About the author: “Buzzer 22” is a new column by Ghislaine van Loosbroek Viñas, who was born in the Netherlands, schooled in South Africa, and has called Tribeca home for 20 years. Her firm, Ghislaine Viñas Interior Design, has been designing residential and commercial spaces—half of them in Tribeca—since 2000; it’s located at the corner of Vestry and West. (Want to guess which buzzer is hers?) She also blogs for Interior Design.

After over 10 years of designing loft interiors in Tribeca, I’ve found that a common problem seems to be a lack of space. One solution is to look upward: Tribeca’s history as a manufacturing district means that many apartments have tall ceilings—and, consequently, a lot of unused cubic footage, or “air space.” Two years ago, my firm completed an interior renovation for my friend Hanne Larsen. You may know her from her dance school, Downtown Dance Factory, or you may have seen her walking around Tribeca—she has a bright pink streak in her hair and she often has her four adorable children in tow. Yes, indeed—four children. That means a lot of beds, and it was tricky carving out enough space for all of them. So we designed a custom bunk bed that sleeps all three of Hanne’s boys, one on top of the other, “high-rise style.” And then we implemented the same idea in Hanne’s daughter’s room (a loft that fits a full-size bed with ample floor space to play and run around) and in the playroom/TV room/guest room (where there’s a wall bed for guests, plus a fort above the library space where the kids can play, and where we punctured a wall with holes). Sometimes the answer is right in front of you—or at least above you.

Photos by Hallie Burton.