Hi Rookie,

how lovely of you to take care of your brother like that. LOL. I wish my brother was this caring!

There are so many options. What does he need and what is his style?

Always happy to help anyone that needs it :)

So he already has a double bed, a work from home setup (desk, chair, monitor and computer) and then a 55” TV but beyond that he’ll be pretty much starting from scratch as his previous apartment was furnished so he wont have anything to bring to the new place (which is only a good thing I guess... well, maybe not for his bank balance lol!).

He likes modern / industrial styling and plans to either paint or turn the pink dividing wall into a feature wall with some nice wallpaper or a mural. He’s on a fairly tight budget as relocating to a new city so any savings or more budget friendly offerings would be appreciated.

Although not to my taste he’s happy to keep the red splash-back in the kitchen, the bedroom carpet was only fitted this morning before he viewed, it’s a rent-to-buy scheme so he does have some flexibility with decorating but can’t change any of the structure in regard to removing walls etc.

What a terrible use of space. I would love to see what arcitect would put his name to this. I can't get my head round why anyone would deisgn it like this. It could easily be twice the size it is if you removed the ridiculous amount of corridors!

Anyway my suggestion would be to remove the last panel on the partition wall and then leave the remainder of the wall permentally closed. That would give you wall to place the TV against if you use the 2nd "bedroom" as a cosy living space. Put down a large rug to cover a lot of the floor in there and a nice comfy sofa. In the actual living space I would put the home office facing out of that large window (which is one positive to the flat). Working at a desk and being able to look at all that greenery will be bliss. A dining space just in front of the kitchen for entertaining. This would be the more "functional" part of the house as its already next to the kitchen you can create more of an office vibe.

I would suggest using the wasted space in those wide corridors for staorage but the flat already appears to have way too much storage space so maybe some console tales, a bench and mirrors.

There seems to be a lot of doors into corridors. Would it be possible to remove some of them by simply removing them from the hinges? Here i was thinking door into the main bedroom. Since the primary occupant is one person, could the door to the bath be tweaked to actually serve 2 purposes - open to close this part off to the main space, closed to enclose the bathroom? Then the bedroom door could be removed opening up the corridor to become an uninterupted walkway making it smoother to traverse the space. Equally, is the door into now lounge in arc3d suggestion, necessary? If the living is to served double duty as guest accommodation, then it might need to stay.

I was wondering if the corridor wrapping the kitchen could be be an extension of the office area with narrow shelving ? A place to tuck router, printer, books (yes, knowing books are old fashioned in this day and age!) If there was no door at the other end, a narrow console could create an entry.

If

The expanding doors are reading a little too pink. They could take on the wall colour, which could be updated to a more modern neutral or be retained as a feature but toned into a deep red, leaning more to a dark tone than pink to connect to the red spashback.

The layout is quite tricky. I agree with arc and would use the 2nd bedroom for a tv area. I know these are dear but he could look at the Samsung serif tv, they look nice from the back too so could go in either corner (keeping the bifold?) and then have the dining table under the little window with the rug underneath (the table was quite narrow at 73cms). The sofa wasn’t the cheapest but it’s hard to get anything atm if needed in a rush. If this is too dear I’d look at made.com, you can filter by delivery date. I’d choose something on legs, not too deep or dark and slim arms to maximise seating. Could the desk go over the radiator at the end? Maybe add a lamp and shelves over the top? Maybe look at IKEA pax for the bedroom alcove?if this is too dear atm just add a hanging rail/s which are really cheap and given the location he doesn’t need to look at the clothes often!

The splashback would be toned down by adding chopping boards, potted herbs etc. I like the idea of papering the doors just not how sure it would fare?

https://swyfthome.com/collections/model-02/products/model-02-linen-2-seater-sofa-pumice

I forgot the side table, maybe a glass one so it doesn’t fill the space?