A 1932 Plaka townhouse, opened up for a family of three — and their ten thousand books.
Before · 2023After · 2024
Drag the divider — or use ← → keys
The brief
A house that had forgotten the sun.
The townhouse had spent thirty years as a ground-floor storage unit for a now-defunct bookshop. Three rooms, three small windows facing north, and a single skylight the owners had painted over. The brief was simple: bring back the sun, and find a place for ten thousand books.
3floors
96 m²total area
10 000books to house
1932year built
Gallery · 04 rooms
Four rooms, reimagined.
Kitchen
Open plan, ground floor
Bedroom
First floor, north side
Bathroom
First floor, courtyard
Study
Top floor, under the skylight
The process
Six months. Four chapters.
A renovation, told slowly. Each phase held its own rhythm — and its own small dramas.
01
Discovery.
property goals & audit · concept · layout
We began not with drawings but with the family's library. Each room had a stack — paperbacks, journals, a Turkish encyclopedia from 1974 — and we measured them, photographed them, and asked which ones they would lend and which they would keep. By week three, the brief had written itself.
Week one — the first circulation sketch.
Video · 02:15Week 2 · measuring the library
The room we met on day one.
02
Transformation.
Demolition · specifications · construction
Two interior walls came down. A dropped ceiling. The painted-over skylight reopened for the first time in twenty-eight years — the room went suddenly bright and we all stood quiet for a moment. Then the dust settled and we carried on.
Day nine — the kitchen wall comes down.
Video · 01:08Day 9 · the wall comes down
The bathroom we found under the bathroom.
03
Finishing.
Furniture · Fixtures · Equipment
An oak floor in long planks. A continuous lime-plaster wall from the front door to the skylight. Custom millwork for the books. The infrastructure hides; the materials speak. We filmed week fourteen — the moment the floor met the wall for the first time.
The long wall, week ten.
Video · 01:42Week 14 · floor meets wall
The first room to be dressed.
04
Promotion.
Styling · Photography
Styling came after the family moved back in. A kilim from the grandmother's house. A lamp found on Lysikratous. A reading chair that took eleven weeks to arrive — and was worth every one of them.
The library, two weeks after move-in.
Video · 01:33Week 24 · the kilim arrives
The study, finally at rest.
A small discovery
Under two layers of plywood, the original 1932 hand-troweled plaster. We kept it. The whole house learned from it.
"We had ten thousand books and a three-storey house with one small window. Eleni found a place for every book — and somehow we still have a kitchen."
— neil P., guest · nea smyrni, Athens
26
m² floor area
50
guests
50
5-star reviews
1100 EUR
avg. gross income/ month
Eleni TzinakouInterior designer · Athens
A house of your own?
Let's find what your space already wants to be.
If you're sitting with a renovation, a re-plan, or a single room that won't settle — I'd love to hear about it. The first conversation is free, unhurried, and without commitment.
Replies usually within 48 hours · Athens & the islands · by appointment
Video · 02:15 Week 2 · measuring the library 
Video · 01:08 Day 9 · the wall comes down 
Video · 01:42 Week 14 · floor meets wall 
Video · 01:33 Week 24 · the kilim arrives 
