Why We Gave Up a Bedroom: The Thinking Behind Morrison Court

There’s a spreadsheet version of our building, and it earns more money than we do. In that version, the second bedroom in each 70-square-metre apartment holds two more beds, every listing says “sleeps four”, and the nightly rate climbs accordingly. We built the other version instead — and the decision behind it explains everything else about Morrison Court.

In short: Morrison Court is five self-contained apartments in Gzira designed strictly for one or two guests. Four are 70 sqm with a two-bedroom layout — and in every one, the second bedroom has been given over to a genuinely flexible room: a full workstation, yes, but also a screen and a day bed, which makes it a second living room, a film room, a reading room or somewhere to close a door and be alone. Not extra sleeping capacity: an extra way to live. Our brief was experience first; function before aesthetics, and aesthetics held to a high bar anyway. The limiting factor was never time or economics — it was whether each decision made the stay better.

More zones, not more beds

Seventy square metres for two people is generous by any city’s standard. The question is what you do with the generosity. The industry default is to milk it — more beds, more guests, more revenue per night, and a space where everyone is slightly in everyone’s way. We chose zones instead: a bedroom that is only for sleeping, a living room that is only for living, and a fully-fledged private office — 27-inch USB-C monitor, adjustable chair, footrest, pedestal, desk lamp with wireless charging — and, facing it across the room, a 55-inch screen and a full-size day bed. Two people, four ways to be, and a room that changes character depending on what the day asks of it. That ratio is the product.

We didn’t trade a bedroom for a desk

It would be easy to read all this as: they removed a bed and put in an office. That isn’t quite it, and the distinction matters.

A room that only worked as an office would be a poor trade. Plenty of guests never open a laptop here — couples on a break, people between chapters, anyone who came to read and swim. What we actually bought with that second bedroom was versatility: one room that becomes whatever the day needs. A workstation in the morning. A film room after dinner, with the drapes shut and the screen the only light. A place to journal, with the keyboard slid under the monitor riser and the desk mat clear. A siesta in the flat middle of a July afternoon. Somewhere for one of you to be while the other has the living room.

The desk is the most legible version of that, which is why it gets photographed and why we talk about it most. But it is one function among several, and on a long stay it is rarely the one guests mention first.

So: not a bedroom sacrificed for work. A bed count traded for a room that can be five different rooms — which, when you are staying for a month rather than a weekend, is the better currency.

Experience first, everything after

Our design brief was one sentence: build what we wish we found when we travel. Every decision ran through that filter before any other. It’s why the blackout drapes are heavy enough to double as acoustic treatment. It’s why the mattresses are 20-centimetre, three-layer constructions — high-resilience cold foam over a pressure-relieving memory core, zoned to distribute body weight evenly — rather than whatever survives turnover cheapest. It’s why bedside lighting runs at amber 2200K, the colour of candlelight, instead of the interrogation white of most rentals. And it’s why there’s a USB-C and USB-A socket within reach of everywhere you might sit down, because we counted the places you might sit down.

The tactile layer

Some things a photograph cannot carry, and we lean into them deliberately. Every stay includes a proper pour-over coffee ritual — dripper, filters, weighing scales, and locally roasted, vacuum-sealed coffee ground no more than a week before your arrival. Every apartment carries a Marshall Acton III in brass-and-black, an amplifier of a speaker with bass that fills stone rooms properly. And for longer stays, we’ll equip your apartment from our own shelves: a turntable with records chosen to your taste from our collection — Maltese early jazz pressings included — and coffee-table books rotated monthly. Vinyl, paper, brass, stone, travertine in the ensuites: things with weight, for stays with weight.

Two guests, kept deliberately

Capping every apartment at two guests keeps the building what it is: quiet, balanced, and full of people who chose it for the same reasons. We give preference to stays of one to six months and onboard every new guest personally — not as a formality, but because harmony in a five-apartment building is a feature we maintain as carefully as the fibre connection. If you’re weighing a longer stay in Malta, our monthly rentals guide covers the practical landscape — and Gzira, the town outside the door, completes the argument.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't Morrison Court apartments sleep more than two guests?

By design. Each 70 sqm apartment has a two-bedroom layout, but the second bedroom is a flexible room — a full workstation, a 55-inch screen and a day bed — that works as an office, a film room, a reading room or a second living room. An additional living zone, not extra sleeping capacity. The apartments are built to give one or two people more life per square metre, not more beds.

What makes Morrison Court different from other Malta apartments?

The design brief: experience first, everything else after. Instead of maximising occupancy, the space was divided into functional zones — a flexible second room, a proper bedroom, a real living room — finished with details chosen for daily use: acoustic blackout drapes, three-layer mattresses, warm 2200K bedside light, and power wherever you sit.

Who are Morrison Court apartments best suited for?

Solo travellers, couples and remote-working pairs staying from a few nights to six months — people who value a quiet building, a genuine workspace and considered details over headcount. Guests staying a month or more get booking preference and a personal onboarding.

The spreadsheet version of this building would have been easier. We think you’ll feel the difference within an hour of arriving — that’s the entire bet. Morrison Court: five self-contained apartments in Gzira for one or two guests, from three nights to six months. Book direct at morrisoncourt.com.