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Michaelis Boyd partner Christina Gregoriou advises homeowners and design teams to tackle awkward spaces early in a project rather than leave them until last. She points to a structural column at the Miiro Paris hotel, which the studio incorporated into a custom seat for a small niche. The interview offers design guidance, not news of a new project or policy.
Michaelis Boyd partner Christina Gregoriou is advising homeowners and design teams to address awkward spaces at the start of a renovation, arguing that corners, narrow corridors and exposed structural features can become defining parts of a design. In an interview with Livingetc, she described a column uncovered during the studio’s renovation of the Miiro Paris hotel and how it informed a custom seat fitted into a small niche.
Gregoriou said difficult areas are common in design briefs, from unused corners and long corridors to rooms whose layouts change when walls are removed. Structural columns can also appear during construction work, or be required to keep a building standing. The temptation, she said, is to leave these spaces until the rest of a project is settled. That can make them look like afterthoughts.
Her advice is to identify these areas early and give them primary consideration from day one. Rather than treating constraints as defects to conceal, she said designers can examine what a space’s architecture allows and use its unusual features to guide decisions about layout and atmosphere.
At the Miiro Paris hotel, the studio worked on a renovation connecting two heritage buildings from different streets. Gregoriou said the secondary entrance had been dark and narrow, with limited natural light, and had been used for back-of-house functions, offices and windowless meeting rooms. Michaelis Boyd chose to repurpose the challenging area as a moody, intimate speakeasy. During strip-out, workers found a structural column that created a small pocket with no obvious use. The team designed a custom, theatrical love seat for the niche, Gregoriou said.
Why Early Design Choices Matter
The interview’s practical point is about when renovation decisions are made. If an awkward corner or structural feature is postponed until late in the process, there may be fewer opportunities to rethink circulation, uses or built-in elements around it. Gregoriou’s approach puts those constraints into the initial design discussion, when they can influence the wider plan.
That matters to homeowners facing fixed conditions such as narrow floor plans, limited daylight or structural supports. The example does not establish that every difficult space can become a showpiece, or that a bespoke solution will suit every budget. It does show how one design studio responded to a specific problem: the column was incorporated into a seating niche rather than simply hidden or ignored.
Gregoriou also described a separate Michaelis Boyd bathroom project for WOW!house, produced in collaboration with House of Rohl. She said the team chose a large, round statement bathtub as the room’s central feature, rather than letting a functional layout dictate the room’s character. The source excerpt does not provide further details about that bathroom, so it cannot support broader claims about its construction or performance.
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The Miiro Paris Renovation
Michaelis Boyd is a London architecture and design practice founded in Notting Hill in 1995 by architects Tim Boyd and Alex Michaelis. The source describes work across hospitality, residential and commercial projects. The interview focuses on how lessons from those commissions might apply to ordinary homes, rather than announcing a new firm initiative or a change in the studio’s business.
The Miiro Paris example is specific to a renovation involving two Haussmann-era buildings connected from different streets. Gregoriou said the secondary entrance’s dark, narrow proportions led the team to reconsider its use. The structural column discovered during strip-out then shaped the design of the custom seat. The account illustrates the studio’s decision-making, but the source does not give a project timeline, construction budget or measurements for the niche.
Limits of the Project Examples
The source is an interview about design advice, not an independent evaluation of the Miiro Paris renovation. It does not give costs, dimensions, construction dates or the hotel’s assessment of how the redesigned entrance performs. It is also unclear whether the custom seat was the only design response to the column or how the team handled other constraints in the space.
The supplied source excerpt cuts off during Gregoriou’s answer about the WOW!house bathroom, after introducing the choice of a round bathtub. It does not include the rest of that answer. The material also gives no publication date for the Livingetc interview, so its timing cannot be stated more precisely.
Applying the Advice at Home
The interview does not announce a forthcoming project milestone. For readers planning renovations, Gregoriou’s stated next step is an early review of awkward corners, narrow routes and structural features, before the rest of the design is locked in. That means identifying what cannot easily be moved and deciding whether those conditions should shape the room’s use, circulation or focal point.
Any structural change still needs assessment by appropriately qualified professionals; the design examples do not replace engineering or building requirements. The Livingetc source provides no additional reporting on the hotel or WOW!house work, and no further development is confirmed.
Key Questions
What is Christina Gregoriou’s main design advice?
She advises identifying awkward spaces early in a renovation and giving them attention from the beginning, rather than leaving them until the rest of the project is complete.
How did Michaelis Boyd use the column at Miiro Paris?
Gregoriou said a column uncovered during strip-out created a small niche. The studio designed a custom love seat to fit the space, incorporating the constraint into the design.
What happened to the hotel’s secondary entrance?
Gregoriou said the entrance had been dark, narrow and used for back-of-house functions. The studio rethought its purpose and developed it as an area for a moody, intimate speakeasy.
Does the interview report a new Michaelis Boyd project?
No. The source is an interview about design principles and examples from completed work. It does not announce a new project or future milestone.
What details about the projects are not provided?
The supplied material does not state the renovation costs, dimensions or timeline for Miiro Paris, nor does it report independent results from the redesign. The excerpt also ends before Gregoriou’s full response about the WOW!house bathroom.
Source: livingetc.com
