Hide and seek

This living room by Philippa Thorp is actually much smaller than it appears. Every drop of space has been utilised, and every trick in the book employed, to make the space feel bigger and lighter.
We needed to fit a three bedroom house into just 93 square metres without its seeming squeezed, says Philippa, so we had to make excellent use of space. It was also very dark. We basically gutted it and started again, to bring in as much light as possible, and increase the sense of space.
Every nook and cranny cleverly camouflages storage. Even the window seat and custom made table conceal touch catch drawers, and a false bookcase to the left of the fire incorporates a rise and fall mechanism that reveals the television. I went to a second hand bookshop and bought books to the exact measurements, then had to chop them up for their spines, says Philippa. I felt very guilty but the result looks genuine.