architects
Leijh, Kappelhof, Seckel, van den Dobbelsteen‘s
portfolio. Under those soaring ceilings, religious songs used to bounce
off the walls. You see, what was once a historical Dutch church was
re-designed into a unique loft with inspiring details.
Maxim Zhukov of
To Taste
designed this industrial bachelor loft for himself, choosing to have
the office space levitating above the bed. A set of floating stairs lead
up to the simple platform with a desk/railing oriented towards the
window. Clever use of space, right?
Le Couvent Loft
is, as you might have guessed, a former convent. Created in 1750 by
Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, this 25 square meter loft in Val d’Oise
(only 15 km north of Paris) displays a chic living space mezzanine above
the hallway, kitchen and dining space.
As
Buildall Construction re-designed the
Wrigley Loft
inside the converted Wrigley Building in Leslieville, Toronto, they
imagined a mezzanine level as the bedroom. Placed behind translucent
doors in the volume under the bed area mezzanine, the home office can be
either hidden or open, changing the vibe of the spacious living area.
Balancing dark floors and a sunken white oak platform, this modern
New York Urban Retreat
by Paul Rudolph displays a floating staircase leading up to the living
area mezzanine. Little intervention was necessary to update the 1960s
home, one of which is the glass railing that keeps the design fresh and
the visual connection at maximum.
Needless
to say, this luxurious mezzanine occupied by a bathtub looks like a
heavenly place to spend the evenings, then just come down for a relaxing
sleep. Dramatic in design, boasting double height wall paneling rising
up to meet the startling ceiling, this private space in
House Little Venice by
Wells Mackereth was perfectly adorned with the mezzanine bathtub and a cast yellow and white glass 1960s chandelier.
Simple
and elegant, tucked safely under the sloping roof, this mezzanine home
office is perfect for those who work from home and also want to be
visually connected with the living environment around them. Slim
mezzanine railings keep the floor plan visually open while encouraging
simplicity in design and
plenty of natural light fills the interiors.
Extensive
use of glass looks almost futuristic, especially when you combine it
with sleek design lines and white details. At night, blinds come down
over the enclosure shaping the rounded glass walls. During the day,
riverside views of Chelsea Embankment and the River Thames flood the
room. This
Riverside Penthouse in London by
Foster & Partners
displays a creative way of guiding natural light inside, pass the glass
railing on the mezzanine, penetrating deep into the home.
White
spaces draw in daylight and easily makes your favorite color stand out.
Combine it with an open floor plan and a modern perspective on privacy
and you got yourself a mezzanine bedroom area. In the case of the
Tyresö Brevik Vacation House, interiors were decorated with a modern selection of furniture items to compose a breezy atmosphere.
And
when the mezzanine is the terraced platform from where panoramas start
unrolling in front of your eyes, you know the mezzanine level was
totally worth building. Keeping these views accessible, a glass panel
was installed as railing.
You
see how transparency is always met with a modern solution for mezzanine
levels that need to stay bright – the recurring glass railings.
Especially when you renovate buildings meant for other purposes, like
the
glass and stone modern residence
remodeled from a 15th century barn. Here, the mezzanine is the actual
living space placed above the kitchen and dining space on the first
level.
Combining
the warmth of wood with the cheerfulness of greenery, a mezzanine can
also become part of a split level architecture. This example above
conveys comfort and soothes the eye with a pleasant, natural color
palette. If a
living wall is not an option, then hanging plants could add that organic dimension the space needs.
Small, tall spaces can greatly benefit from the existence of a mezzanine level – like this
Gothenburg apartment
showcasing another way of creating that extra bedroom area you need.
Placed above the light-flooded living space, this small mezzanine is
accessible via a steep staircase. Books from the floor-to-ceiling
bookcase and the TV fight for the owner’s attention every night.
Luring
romanticism with the open nature of a living space featuring a floating
bed, one could indulge in lazy afternoons flooded by daylight and
regret would surely never appear when thinking about the decision to
build a mezzanine bed – it’s just too comfortable and offers a different
perspective on things while
maximizing the space.
Another
version of the glass railing on a mezzanine can be seen in the photo
above depicting the social spaces of a Madrid residence created by
Spanish designer Luis Puerta.
Lining the stairs and mezzanine, glass railings fabricate a light
corridor that helps further enlarge the space. This is a great way to
add square footage to your home and connect different zones and levels.
This
interior balcony is an attractive visual element that speaks about
elegance and natural materials. The converted historic chapel in
Wiltshire, England, was the way
Jonathan Tuckey Design
imagined a contemporary renovation fitted to the needs of its
inhabitants’ modern lifestyle. The former hall was converted into an
open-plan kitchen and living room, with a mezzanine gallery above.
Minimalist house design often plays with perception and space.
House in Kyobate by
designer Naoko Horibe
is a collection of versatile, functional spaces relying on the ideal of
simplicity. The mezzanine is cut to shape two interior balconies
framing different views of the social space below.
Ingeniously
partitioned, this narrow, tall residential space displays a subtly
industrial elegance in white finish. The mezzanine becomes a platform
uniting the lower floor to the upstairs without robbing the kitchen and
dining area of natural light.
Bright
orange details in a white space alongside metal elements compose a
vivid, modern and sleek design. When applied to small spaces, the need
for compact space arrangement hints to a stylish solution: the
mezzanine. Connected with a spiral staircase to the social area
downstairs, the bedroom platform is nicely tucked above the kitchenette,
hallway and bathroom in this
youthful little apartment.
House Like Village by
Marc Koehler Architects
is set in a renovated old harbor cantina on Amsterdam’s KNSM island.
Dutch people are known for their open nature and love for bright spaces,
so a mezzanine seemed the perfect way to combine volumetric functions
downstairs with a platform for dining and cooking upstairs, accessible
via the bookcase stairs.
Indoor volumes masking different functional spaces can easily become mezzanines and extend usable living space. This
House in Yoro is a warehouse converted by
Airside Design Office and shelters the bedroom and bathroom in the white volume, exploring a different use of space within a modern interior design.
A modern
Gothenburg apartment
showcases how a mezzanine and carefully planned design can add a few
meters of space to the floor plan, just enough for a small home office.
10-foot high windows bring in plenty of natural light making its way in
the kitchen, as allowed by the mezzanine level, where the bedroom is
located.
Duality
and romance are two sides of a black and white bedroom. This example
above provokes our minds with a visual appeal shaped by simple elegance
and a mezzanine level hugging the tall walls. Floating stairs and a
column supporting the mezzanine complete the dreamy bedroom design.
Finishing
off our list is an example of how modern Swedish design combines the
warmth of wood with the functional white design in this Stockholm
apartment spotted on
Skeppsholmen. This is where the mezzanine was the perfect solution for creating more space under the sloping ceiling.
So
you see, there are countless ways in which a mezzanine level can help
you gain more space inside the home: glass railings, bed areas, even
elevated home offices can be encompasses in your home with the right
mezzanine design.
