Confined Manhattan apartment artfully transformed into an airy loft

800 square feet may seem like a vast amount of room to most New Yorkers, but in the case of this post-war Upper West Side apartment, a segmented layout was making the available space feel unnecessarily cramped and confined. New York City-based <a href="http://www.chuagroup.com/" target="_blank">CHUA Group</a> was called in to retool the Manhattan home to feel more spacious and make more sense for a growing family. Read on for pics of the apartment's airy new floorplan.

The first step in the renovation process was to open the space completely by gutting the interior and removing the existing bedrooms walls.

By replacing the walls with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors, the residents have optimal flexibility to connvert the apartment into a one or two bedroom.

The architects also removed the dividing wall between the kitchen and the living room to bring more natural light into the space, also highlighting the brushed pearl bamboo flooring.

Thanks to the sliding doors, the apartment can be used as a one or two bedroom.

Light fixtures throughout the home were kept simple to continue with the minimalist interior design scheme.

The architects installed custom made shelving throughout the apartment.

The bathroom uses a dark color scheme to resemble a spa.

Additionally important in the renovation was the strategic use of lighting to give the interior a bright, open feel.