diff --git a/web/layout.ts b/web/layout.ts
index 2fe3dc4..f8e3bb6 100644
--- a/web/layout.ts
+++ b/web/layout.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,35 @@
 import type { LayoutNode } from 'officerdev';
 
-// One panel. The game is one fixed-size stage and there is nothing to put beside it — a split here
-// would be a second panel of empty space.
+// Two panels stacked on the left, the game on the right — the same arrangement Atelier uses, and the one
+// the rest of the app reads as "controls beside a surface".
+//
+// The left column is EMPTY on purpose. `appType: null` is a state of the framework rather than a missing
+// app, and `normalizeLayout` allows it explicitly, so these survive the plugin's own allow-list instead of
+// being rewritten to the fallback — which on a one-panel plugin would have rendered three Minesweepers.
+// The screen is `locked`, so an empty panel here is a plain bordered box with no app picker. That is the
+// intended look until something goes in them.
+//
+// The game panel keeps the id `minesweeper` it had when this was a single panel, so any per-panel state
+// already keyed on it survives the change.
 export const defaultLayout: LayoutNode = {
-  type: 'panel',
-  id: 'minesweeper',
-  appType: 'minesweeper',
+  type: 'group',
+  id: 'minesweeper-root',
+  direction: 'horizontal',
+  children: [
+    {
+      node: {
+        type: 'group',
+        id: 'minesweeper-side',
+        direction: 'vertical',
+        children: [
+          { node: { type: 'panel', id: 'minesweeper-side-top', appType: null }, size: 50 },
+          { node: { type: 'panel', id: 'minesweeper-side-bottom', appType: null }, size: 50 },
+        ],
+      },
+      // 25 rather than Atelier's 30: the board is drawn at a whole-number scale, so the panel losing a
+      // quarter of its width can drop it a step. 75% of a typical panel still clears 2x.
+      size: 25,
+    },
+    { node: { type: 'panel', id: 'minesweeper', appType: 'minesweeper' }, size: 75 },
+  ],
 };