41 Comforting Interiors That Are Pretty in Plywood
Affordable, lightweight, and versatile, plywood has become a favorite choice of designers looking to bring warmth and personality to a space without breaking the budget. From cost-effective backyard office projects to elegant modern homes, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite examples of plywood interiors from around the world.
A Giant Ribbon of Wood Wraps This Mind-Bending Parisian Apartment
Sculptural plywood walls weave new life into a 19th-century Parisian apartment while preserving its historic Haussmannien features. The partition provides a sculptural counterpoint to the apartment’s ornate elements and rigid geometry.
Having just lived in a modern home, Seattle artist Mattie Iverson was drawn to the old-world character of a 1915 Tudor-style house, with its half-timbered facade and stained glass windows, in the Queen Anne neighborhood overlooking Puget Sound. Working with interiors firm NB Design Group, Mattie embarked on a gut renovation, lining the attic guest room with cozy plywood.
St. Kilda–based firm OOF! Architecture gave a Victorian shophouse in Melbourne a new addition and a bold exterior treatment, turning the formerly dysfunctional space into a neighborhood gem. Commonly available materials are used throughout the home, such as plywood and the industrial tresses that criss-cross the open-plan living area.
At 23 years old, self-taught designer Mariah Hoffman set out to craft her own 156-square-foot sanctuary. The interior of her tiny home features an open floor plan and an exposed, black-steel structural frame that informs the material palette for the furnishings. She clad the walls with light-toned birch paneling that contrasts with the structural frame, adding warmth and texture.
In 2015, a young couple expecting their first child reached out to Nimtim Architects to extend their townhouse in Forest Hill, London, to make room for their growing family. For the interiors, the firm chose timber for "a hard-wearing internal finish and a gentle, humane scale within the space," says O’Callaghan. A series of semi-open plywood screens creates porous living, dining, and kitchen areas.
In renovating a historic brick home for family friends in Washington, D.C., architect Nader Tehrani of NADAAA used ordinary plywood to reconceive the central staircase. Lined with a series of striated, geometric panels, the resulting structure is lit by a polygonal skylight above.
Defined by an abundance of warm timber accents and an overall sense of intrigue, the aptly named Pine Flat residence by architecture firm A6A resides inconspicuously on the top floor of a 19th-century building. Inside, platforms, partitions, doors, and storage stitched together by plywood installations contrast the white, loft-style ceiling. Adding to the apartment’s congenial feel are heightened windows on the west side, which bathe the space in natural light while also offering views.
Alexandre Delaunay of Sabo Project helped Romain and Aurélie Fliedel renovate a 1,650-square-foot duplex when the couple were expecting their first child. Custom plywood cabinets and shelves line the dining area.
When young couple Leïla and Xavier decided to buy a house in Montreal, they envisioned a multigenerational home that could house Leïla’s mother as well as their own planned family. They purchased a duplex in the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie neighborhood with two identical apartments (one over the other), and engaged architect Catherine Milanese of MOA Architecture to bring their dream to life. Faced with this challenge, Milanese drastically reconfigured the floor plan and inserted a Nordic-inspired, plywood-clad mezzanine into the roof space of the second-floor apartment.
A couple enlist their architect parents to build a wonderfully eclectic house in Highland Park, taking on the challenges of a precipitous site and limited budget. Throughout the home, the walls and floors feature the natural grain patterns of lacquered plywood.
With their plans to add an additional floor thwarted, BVDS Architects fit a new loft bedroom into a half-height space that feels surprisingly open. The consistent use of plywood throughout makes the complex space feel more cohesive and expansive.
Instead of designing another closed-off contemporary work of architecture, architects Andrew Maynard and Mark Austin created a village, wherein a series of friendly, gabled structures lead out from the original house and border an open garden. The house’s dominant gable form repeats at a smaller scale throughout the dwelling, as in the kitchen’s plywood and steel cabinets.
To keep costs low, architect Mark Fullagar fitted this compact cabin with hollow-insulated plywood panels that lend warmth and texture to the interior.
High-quality birch plywood lines the interior of this sharply angular and minimalist backyard office.
Working with a demanding budget, Filipe Pina Arquitectura added a cost-effective annex with an upper level with walls lined with exposed oak plywood.
To make the most of a 900-square-foot home, Keiko and Takuhiro Shinomoto reworked an old garage into a guest room and clad the interior with unfinished plywood to match the home’s modern and unfussy aesthetic.
Fir-veneer plywood wraps the entire interior of a compact guest cabin with a 12-by-15-foot footprint, smaller than a single-car garage.
Inside the tiny Batipin Flat in Milan, batipin plywood paneling is used to conceal the kitchen, bathroom, and bed to maximize a sense of spaciousness.
A multifunctional plywood-and-wood veneer wall defines the living area of a simple yet elegant Hong Kong apartment.
Designed by architect Silvia Acar, the Chalet M features a simple interior wrapped with Paricá plywood coated with water-based resin.
Remodeled on a budget of just $35,000, this 355-square-foot apartment uses affordable birch plywood for the flooring, doors, and storage units for a warm feel.
Lookofsky outfitted the bedroom with built-in pine plywood bunkbeds, walls, and a ceiling. The bathroom and a closet are also wrapped in plywood.
Istanbul-based architecture firm SO? built the tiny cabin with plywood both inside and out, and also used birch plywood for some of the furnishings.
Built in 18 months on a budget of $105,000, this charming A-frame saves on costs with an interior lined with exposed plywood.
Using CNC-milled plywood, SMS Arquitectos uses the factory-processed material for an extension’s structural base as well as select surfaces. Here, plywood is seen in the sculptural ceiling and as the primary material for the children’s play area.
The cabin structure and arches are made of locally sourced poplar plywood. The design team selected this material because of its fast-growing characteristics and wide availability in the Netherlands. "Because they grow fast, there is a lot of water in the tree," add the architects. "During drying, this water is replaced by air—that’s why this wood insulates, and therefore feels warm and pleasant (it is the same wood type used for making clogs). The wood does not splinter, and it is non-toxic."
A bespoke backyard studio in London was built with prefabricated plywood panels to create a cozy and cost-effective interior.
Two people can work back-to-back in this unique space that incorporates home office ideas for two. Two long, thin desks provide ample dual work surfaces, each with its own built-in storage shelves. The floors are Douglas Fir with OSMO finish. The angled walls and ceiling are Douglas Fir Marine Grade Plywood with a whitewash finish.
Inspired by Scandinavian and Japanese aesthetics, the modern Orchid tiny house features an interior clad in three-quarter-inch maple plywood.
For just under $102,000, Anya Moryoussef Architect transformed a single-car garage into a multifunctional workspace that’s wrapped in Baltic birch plywood.
The double-height living area features unfinished plywood cladding treated with linseed oil.
To scale down the barn’s cathedral-like proportions, David Nossiter Architects Birch constructed partitions and screens from birch plywood, which was also used to construct the kitchen.
Designed by Cal Poly Pomona students, this factory-built Wedge cabin prototype features plywood interiors for a raw and rustic vibe.
A geometric arrangement of back-lit plywood adds flair to a simple bedroom.
This archetypal Swedish building form, shaped like a Monopoly house, serves as an artist’s studio, with a simple plywood interior and massive skylights to let in natural sunlight.
Unpainted plywood wraps all around the living areas to give the interior "a warmth and texture that interacts beautifully with the external Blackbutt timber," says Jackson. "It has a robust , durable, and tactile quality that sits well with the internal concrete floors."
The interior of this studio building is clad in birch plywood, giving it the appearance of an Nordic wilderness cabin.
The chic contemporary interiors feature concrete floors and plywood paneling, with black accents that echo the cabin’s exterior.
Marine plywood dominates the interior and is especially striking in the compact kitchen and its island's geometric design.
Following the house-within-a-house concept, this playful playhouse-like addition features an all-plywood interior.
Andrew Simpson Architects built the floors, walls, stairs, and cabinetry out of hoop pine plywood. Plywood panels salvaged from the client’s former art installation were used to line the ceiling.
Related Reading: 11 Homes With Unburnished Brick Interiors
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