FrameScale Interiors
Living room with pale walls, a low sofa and a large window

Apartment · Warm Minimal · Design study

Kilimani Light Frame

Kilimani, Nairobi

Area
990 sq ft
92 m²
Ceiling height
2.85 m slab · 2.70 m plane
Key materials
Limewash plaster, White oak, Honed travertine
Completion year
2026
Design study

Act I

The brief & the constraint

A two-bedroom apartment re-centred on one window.

A young couple bought a sixth-floor corner unit off Argwings Kodhek Road. The layout was standard developer stock: a corridor, two bedrooms on one side, a living room that faced the neighbouring block, and the best view — west over the Ngong Hills — trapped in the smaller bedroom.

They wanted one generous room to live in, a second bedroom that could become a study, and nothing that would need explaining to guests.

The view was in the wrong room, and the walls between were load-bearing.
LIVINGBED 2 · VIEWKITCHENCORRIDORBED 1
Existing: view trapped in bedroom 2

Act II

The framing decisions

  1. Decision 01

    Swap the rooms, keep the walls

    The living room moves into bedroom 2, where the view is. The old living room becomes the main bedroom. No structural wall is touched; only two doorways are re-cut within the existing lintels.

    BED 1LIVING · VIEWKITCHENSTUDYDINING
    Proposed: living takes the view

  2. Decision 02

    Lower the ceiling plane to 2.7 m

    A limewashed plane drops 150 mm over the living area and stops 600 mm short of the window. The higher strip at the glass makes the window read as a frame, and hides the curtain track and lighting.

    2.85 m2.70 m
    Section A — ceiling plane

  3. Decision 03

    One oak wall carries everything

    Storage, the TV, the study desk and the bar shelf sit in a single 6.2 m white-oak wall on a 600 mm module. Everything else in the room can then be free-standing and few.

    10 MODULES
    Elevation B — oak wall, 600 mm module

  4. Decision 04

    Travertine where hands go

    Honed travertine is used only at touch points: the kitchen counter, the window seat and the bathroom vanity. Its warmth matches the limewash at a fraction of a full stone floor's cost.

    Close view of warm stone and timber surfaces
    Close view of warm stone and timber surfaces

Act III

The lived result

  • Living area with a low sofa and side table
  • Kitchen with pale cabinetry and stone counter
  • Bedroom with linen bedding and a timber headboard
  • Detail of timber and stone surfaces

Orbit video: added at handover photography.

“We stopped noticing the walls and started noticing the evening light.”
Illustrative client voice