The designer came up with a new apartment layout in an old house and relied on custom-made storage systems. As a result, there was enough room for everything in the new space.
The customers’ priorities were a functional, light Scandinavian interior and a lot of storage space. At the same time, they completely devoted one room to a nursery, and in the second they wanted to combine a bedroom and a living room with a fireplace.
The customers—a married couple with a school-going daughter—asked designer Marina Merenkova to “rethink” the typical space of a Stalinist apartment and make it more comfortable for their family’s life.
Of course, there was some redevelopment. The first thing we did was combine the bathrooms. The hallway was not reduced, but, on the contrary, increased at the expense of the nursery: all in order to accommodate large built-in wardrobes. The living room was divided into two parts using a glass partition and the space near the window was converted into a bedroom. Customers will handle the approval themselves.
Gas service employees did not allow the gas water heater to be moved because the pipes in the bathroom lead to the neighbors. Therefore, the column was left in its place, but the mixers were moved to the opposite wall. Above the installation and opposite the toilet, the designer provided cabinets for storing household supplies.
“Now the finishing touches in the apartment are being completed and the kitchen units are being installed. Since the apartment had a “grandmother’s” renovation and was in rather poor condition, even the ventilation ducts had to be dismantled and rebuilt, as they crumbled into dust. When dismantling the bathroom, the builders discovered part of the neighbor’s riser, which we had to somehow bypass,” shares Marina Merenkova.
We chose paint for the walls, except for one wall in the living room – there is wallpaper with a geometric pattern. There is parquet on the floors in the rooms, and tiles in the hallway, bathroom and kitchen. These materials were best suited to the Scandinavian interior, plus they are practical.
Storage systems were initially an important requirement of the customer, so quite a lot of space was allocated for them: large built-in wardrobes in the hallway, cabinets in the bathroom, a storage system for books and documents in the living room, a small wardrobe and chest of drawers in the bedroom and a closet in the nursery. All of them will be made to order.
The interior uses the lightest and most restrained color palette – at the request of customers. In the corridor, the color of the walls is gray: it is less easily soiled for a “dirty” area. In the nursery, the customers’ daughter asked to add one pink accent wall. “And the pink wall is the one that is not visible when you enter the room. Because dad was skeptical about pink walls,” says the designer.
All accents in the interior are furniture and decor. Thanks to this, the interior can be easily transformed and changed in the future. Since the main storage systems were planned to order, the author of the project selected budget items, including from IKEA.
