Renovation of the old apartment required the complete dismantling of internal partitions and the construction of new ones. As a result, instead of two isolated rooms, we got a spacious kitchen-living room and a private bedroom, and almost the entire volume of things fit in the dressing room.
The apartment is located in a completely unremarkable late Stalinist building on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. But the customer did not want to tie the interior to the external appearance of the building or its history: she asked designer Sergei Khrabrovsky to make it simply “beautiful, stylish and cozy.”
“In the end, we ended up with an environment that reflected the character of the owner of the apartment: she is a calm and reasonable person, so we relied on neutral wall decoration. Purposeful – this is hinted at by the clear lines in the interior. Stylish appearance, charm and good mood are reflected in bright textile accents, decor and painting,” says the designer.
It couldn’t have happened without redevelopment. The partitions between the kitchen and living room were dismantled: the gas outlet was closed and the stove was replaced with an electric one. A bedroom was installed in the second room. It was technically impossible to combine the bathrooms , so this idea had to be abandoned. But they left the large dressing room in its place – there will be no problems with storage.
When decorating the walls, they relied on paint: gray shades were chosen for the kitchen-living room, and warmer beige tones were chosen for the bedroom. They put French herringbone parquet on the floor, and natural marble in the bathroom and hallway.
“The customer also wanted to use natural marble on the bathroom walls. But the thickness of the material would “eat up” the space of an already tiny room,” says Sergei Khrabrovsky. “I suggested using the new material Archskin, short for Architectural Skin, which means “architectural skin.” It imitates the pattern of marble, but is much thinner.”
Since they decided to leave the bedroom as free as possible, the customer will store all her clothes in the dressing room adjacent to the living room. They also provided a closet under the ceiling in the hallway and several chests of drawers. All cabinet furniture was made in local workshops.
The furniture was chosen from what was available in the showrooms: the customer wanted to move in as soon as possible. “There are many Portuguese brands in this interior: their furniture looks unique and refreshes the atmosphere. For example, a gold table with Ginger & Jagger branch legs and armchairs with a geometric pattern on Luisa Peixoto design cushions,” says the designer. “The final touch was elegant decor and modern painting.”
