For years, designer Eti Lev-Katz and her partner lived in rental apartments, until they decided a few years ago to buy a home for themselves and their three sons, ages 15, 12 and 9. "Before we went to see this apartment, I pulled up its floor plan online, looked at the size and directions and realized that, for me, if we could agree on the price, this was the apartment, no matter what it actually looked like," she said. The couple bought the 125-square-meter (about 1,345-sq.ft.) apartment in Ramat Hasharon in central Israel.
"Before we moved in, I redesigned it from the core. Basically, everything inside was demolished and only the outer shell remained," Lev-Katz said. "Our children spend a lot of time in the living room, so it was especially important for us to position our bedroom as internally and far from it as possible. Once I repositioned the room, the apartment’s layout fell perfectly into place."
Another major change was the creation of an enclosed balcony, separated from the living room, adding space for play and entertaining.
It started with an old fan
The front door opens into a long space paved with gray porcelain granite tiles that resemble polished concrete, a flooring Lev-Katz said she had dreamed of but gave up on because it was impractical and very expensive. "In general, those were the two most important considerations in planning the apartment," she said. "Practicality and staying within budget."
To the right stands a greenish closet with asymmetrically divided doors, the largest of which is a mirror door. Behind it is her husband's work station, who works from home part-time.
To the left, where the kitchen once stood, is now Lev-Katz’s office. It was placed there so clients could reach it easily. A large glass door allows the designer to maintain eye contact with the living room and balcony while she works.
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The designer’s office, which could later become a child’s bedroom
(Photo: Orit Arnon)
Inside, furniture is mixed with vintage pieces Lev-Katz has collected, which came from the family’s previous apartment. The apartment's new layout was planned to accommodate all the furniture and assorted pieces.
She points to an old fan on the bookcase behind her desk, which she found at a flea market in France more than a decade ago. She said it was the first vintage object she ever bought and the one that launched the large collection now filling the home.
Beyond the study is a small laundry room concealed behind a flush door. It includes an indoor drying rack brought from the previous apartment and placed there because Lev-Katz likes hanging laundry rather than putting it in the dryer. "It isn’t convenient to hang laundry outside beyond the window ledge, and this way, it can also be done in any weather."
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A large built-in closet with wooden shutter doors and salvaged handles
(Photo: Orit Arnon)
From there, the space opens back into the living room, which has a large light-colored sofa and a wooden armchair bought for the move, alongside many pieces of furniture and objects from the previous apartment.
Across from the sofa stands a light blue TV console, with a display cabinet for Lev-Katz’s collections hanging beside it. On the floor beneath it, she placed a wooden crate containing a sewing machine she received as a gift from landlords whose apartment she once rented. Beside it, on the wall, is a radiator that is part of the building’s central heating system.
A drawer from the street becomes a porcelain display
Next to the living room, Lev-Katz placed a dining area with a new wooden table and chairs and a vintage lampshade, the central part of which she found at the Haifa flea market and fitted it with a hanging chain and ceiling cup.
In the adjoining kitchen, the cabinets are made of eggshell-white Formica with brass handles and a gray Caesarstone countertop. The area above the work surface is covered in white ceramic tiles laid horizontally and finished with a delicate black trim. "I couldn’t allocate much depth to the tall cabinet wall because it would block the window, so I chose two refrigerators that could be placed side by side at the right depth," Lev-Katz said.
At the end of the work surface, she broke through the wall and extended it with a glass panel to allow a view from the kitchen to the balcony. On the nearby wall hangs a drawer found on the street, to which hooks and a rod were added so it could serve as a display for porcelain pieces. Farther along, a rounded wooden shelf custom-made by an artisan carpenter was installed.
Next is the balcony, enclosed with a large glass partition and separated from the rest of the space by a change in flooring to patterned tiles. Here, Lev-Katz keeps her plants on shelves in an iron frame found in the apartment when the family moved in. On the other side stands a wooden cabinet with the children’s toys. The shutters were replaced with an electric shade that can be lifted easily, strengthening the outdoor feel.
A vintage sled serves as a nightstand
The bedrooms are reached through a hallway that begins with a large built-in closet with wooden shutter doors. Lev-Katz said she salvaged the door handles from an old closet in an apartment she and her partner bought as an investment and later sold to buy this home.
Next to the closet are two wooden hangers with drawings by her youngest son from when he was 8. Across from them, under a lamp removed from an apartment Lev-Katz renovated for clients, hangs a painting she made 25 years ago.
To the right is the children’s bathroom, which also serves guests and was designed accordingly in clean, not childish, lines. The walls are covered in white tiles and the floor in subtle gray terrazzo. The vanity was found at the flea market in Jaffa, and the mirror above it was found in the apartment when they bought it, before the renovation.
Past the bathroom are doors to two children’s rooms. The first belongs to the eldest son, and its floor, like those in the other bedrooms, is covered in real wood parquet. One wall was painted dark blue. The vintage desk and wooden closet came from the previous apartment, and a wooden mask Lev-Katz made in a workshop led by artist Tzachi Nevo for designers hangs on the wall near the desk. Above it hangs an IKEA lamp in a similar shade that was found on the street.
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The eldest son’s bedroom, with a dark blue wall and furniture from the family’s previous home
(Photo: Orit Arnon)
The next room is shared by the two younger boys. The walls were painted accordingly, with half in a smoky light blue shade that divides the space into two zones. The beds are the two parts of a bunk bed that they shared in the previous home, which was dismantled to become two separate beds.
Between them stands a vintage sled that serves as a nightstand for books and also has a cushion, turning it into a pleasant reading bench. Above each child’s bed are shelves and hooks for personal items and collections.
Across the room are a wardrobe brought from the previous home, a small bookcase that once hung on the wall and was given wheels before the move to make it mobile, and a soccer ball painting Lev-Katz made 25 years ago, "before I knew I would have boys," she said with a laugh.
In the future, when they want to separate the children, her office can easily be turned into another bedroom. "I prepared all the infrastructure there so it would also suit a bedroom. All that will be needed is to replace the glass partition with a regular wall and door."
The current room was also planned with the future in mind, with preparations made to hang a television where the soccer painting is now displayed.
The hallway ends at the parents’ bedroom, where the walls were also painted a smoky green. The bed and side tables came from the previous apartment, and the mirror on the wall came from the home of the Lev-Katz’s grandparents.
Her grandmother, who died before Lev-Katz was born and for whom she is named, is also present in the collage wall above the bed, as she embroidered the picture in the wooden frame. Beside it hangs an embroidery piece by Lev-Katz’s mother in a white frame and three embroidery hoops that Lev-Katz bought at the flea market. The macrame piece near the bathroom entrance was made by Lev-Katz herself.
In the couple’s bathroom, the walls are covered in white tiles and the floor has a two-tone checkerboard pattern. Alongside the clean feel, vintage pieces bring in the warmth that characterizes the rest of the home, including wooden shelves hung near the toilet, which Lev-Katz bought from someone who had dismantled them from an old wooden closet, and the mirror above the sink, which she found on the street.
Lev-Katz said that in the previous apartment, the mirror waited in storage because there was no suitable place for it. Only in this apartment did it finally get hung on the wall, turning this room, too, into a perfect expression of the homeowner’s taste.