The owner’s brief for this Sandringham project was to knock down the 30sqm 1940s garage and build a studio space in keeping with the 1920s villa which it sits next to. The layout of the site meant the studio floor space was restricted to under 50 square metres and the owners wanted the space to function as a studio for the owner to work from, a teenage hangout, a self-contained guest house, workshop and occasionally a man cave to retreat to watch the football.

Trying to pack so much versatility into such a small space was always going to be a challenge and cavity sliders proved to be a big part of the solution. Room for a double bed was difficult without taking away most of the open living space, so the solution was to transform the entire partition wall dividing the living area from the sleep pod into a large sliding panel. When the door is open the sleeping and living areas combine to form one open, light and inviting space. When the door is closed the sleep area is quiet and private.

An en-suite is situated immediately adjacent and, in this case, a smaller cavity slider was used, eliminating wasted floor space required for the swing of a hinged door. Both cavity sliders are finished with pine jambs that have been clear stained to complement the plywood wall linings. The doors are painted Resene Robins Egg Blue in keeping with the relaxed light feel of the space. This pairs nicely with the oil rubbed bronze door hardware. The en-suite cavity has an integrated engineered ply panel to make fixing of tiles easier. Finally, both cavity sliders are fitted with soft closers to foil the teenagers!